October « 2008 « Vicarious Conversations

October, 2008

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Australian Logic

By extension …

Because some people watch pornography online, all people shall have an internet filter.

Because some people use speeding cars to kill people, all cars will come with a speed limiter.

Because some people use guns to shoot people, all guns will come with blocked barrels.

Because some people use ladders to break into houses, all ladders will come with no rungs.

Because some people break windows, all rocks will be ground to sand.

Because some people protest, all people will be without voice …

See: No Clean Feed? Be Alarmed! Somebody Think of the Children!!!!!!!!

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Saturday, October 18th, 2008

Crazy roller coaster ride to success

Yesterday was the due date for my undergrads big assignment. Online submission, three files, many requirements. Like always, there was many many many last minute panics. Everything from pdfing files (not required) to clicking submit before uploading files. I told students I would try to respond within 30 minutes and for the most part, I did, but some students felt that was too short and used other communication channels so I had messages coming from every direction (including a phone call from the help desk, following from their email about a student (who had aready emailed me and to which I had already responded) to which I had already responded (both the student AND helpdesk)).

I’m now convinced that students do not read. Period. All the information was there (and I suppose I should give credit to the 50% of students who didn’t need help), but seriously, how hard is it? The explanation is there, there’s a downloadable file, and there’s the printout we gave them 9 weeks ago. It’s shocking to have to keep a whole day clear because some students don’t listen.

But I digress.

It’s over, that’s what counts.

Now to get on with my research while my tutors mark. Or maybe put that aside as well and enjoy the seven days before my daughter flies to Canada to embark on a new career (not to mention life and climate).

Dang, and now the drummer has started up. I just wish he’d focus on his sense of rhythm, which I’m lead to believe is really important for drummers.

Tags: learning

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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Flitteracy: literacy for the web

There are so many different ways of thinking about what it is we do. The paper that I’ve just finished ended up being more about literacy than I expected. It started out as an analysis of the Beijing ticketing scam and become so much more. It lead to all sorts of Thought Bunnies (TM) hopping in and out of my head.

Luke and I were rabbiting on the other day about fliters and conceptions and all kinds of framings and reframings of what we do when we’re reading on the web. We came up with conceptions as a kind of MetaFilter (but not that metafilter). We filter all sorts of things, piecing them together as we may. It just seemed that our research areas (Problem solving and Web stuff) were coming together, but we’re still not sure how.

We tried rich pictures and ended up with two conceptions of conceptions. There’s something here and it seems that reading web pages (or Flitteracy) is a problem that must be solved somehow by each of us, although there are many things that remain true (ish) for all of us.

And that’s where I get stuck. We have this problem of sense-making, which each of us do individually, but we also do together. The very nature of the web means that it is a communal ‘thing’. We flit from site to site and build our own rich picture of information, but what is it that propels us through this web. Is it a push factor or a pull factor? We could be pushed away because where we are is not living up to our expectations, or we could be pulled somewhere by the promise of something more shiny. Perhaps that’s why I like tabbed browsing so much. If something pulls me away, entices me with ‘teh shineh’, I can always find my way back simply by closing the tab. I can find a new path, a new way forward.

Heh, we don’t have an information superhighway – we have an information flitterway!

Tags: research, web

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Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Reading, writing, arithmetic and … something else

I’ve recently finished a paper on the use of email in organisational contexts and I keep coming to a point of dis-cognition, cognitive dissonance, if you will. Most of what I do, read and research is the advanced application of literacy skills – how to read web-pages, how to negotiate email, how to function in an almost always online way. And then I come across research which talks about functional literacy at a much lower level, particularly in developing countries and I have to wonder why I am so concerned about high levels of literacy – the kind needed for advanced use of computers. It seems to be irrelevant in the face of so many obstacles elsewhere.

And then it seems like a bit of a wank to overly worry about the differences in development of various countries, because I’m located here. This is my context. The context of deeply embedded media in my life. I watch a whole heap of things on youtube, gathering ideas for lectures. I seek information from all over to add value to the lessons I give my students.

This week’s lecture uses Social Networks in Plain English, Who’s watching YOUR space?, The business of social networks, and Facebook killed the private life. I was going to use Winds of Change, but I’ll save that for the new business models lecture.

I seem to have wandered off on a tangent. It’s like following a whole heap of links and not really knowing how you got there. Which is kind of the point really. Luke and I have been coming up with ideas of how we read online (following on from the paper I’m about to submit) and I think. We flit from link to link. And it’s that notion of literacy again. I think I shall call it flitteracy – the literacy of flitting around the web.

Tags: communication, internet, randomosity

Posted in Ramblings, thoughts | 3 Comments »