technology

Students and Technology

Remember Michael Wesch? He created the excellent video The Machine is Us/ing Us about web2.0. Its message: The Machine is us was very nicely argued. Prof Wesch is back again with another video, A Vision of Students Today, about the student life today. Mainly (but not only) about the relationship between teaching and technology.

The students surveyed themselves and this resulted in the following statements – but don’t stop here – the film is very much worth watching both for its message and presentation. Here are some of the statements which arise from the survey:

  • I complete 49% of readings assigned to me
  • I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages & 1281 facebook profiles
  • I facebook through most of my classes

The film contains two important quotes – the first my McLuhan (1967)

Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects and schedules.

and the second from 1841 when Josiah F. Bumstead said about the inventor of the blackboard:

The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind.

Don’t make the mistake of interpreting Wesch as a luddite. It is very important to be able to criticize technology. The amazing thing is that we are allowed to criticize cars without being accused of luddism but if you are critical towards IT you stand accused of wanting to return to the stone age.

Wesch is making an important point that teaching should be more relevant and less dependent upon technology. Simply adding technology, or supplying it to students, does not improve teaching, learning or education.

Prof Wesch Digital Ethnography Blog

Oh, and while you are there check out their Information R/evolution video.

Posted on by mklang

Free Software Conference

On the 7-8 December Göteborg will be hosting the first Free Software Conference Scandinavia (FSCONS). The event, which is already promising to become an important event on the Free Software calendar, is a good mix of techies and freedom folks.

While the techies will be able to enjoy talks on squid, gtk, GnuTLS and OpenMoko (among others) the non-techies (like myself) will be talking about digital rights, consumer rights, free software licensing & women in IT.

I am looking forward to speaking on the topic of Digital Rights

In an Internet-based participatory democracy we are particularly dependent upon our technological infrastructure. The qualities of digital communication and interaction create a situation where the user is often incapable ensuring the integrity and security of the communications infrastructure. Therefore we are becoming increasingly dependent upon experts to ensure the openness, accessibility and freedom of the infrastructure of our democracy. This session will address the threats and opportunities faced by users in a digital participatory democracy and the steps we need to ensure the openness of digital democracy.

But I am particularly looking forward to listening to (and discussing with) people like Shane Coughlan, Anne Østergaard and Fernanda Weiden. It’s nice to see that events such as this (and the Stallman lecture) are being arranged in my hometown.

Great Work by the tireless Henrik!

Posted on by mklang

7 Ways To Ruin A Technological Revolution

Here is an online talk by one of the most interesting of tech-lawyers, the intellectual James Boyle talk is on YouTube and the subject is 7 Ways To Ruin A Technological Revolution. From the abstract:

If you wanted to undermine the technological revolution of the last 30 years, using the law, how would you do it? How would you undercut the virtuous cycle that results from access to an open network, force technological innovation into stagnation, diminish competition, create monopolies over the basic building blocks of knowledge? How many of those things are we doing now?

Boyle has been an impressive figure since his book Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society came out in 1997 since then his writings include Papers on the Public Domain (James Boyle ed. 2003) and Bound by Law – A ‘Graphic Novel’ (a.k.a. comic book) on Fair Use.

He has also been central in the launching of Creative Commons and Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain.

(via DigitalKoans)

Posted on by mklang

Thunderbird

 Apparently two core developers working on the Thunderbird email client have quit. Following the continued development of Thunderbird should be interesting.

The two core developers of Thunderbird have left Mozilla. Scott McGregor made a brief statement: ‘I wanted to let the Thunderbird community know that Friday October 12th will be my last day as an employee of the Mozilla Corporation.’ Meanwhile, David Bienvenu blogged: ‘Just wanted to let everyone know that my last day at The Mozilla Corporation will be Oct. 12. I intend to stay involved with Thunderbird… I’ve enjoyed working at Mozilla a lot, and I wish Mozilla Co and the new Mail Co all the best.’ A few month ago Mozilla management considered abandoning their second product and setting up a special corporation just for the mail client. (Slashdot)

Naturally there are lots of alternative email clients to chose from Eudora, Claws Mail or Mulberry but I really like using Thunderbird so I hope that it continues to develop.

(via Guardian)

Posted on by mklang

Free Software, Social Innovation

As a part of the STACS-project the Free Software Foundation Europe and M6-IT are organizing an event at The Hub in London.

The idea is to invite NGO’s to a show and tell session on the way in which Free Software functions. The idea is that the organizations will see the advantage of Free Software and bring it into their organizations and influence other organizations.

From the website:

We understand that not everyone will be able to cover the costs of visiting the event and we are willing to contribute towards travel and accommodation costs. We invite you to fill out an application by the 19th of October 2007 at the latest. The selected attendees will be contacted by the 22nd of October.
Venue

The Hub is an incubator for social innovation. It’s a place for people to meet, learn and connect with each other to make things happen. The Hub in London is located on 5 Torrens Street which is conveniantly close to the tube station Angel on the Underground Northern Line.

Schedule: Friday 2nd November
09.00 Free Software as a Social Innovation
10.30 Coffee/tea break
11.00 Empowering NGOs with Free Software
12.30 Lunch
14.00 Hands-on experience with Free Software
16.00 Coffee/tea break
16.30 Hands-on continued..
18.00 Social event and dinner

The number of participants is limited and the last date to apply is on the 19th October. For more information and applications go here.

Posted on by mklang

C'mon, catch-up!

This is not a moan about information overload (or frazzing) but it is scary how many email messages, blog posts, voicemail, facebook messages (etc, etc & etc) are created each day. Usually reading and reacting to messages as and when they appear is an excellent tactic. But going offline for extended periods means that the pile of  (what? data, information, communication, interaction, knowledge or just plain crap) is almost overwhelming.

Today was spent traveling and doing hamster work (running round the wheel without getting anywhere). Replying to email, voice messages and tonight, the main event, scanning through my favorite blogs. Too many posts. So much stuff I want to comment on. The problem is when the pile of work has grown this much my main impulse is to ignore it.

But then again there is a masochistic desire to push through the pile of work and get to the other side… Or at least to blog 🙂

Posted on by mklang

Information overload is passé

It used to be called information overload but after reading Jonny’s latest post on the Industrial IT Group blog I have been educated, updated you might even say, that the current term is actually frazzing.*

Frazzing, short for frantic multitasking, refers to a form of mental channel switching caused by all the distractions we face today: cell phones, sms, e-mails, and loads of web interactions. We should be warned, or so they tell us, about the danger of new technology and the ways in which they disrupt our working life.

Jonny, you make an interesting observation that a CEO of a tech firm, quoted as saying,

“There’s plenty of technology. There’s way too much technology, in our opinion, and certainly too much complexity in technology.”

may in fact be a closet luddite. The argument is – that if people don’t get, or cannot handle, the technology you are secretly against it. Of course the underlying argument is that the luddite’s are wrong and technology is good. You continue:

Yes, when people are trying to get more done by doing several things at once, it often means that they are able to do nothing particularly well. Technology that is supposed to make us more productive by keeping us connected may only enhance this problem. Then again, technology may be something else than a productivity tool? If people are bored at work and editing their Facebook profile all day, maybe the problem isn’t Facebook?

Despite the fact that I recently posted a diatribe on web 2.0 in general and Facebook in particular I agree with you. The problem is not the technology but rather our ability to interact and control it (do not interpret this as a slippery slope – the same argument cannot be used for Cocaine).

The technology is useful and the way in which we interact it defines the way in which we are capable of handling technology without frazzing. But I still have a question: Why aren’t you on Facebook? Your argument would have been more potent if he were there…

So Jonny, choosing to handle technology by not using it…. isn’t that a bit…. well…. you know…. Luddite?

—

* the problem of information overload or frazzing is old and established. In 1984 Jacob Palme wrote an article entitled: “You have 134 unread mail! Do you want to read them now?” In Computer-Based Message Services, H. T. Smith (Ed.), IFIP Proceedings, Elsevier North-Holland, New York.

Posted on by mklang

Do I believe in Web 2.0 or what is the point of Facebook

A couple of days ago at the Sour Herring dinner at Lund one of my companions at the table said that he did not believe in Web 2.0. Interaction, he said, was overrated. Most of us around the table took the remark as humor and we were satisfied with this.

But the remark has been gnawing at the back of my mind. Do I believe in Web 2.0?

At first this may seem like a strange question, coming from me. I blog and participate in other blogs. I have set up and run wiki’s and used these technologies in the classroom, in research and with friends. Still the question is rather valid.

No blogs and wiki’s don’t require that you believe in them. If they are useful they will be used. I enjoy them and use them as a central part of my work (and play). But what about the more typical social networking sites?

Just to name a few I am a member at Technorati, Linkedin and Facebook. I have even upgraded my free account on flickr to pro (which means I am paying money for it). Besides flickr the usefulness of the others is unclear to me. Technorati is not much of a social networking site it is more of an aggregator for blogs – so let’s move on.

Linkedin seems to be a more formal social networking site based upon professional contacts. It is not really designed to encourage wide scale use. Facebook on the other hand it something quite different.

Facebook is a huge social networking site where people are actively encouraged to collect friends and interact with them by comparing films, music and books. The site encourages users to play games with each other such as the presently popular war of the vampires.

With all these applications I can really see that users can spend literally hours online finding and interacting with their online friends but after some testing I still am struck by the sensation or feeling: What is the point of facebook? It is surprising to see how many people are using it – in particular its appeal the the large group of non-techie or non-Web 2.0 crowd. But I still don’t really get it. What is the allure of this site? What need or desire does the site fulfill?

Or is it simply that the social interaction between friends, even in an online virtual forum, is the whole point. Oh well, I would like to analyze this further but unfortunately I need to update my profile 🙂

Posted on by mklang

The Internet Imagined in 1969

This is a really cool documentary short about the future of the Internet made in 1969. If we ignore the appalling gender stereotypes mother – mother shops for clothes while father looks concerned and pays the bills. “What the wife selects on her console will be paid for by the husband on his console”!! And the fact that the kids are not on the Internet it is a really cool look at the future with

  • eCommerce (fingertip shopping sounds much better)
  • Browsing
  • Online banking
  • Instant messaging
  • Video surveillance

Sure there are some things missing but it was a pretty good guess. Its also just worth watching for the gender roles…

(via Guardian Unlimited)

Posted on by mklang

Teaching technologies

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology is an ongoing study of the relationship between students and technology in particular their use and experience of information technology. The 2007 report is a continuation and expansion of earlier studies and is based on survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions.

It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

The findings show, among other things, that over 60% of the students interviewed believe that their technology use improves their learning abilities. But before we all rush out and invest in more technology there is a good quote from an undergraduate at the beginning of chapter 6 which should serve as a warning.

“IT is not a good substitute for good teaching. Good teachers are good with or without IT and students learn a great deal from them. Poor teachers are poor with or without IT and students learn little from them.” (p 77)

I would like to argue that the quote is in reality a bit too nice on the teachers. Good teachers gain little from using technology – they are good without it. The problem is that poor teachers actually become worse with technology since it provides them with an additional place to hide their lack of teaching skills.

Lets end this off with another cool quote which often reflects the attitude of many universities:

“I worry that in many classes that faculty have gone IT crazy, sacrificing the human element in the process.” (p 88)

Posted on by mklang