In preparation for my upcoming trip to the Australian Conference on Lutheran Education (I’ll try to blog at least a few times while there), I’ve been reading more about international perspectives on education and digital culture. Then, just today I learned about a newer documentary (released in June?) called Two Million Minutes that follows two students in the United States, two students in China, and two students in India. I’ve yet to watch it (in fact I haven’t even been able to get the “Order DVD” page to work), so I don’t have much to report at this point. With that said, it appears some some folks, including Howard Gardner, have been less than impressed.
Without even watching the documentary, it appears that it has been a useful tool in continuing the dialouge about 21st century skills, some of the ideas prompted by Friedman’s The World is Flat, what Gardner refers to as “Five Minds for the Future”, what Pink writes about in A Whole New Mind, and more recently what Tony Wagner discusses in The Global Achievement Gap. This international comparison of educational systems is helpful in promoting thoughful discussion about the values and goals that drive the different educational systems.
Concordia University Wisconsin will be offering a new online graduate course entitled, Educational Ministry in the Digital World. This course will be offered for the first time starting in January 2009.
Here is the course description:
Society is being transformed by current and emerging technologies. Many focus upon the technology, but the cultural transformation warrants attention also. In this course, participants will walk the digital streets of contemporary society, considering the nature of life in the digital world, spirituality in the digital age, as well as opportunities for educational, parish, and para-church ministry in the digital world.
Interested students can learn more and register at www.cuw.edu.
Digital Scholarship? I just returned from the 2008 Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in Madison, WI. This is my third year and it is always a wonderful source of ideas. One idea that I’m walking away with is from Curtis Bonk and George Siemens. In a forum, they talked about the notion of digital scholorship. Having just re-read Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered and being a student of digital culture, this captured my attention. I’ll likely post more about it over the ucomcing days/weeks/months, but here is a good article that is related. It describes what might be considered digital scholarship as well as what Curk Bonk described as faculty celebrities.
Check out The Internet Typology Test at pewinternet.com. It will tell you which category of user best describes you. If you are interested, I’m a Connector :-).
Yesterday I presented at the Lutheran Education Assoication convocation on the topic of “Ministry in A Virtual World.” If you are interested, you can listen to it here:
Last week I served as a guest lecturer on Digital Culture and Implications for Teaching and Learning. Among other things, I emphasized the importance of educators who understand the nature of life in the digital world- how technology is shaping our understanding of fundamental issues like safety, happiness, security, worth, and image. As one illustration, I used student response pads to get anonymous feedback on the following question.
Travel without a cell phone would…
1. Be heavenly
2. Be unnerving
3. Not be a big deal
4. Not happen
5. Cell phone?
As usual, more than half of the class selected option 2 or 4. Ten to fifteen years ago it was common to travel without a cell phone. Now some consider it downright irresponsible. Husbands see it as an act of chivalry to make sure that their wives have a cell phone and quite a few parents consider it a fundamental shopping policy. “Keep your cell phones on kids.” Amid this shift in what it means to be safe, many schools and school events ban the use of cell phones and some wonder why students are disturbed by such a policy. While I am not necessarily challenging those policies, I don’t think we should be surprised at the reaction. Connectivity is a fundamental value of the digital world, and lack of connectivity is a source of concern, feelings of isolation, even anxiety.
With all of this in mind, researchers with the Pew Internet and Family Life Project continue to provide useful data. According to a summary released this month, “62% of all Americans are part of a wireless, mobile population that participates in digital activities away from home or work.” This study extends beyond simple cell phone use to a wide variety of mobile devices and ways in which people stay connected to information and people when they are on the go.
As of this month you can view a summary of the findings from the 2008 Digital Future Report. Check out information on the Center for the Digital Future web site for details on how to obtain a full copy of the report.
I want to highlight one aspect of the findings. According to the report there is a large increase in online communities. But these are not simply friends networking in MySpace and face book. The report notes a growing number of people involved in online communities with a social purpose or cause. People are connecting virtually in order to support, be informed, inform, and unite around social causes. And directly from the summary, “…a large and growing percentage of members — now 55 percent — say they feel as strongly about their online communities as they do about their real-world communities.”
This information blends nicely with my post from yesterday. With the most recent Frontline episode on Kids Growing Up Online, we also see a social networking established around the site. Perhaps this is a temporary network, but you can certainly find vibrant networks of parents and concerned citizens drawn together by this same cause.
While I am probably preaching to the choir, this is one more proof that it is time for us to move beyond thinking about the Internet as technology and start recognizing that it is a place with rich diverse cultures. It is as real as New York City, but far more diverse. The Internet is full of actual people who find deep meaning in their relationships with others in this place.
