Overwhelmed? Ya think?

I blogged earlier about attending the National eXtension Virtual Conference.  It was an amazing conference, and I took away a lot from it.  It meant I haven't had time to concentrate on readings for Change11, but I'll get back to that next week.  I think the NeVC will have recordings up, check here. Two other speakers at the conference connected to what we are doing for Change11.  Clay Shirky and Stephen Rosenbaum  both had some really good observations on curation. (I'll talk about Rosenbaum later; missed Robin Good's talk).

Curation, after all, is what I am doing here.  Picking out the best of what I've found this week, and passing it on to a group of people I hope will be interested.  How else are we going to handle all this noise?

The important part about curation, I think, is to create dense nuggets of information that users can connect to what they've found, or file away for later.  The basics, for me includes tags ("Shirky" "curation"), a short but intensive summary, and a picture.  Here's mine, just a sketch for a start.  Perhaps I will hone it down or develop it as I learn more.

Clay Shirky speaks at the
National eXtension Virtual State Fair,
19 October 2011 

 I cropped this photo to be sure only the essential information is seen.  I'm adding a paragraph that's cropped in the same way:

 Clay Shirky speaks. (books: Here Comes Everybody = organizing without organizations and Cognitive Surplus = creativity, generosity in a connected age).  Takeaway: communications technology is allowing our society to self organize.  The natural result is a gift culture based on reputation that encourages creativity and democracy.

This need to curate and share information is something seen quite often virtual worlds.  People love to pass on what they have learned.  We're all teachers, I guess.  Blogged on this a while ago.

Mapping and Connectivism

I was really intrigued by Maria Korolov's recent post about mapping in virtual worlds. It just tickles my brain the way she has combined social media with geography.
In case you didn't know, I am an old-time virtual worlds resident, and am very used to the way we get around there.  In Second Life we have a huge world map and we consult it for coordinates to find each other.  I like the link between the virtual and the actual when using these maps; everything is set out spatially, and you can just click on the map to get there.  Just like home, although you can still get lost.

Second Life mainland

 Now Maria has come up with this idea for Open Sim that I think is brilliant: why not make different maps according to the user's needs?  After all, the world is virtual.  Why not have a map that shows the world as you see it?  Instead of living in far-flung corners of the digital world, your friends would show up as neighbours.  You could even have different maps, one for friends, one for work...  You see where I am going with this.

The hypergrid in OpenSim offers a range of
possibilities for connection.

A map, after all, is not socially neutral.  It can be hierarchical, with less-valued residents consigned to the cheaper and less fashionable virtual "boondocks."  In remaking our maps we would contest the way the map makers see the world. This is particularly important when we contrast the hierarchical nature of the company that runs Second Life with the much more collaborative community in Open Sim.

Remaking our maps is also a way to prioritize the information that comes to us, making it easier to assimilate.  In addition, the world maps of our friends and neighbours wouldn't necessarily coincide with our own, and would help us receive information from other networks. It's a way to see social connectivity in a very concrete form.

Going to think a little more about this.

Institutional Change:

I attended Tony Bates' talk last week, and it was really useful.  Problem is, it was also depressing, because all the institutional problems he described are alive and well at my own huge university. I get a sense of unrelenting doom just thinking about it.

I was still mulling over Tony's talk on Tuesday, when I attended Howard Rheingold's talk in Second Life, for the National Extension Virtual Conference (check here for recordings of the talks).  Could be that the reason Howard made more of an impression on me than Tony was because Tony was talking through Elluminate (which is like taking a bath with your clothes on) and Howard was talking through Second Life (which, for all its failings, does convey a sense of human connection).  Anyway, Howard said some things that seemed to continue the discussion that Tony began, so I thought I'd mention them here. This is what I remember from the talk, plus a few notes, so don't quote me, but the basic message was "convert or subvert."

• Howard was talking about the problem of big institutions controlled by powerful individuals.  His advice: go for that individual.  Convince them that change is positive. Howard Mentioned Lou Gerstner's influence on IBM, and how that company transformed itself under his leadership. 

• I really liked what he said about the web -- how we wouldn't have it today if a lot of engineers hadn't ignored their own companies' rules to communicate with each other through Usenet.  He argues that open systems and open resources are the way to continue that kind of creative growth. 

Tony's talk allowed me to see that I was putting a little too much faith in my institution's capacity for change, and he suggested ways of dealing with the problem.  Howard's talk gave me more ideas; encouraging, but we've still got a long row to hoe, if you ask me.

First post. An introduction

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time for this blog, but I've started it because I'm doing my best to participate in the Change 2011 MOOC, and I also thought I'd check out the changes on Blogger.  So far so good, but my posts are going to be rather on-the-fly, I'm afraid.
I'm  a teacher with a fairly unusual range of interests. My reason for joining the course is to improve my understanding of new methods of teaching brought to us by technology.  If you're anything like me, your head probably starts to swim at the very thought of dealing with this stuff.

Here are a few of the things I'm curious about:

• How will we use OER's (open educational resources) in our classrooms?
• How will connectivist teaching change our classrooms?
• What does social media mean for my teaching?
• How are we ever going to rise above the noise of everyone talking at once? 
• Where do virtual worlds fit?