Well, I am feeling very accomplished, and glad that I spent the time learning these "things"! I did go back and watch the video that we started with, and I have had my eyes opened to the whole idea of students feeling as though they need to "power down" to attend school. The idea that Web 2.0 takes us beyond simply being passive receivers of information is intriguing. We have moved from html, a non-user friendly code which was all about form, to XML, which is a user-friendly platform that is focused not on form but on content. I am also intrigued by the whole question "who will organize this information?", especially as I am a library media specialist. WE - US - I - YOU will organize it, manipulate it and use it, is the answer. I am interested in seeing where this new world will take us. Tagging, done by us and shared with others, is so different from the idea of cataloging as it is done by the authority of the Library of Congress.
I am excited about using what I have learned, but I am also reserving judgement on some of this, as I do not think there has been enough time for us to really see the educational results. I recently read a review of a book called "You are Not A Gadget" that sounded fascinating, and I have ordered it for the high school library. The review states: "Computer scientist and Internet guru Lanier's fascinating and provocative full-length exploration of the Internet's problems and potential is destined to become a must-read for both critics and advocates of online-based technology and culture. Lanier is best known for creating and pioneering the use of the revolutionary computer technology that he named virtual reality. Yet in his first book, Lanier takes a step back and critiques the current digital technology, more deeply exploring the ideas from his famous 2000 Wired magazine article, One-Half of a Manifesto, which argued against more wildly optimistic views of what computers and the Internet could accomplish. His main target here is Web 2.0, the current dominant digital design concept commonly referred to as open culture. Lanier forcefully argues that Web 2.0 sites such as Wikipedia undervalue humans in favor of anonymity and crowd identity. He brilliantly shows how large Web 2.0–based information aggregators such as Amazon.com—as well as proponents of free music file sharing—have created a hive mind mentality emphasizing quantity over quality. But he concludes with a passionate and hopeful argument for a new digital humanism in which radical technologies do not deny the specialness of personhood." -Publishers Weekly, January 2010.
Bottom line: we do need to explore and continue to use technology WHERE it makes sense, not just because it is there.
Hooray! Well done and well stated. Our challenge is to both maintain our academic integrity and move the staff forward so that they can live and work in the same frame of mind as their students. I read this week that students rarely use email because it is slow and old fashioned. How long before we are texting our students?
ReplyDelete