Etale – Life in the Digital World

interdisciplinary musings on life and education in the digital world

Archive for category editorials

Boiling Frogs, Family Time, and Internet Usage

Jun 18

Posted by etale in blog, editorials | Comments off

frogWhich of the following best describes your view of the Internet?

1) It is basically a good thing.
2) It is basically a bad thing.
3) It is neutral…neither good nor bad.
4) It all depends upon how you use it.

OR

5) It is, in the words of Neil Postman, a Faustian bargain…a mixed bag, and it is often hard to determine whether it is good or bad until after the fact.

If you read this blog long enough, you’ll find that I’m a #5. And I’ll be honest that I read #5 into pretty much everything. I’m skeptical of complaints that the digital world is making us the dumbest generation ever, and I’m equally skeptical that it is the solution to all of our problems. It is a mixed bag. To illustrate the point, allow me to direct our attention to a report published this week by the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, Family Time Decreases with Internet Use. Here is a quote from the first line of the article:

“More and more of America’s Internet-connected households report erosion of face-to-face family time, increased feelings of being ignored by family members using the Web, and growing concerns that children are spending too much time online.”

I’m pretty sure that this was not the intended outcome for most families and Internet users. I doubt that the typical husband or wife sat down at the computer one day and declared, “I would like to spend less time with my family and more time browsing the web for random information.” Yet, that is what took places in some of our homes. I’m sure that you’ve heard the story of a researcher who explained how to boil a live frog. From the great digital author Wi Ki Pedia,

“The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to important changes that occur gradually.”

It doesn’t really work, but it is a nice story that helps us to think about a phenomenon that is real. It is called “creeping normalcy.” It is the idea that a group or individual learns to tolerate or even embrace something if it is introduced gradually. If one had tried to introduce the same thing right up front, it would have been rejected. Is this part of what has taken place in some of our families? Imagine a modern day household that has been changed by increased Internet use. The husband is sitting in the living room, scanning the last few hours of tweets. The wife is in the next room doing some late night work online. One kid is on yet another computer, touching base with friends on Facebook. The other kid is playing a video game with a dozen people around the world. Keep the camera rolling for a few hours, days, weeks, and we see a similar evening cycle. Is that really something that most families would have embraced overnight?

So, is the Internet 1) good, 2) bad, 3) neutral, 4) all depends upon how you use it, or 5) a mixed bag? The most common answer that I get to this question is #4. However, doesn’t #4 assume that we first recognize the good and bad and then make a careful conscious choice about how to use it? Is it really that simple to recognize the good and bad? Is that really how family time decreases with Internet usage?

Online Medical Information Doesn’t Make you a Medical Professional

Jun 11

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Postman’s distinction between information, knowledge, and wisdom. I revisited those distinctions as I read the newest posted research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The research report, entitled, The Social Life of Health Information, documents e-patient habits. Based upon a survey conducted by the California HealthCare Foundation, the report provides interesting statistics about who is accessing online health information, what type of information they are accessing, and how it impacts patient thoughts and behavior.

I’d like to focus on a single finding from the study, “53% say it [online health/medical information] ]lead them to ask a doctor new questions, or to get a second opinion from another doctor.” Most teachers tell their students that there is no such thing as a stupid question. However, there is such a thing as an uninformed or informed question. In fact, without adequate information, how do we even know to ask a question? It takes a base level of experience or information to sometimes be able to frame helpful questions. The increased access to online “medical” information is changing the way that patients interact with doctors, changing the questions that patients do or do not ask. Now that we have this information, it is a perfect lead to another question. How does this shift impact patient care? Does it improve the patient’s chance of getting the best treatment or an accurate diagnosis? Does it simply increase medical costs due to unnecessary second opinions? Or, is it possible that this change even interferes with patient care by changing the nature of the patient-doctor interaction? Or, have be moved into a new realm of Internet-based patient self care?

I’m not a medical professional. My interest in this report relates more to how increased access to information on the Internet changes the shape of traditional interactions in society. How does it change patient-doctor interactions, student-teacher interactions, consumer-vendor interactions, and all sorts of novice-expert interactions? In some cases, is it possible that a layperson can confuse access to information with true expertise in a given area? Or, does this access to information (information that was formally only readily available to experts) empower the novice to hold experts to a higher level of accountability? I know that it does as a University professor. Now that a number of my students bring laptops to class, they can quickly “check my facts” or explore an idea that I mention in a presentation. I’ve enjoyed this shift. In fact, I even find myself leveraging this new resource. If I can’t recall the exact quote, or the author of a particular work, I can call upon a student to look it up via a web-enabled cell phone or a laptop.

Each day, we are moving further into a world where where more and more individual have access to specialized information that was formerly only available to insiders in a given field. It is for this reason that a 21st century education must have a strong emphasis upon new literacies, specifically how to understand and make sense of this wealth of information. I continue to return to Postman’s reminder that there is an important distinction between information, knowledge, and wisdom – and a 21st century education must equip individuals to live, think, behave, and choose in view of this threefold distinction. To have a suitcase (or web) full of information does not make one wise.

10 Challenges / Problems in the Digital World

Jun 9

Posted by etale in blog, editorials, ethics | Comments off

Einstein claimed that “Our technology has surpassed our humanity.” I don’t fully agree. I am more inclined to claim that our technology is amplifying our humanity. Whatever the case, life in the digital world does bring about a number of new challenges. Here is a list of ten that require careful attention. How can we best prepare students to face and overcome these challenges?

    Information Overload
    Plagiarism
    Child Predators
    Pornography and other Sexual Addictions
    The Daily Me and the Minimizing of Local Collective Culture
    Social Isolation
    Privacy and Security
    Bullying
    Gossip
    Parents Being Clued into the Lives of their Kids

Five Technologies / Movements that Will Turn Textbooks into Antiques

Jun 6

Posted by etale in blog, books, digital scholarship, editorials, education, educational technology, sites and sources | Comments off

Open Source Textbook Initiatives - Historically, textbooks have been the single largest line item on many school budgets when it comes to curriculum. We now see initiatives like Curriki and the California Open Source Textbook Initiative that might challenge this. Imagine a day when that line item is cut or reallocated toward people (curriculum specialists, instructional designers, etc.) and support technologies. With Open Source Textbook Initiatives as well as WikiTexts, we get a text that is continually being updated (not having to pay for a new version / edition every few years?); that can be easily customized to meet the needs of a given course, school, district; that can be used as a whole or in part; and that can be easily distributed in a variety of formats. Oh, and it many cases this option might be free or, if one needs a paper version, the cost of printing.

Electronic Reading Devices – The Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Netbooks, and a variety of emerging devices make it possible to deliver content, even entire textbooks and course readers electronically. These technologies are bridging the paper and electronic world of text and other media. While the book is an amazing technology, it has limitations that can be overcome by these new devices. With an iPhone or similar reader, I can be on a hike in the local forest and have immediate access to all of my texts; not to mention the ability to make use of the GPS capabilities, communication tools, and the ability to record or discuss my experiences (record notes, take and share pictures, watch video tutorials on how to identify poison ivy, email someone, talk to someone live or asynchronously, mark my current location on a map). Rather than walking through the woods with a backpack full of books (not that anyone would do this), I have my textbooks in my pocket (backpack optional, bug spray required…at least here in Wisconsin).

Online Social Networks and Mashup Technologies - I already mentioned wikis, but this deserves a separate category. In the first item, I was thinking more in terms of systematic organized projects. However, online communities and social networks make is easier for educators and course designers to learn about a variety of individual sources, organize them into themes/topics/units/chapters, link to them or embed them in a central course resource location, and bypass the use of a textbook altogether. If I am teaching Geography, I can use Google Earth and Google Maps, embed links to relevant sources right into my course blog/wiki/iGoogle page, create or borrow YouTube videos for mini-lectures, have students contribute their own resources… You get the idea. Before long, I have a customized, powerful, content-rich, multimedia textbook for my class. It really isn’t even a textbook is it? It is a multimediabook. Why would I even consider using a traditional textbook if I have the time and resources to do something like this? Maybe I just answered my own question. How many educators are willing to set aside the time and resources to do this? This does require creativity, the ability to analyze and synthesize information, and good instructional design sense. Take a look at the National Educational Technology Standards for Students and Teachers. These are the very skills that we are expecting of the current and upcoming generations of students, teachers, and administrators in the k-12 world. And they certainly seem to be abilities that we should expect from University professors who carry titles before and after their names that are supposedly connected to mastery or expertise in one or more disciplines.

Custom Texts / Readers - These have been around for years, especially in higher education. A professor creates a collection of articles, book chapters, and essays; and it is sold as an inexpensive text at the University or nearby bookstore. Now let’s add the digital element. Imagine a bookstore that will take a box of articles, books, essays, disks, files on flash drives, images, audio files, and video clips. They will take care of getting all of the necessary copyright permissions, then, based upon the instructions of the teacher or design team, they build an indexed electronic text that could be purchased online and made immediately available to students. If something changes mid-year, even mid-semester, the text can be updated with the new resources with minimal effort or cost. If a student has a learning disability, the content can be easily converted to a form that works best for that student. The instructor could even gain permission from students and include examples of exceptional student work in the next version of the reader. I may be stretching the boundaries of reality a bit, but imagine this. Imagine that people put their readers on the web for others to purchase…a ready-made option for the lazy (or busy) instructor. And those student examples that were included? What if the students received a small source of revenue out of the deal? Now that would be a brand new motivation for students to perform well on an assignment.

Hybrid Organic Textbooks (HOT) - We already have a decade of textbook companies building electronic versions of their books, rich with web-based resources, multimedia resources, pools of quiz questions, even full learning activities. In fact, some of these web-enhanced textbooks have become so full-featured that the textbook and web-based resources become the entire course (something that I lament…the last thing that we need is to further confuse the words “textbook” and “curriculum”. I’ll save that for another post). However, there is potential here. Imagine if textbook companies embraced the best of grass roots social media while also providing a core paper / electronic hybrid resource. This might include a paper-based text that could also be used on a mobile reader or device. At the same time, the publisher would have a web presence, adding new and quality resources to the text. Add to that a dynamic community and repository of client-produced lessons, resources, images, videos, discussions, keypal programs, scheduled guest presentations, and collaborative activities. Now we get true convergence of paper-based textbooks, web-based supplements, open source texts and wikis, electronic readers, and grassroots social networking. If publishers or a small group of motivated educators can catch this full vision, then everyone will get a chance to experience a powerful and positive disruption in k-12 education. Do I have any venture capitalists readings this post?

Ten of my Favorite 21st Century Job Titles

Jun 4

Posted by etale in blog, editorials | Comments off

1. Chief Learning Architect
2. Media Ecologist
3. Cyberprof
4. New Media Director
5. Cybercop
6. Social Media Editor
7. Internet Evangelist (two very different meanings/roles)
8. Media Psychologist
9. Digital Ethnographer
10. Cyber-Librarian

A Manifesto on Graduate E-Learning Programs – Part 2

Jun 2

Posted by etale in blog, digital storytelling, e-learning, editorials, educational technology, great ideas | Comments off

At best, e-learning is an educational conspiracy, challenging the superiority of traditional face-to-face graduate study. E-learning often gets the scrutiny that is deserved of all learning. Is a one hour lecture to a group of 30+ students truly the most effective way to help students master the stated course objectives? Is it superior to or more effective than other methods? Or, is it simply an unquestioned higher education tradition? E-learning, in some cases serves as a challenge to such traditions. For that reason, it may well be a mechanism to not only increase accessibility to higher education, but to challenge, improve, and transform what takes place in traditional face-to-face graduate programs.

While certainly not an exhaustive list, here are five other ways that e-learning graduate programs challenge the superiority of traditional face-to-face graduate study:

1. They challenge the notion that one must move or travel large distances in order to obtain a high quality graduate education.

2. They challenge the notion that one must submit to often inflexible schedules of courses and offerings in order to obtain a quality graduate education.

3. In some cases, they challenge the notion of a one-size fits all graduate education (although many of the best face-to-face programs join in this challenge).

4. In other cases, they challenge the notion that graduate courses are best designed and taught by a single person. Instead, in the best cases, e-learning promotes a team-based approach to course design that may include a combination of subject-matter experts, instructional designers, graphic designers, computer programmers, and a variety of other specialists. In fact, the role of instructor is just one of many factors in some good e-learning course designs. What makes the role of instructor so sacred? The only essential role in effective learning is the role of learner.

5. They challenge the idea of the closed-door no questions asked approach to courses. In place of that, many online courses and programs receive ongoing careful scrutiny. Furthermore, all course activities are perfectly recorded and available for post-course review and evaluation. Imagine if every classroom interaction, every instructor comment, every student comment, and every student artifact of learning in a traditional face-to-face course were available for careful review as part of a course improvement process. That is already the case with many e-learning courses. This is not to suggest that all e-learning programs use this data, but the data is available, there is an option to use it.

Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

May 26

Posted by etale in editorials, ethics, great ideas | Comments off

While I never met him face-to-face, Neil Postman (in the form of his writings) was my tutor when it came to thinking about media and culture. I’m the first to admit that Postman would have disapproved of much that occupies my thought, work, and time. I am, in many ways, a contributor to what he described as a Technopoly. Nonetheless, Postman left a mark on me when it comes to considering the importance of media literacy, exploring how technology “uses us”, and in the call to equip youth with the ability to ask and find answers to the difficult and often unasked questions about the Faustian bargains present with each new technology.

As we learned about the ever-increasing amount of information that is available to the typical person over the past decade, Postman was quick to point out that more information is hardly ever the answer to problems in the modern world. We have plenty of information, he would explain, more than an one individual could possibly use. For that reason, Postman distinguished between information, knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the logical organization of information, it is making sense and meaning out of the individual bits of information. And wisdom, it is capacity to use the knowledge in order to make the best decisions, to choose one path over another.

I do wonder what Postman would have to say about some of the technologies emerging in the last few years as well as some of the efforts to help make sense of, organize, and visually represent what was previously just an Earth-sized ball of knotted strings of information. Perhaps he would point out that these are rarely true moves toward knowledge or wisdom, but just information about information, lots of form with minimal substance. Or, it may be that he would accept that these are moves toward knowledge, but he might just return to some of his famous questions. What problem is this information technology solving? Who are the winners and losers when this technology is used? What are the unexpected consequences of this technologies?

For me, these questions are not a call to cease innovation (as if anyone other than a few friends with a horse a buggy would listen), but rather a challenge for us to bridge the gap between our technological advancements and our humanity, a calling to remember that ideas have consequences, that ethics are important, and that humanity has a responsibility to pursue that which is good, pure, noble, true, and right.