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Ah shit, been waiting all year for a conference I can't afford to attend. Lovely, take what is freely available to the public, get a bunch of speakers, and charge through the ass. Thanks KMDI, I guess I'll have to see if I can get in without a license. Shoot, what happened to my fake janitor suit.
I was wondering why Julia was stabbing herself in the face. Now I feel like doing it. |
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'Snow Crash' looks like an interesting read, but I doubt I will ever read it. I've still got 'Neuromancer' colleting dust on my shelf, anybody want to buy it? So when's Snow Crash the movie coming out? and I wonder who will play Juanita? I think J Lo is a little too sexy for the role, and Selma Hiyak a bit too short and voluptuous. After seeing 'Gothika' I'm considering Penelope Cruiz, she should have time as she's know longer with Tommy boy.
For those who have never read Gibson, myself included. Try watching 'Johnny Nemonic', it's a Gibson story. It may be hard if you can't stand Keanu Reeves acting though.
I tried reading Gibson's 'Neuromancer' on a trip I took in '99 to Europe. Books either catch my attention, or not at all. However, only made it through thrity pages, then bought a harmonica instead. If I can be deemed smart, intelligent, or whatever it's not from being well read.
I know this is a bit late, but does anyone know what I can bring tomorrow. I need something that will last all day in my napsak, and also need something that won't ruin when I turn it over.
I don't think it's really fair to evaluate Live Journals before our last submission is due. We are supposed to have done 12, and much later today is our 12th class. We should still have another week, before it's even looked at. It looks like Susan had a few partially written, but did not post them until after Jason's review. Jason seems like a very reasonable person, and I'm sure he will re-evaluate L.J. postings again before deciding on our marks. But I don't know this for sure and it's fucking with me psychologically. Too many things to do for the next 2 weeks, not stressed at the moment, it comes and goes.
Will this be my final entry? Will this classroom community sustain itself? or are we all just obligated lurkers?Current Mood:  rushed Current Music: my man 'Orangeman' |
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Illich had some interesting perspectives on education, and failures of the school system.
Illich, I. (1970). Deschooling Society.
http://olivier.hammam.free.fr/imports/illich/deschool/chap6.htm |
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Read Julia's paper, and will wait for in class discussion. Has me wondering about what it would be like not to be able to make it to class for fear of being attacked. While referenced to situation in Palestine, I can't stop thinking about that episode in 'Different Strokes' where Willis gets taken out by Andrew Dice Clay playing the high school thug. I never had a problem making it to school. I grew up a block from both my junior school, and my high school. I guess what I'm really looking at here is a physical divide and not a digital divide.
I'm all for zero cost computing, although it does raise some questions in my head. How will this change the dynamics of the employment market for information technologists? I'm afraid that overtime people will begin to associate computing with low costs and who will pay the professional services provided by individuals.
---to be continued---- |
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'Learning Cyberspace: An Educational View of Virtual Community' by Nolan and Weiss was a very good read for the topic I'm writing on for my final paper. There are some key writers who have influenced this work, which I will be looking into this week. Some of them include Rheingold, and U of T's Barry Welman. I believe I will find the model for analyzing online community learning locations especially useful for addresses that I am going to analyze my current online meeting place torontohiphop.com, and assess whether it is an online community, and what it would take to make it one or improve it as one. The model I speak of included; cirriculum of Initiation and Governance, Curriculum of Access, and Cirriculum of Memebership. The four examples of online communities were also helpful to me in understanding an online community in its simplelest sense. One of my other papers talks about MSN as an online community, and I'm not sure that I had previously fully seen it as one.
This topic area became more interesting to me yesterday, as I witnessed an example where someone was using an online learning community that was not teaching him or her good behaviours. The community was run by an anorexic girl, who was giving advice to other girls in the 13-16 ranges on how to be skinny and sexy. Unfortunately, her advice was leading them down the path of physical health problems.
I will likely not change the topic for my paper, but perhaps in future I may be interested in looking at how online communities, which support learning can negatively affect the members of that community.
--- to be continued ----
Well it looks like I got my weeks messed up. Megan Boyler led a very interesting discussion on evaluating information and education. I think this type of education is necessary at any level. I'm not sure but I feel I did develop some of these skills, although I have been mislead from time to time. Not much else to say on this topic.
Before I forget, I ran into this little site the other day. http://www.cipd-training.co.uk/certificate-in-online-learning/
Looks like they provide a certificate in online learning. I always wonder about the authorities behind who's giving out these professionally related certificates. It's easier to wonder and continue to avoid doing them. |
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I'm going to start my journal today, and finish later this week. I wanted to reflect on the paper I just read ' Education, Gaming and Serious Play: New Attentional Economies for Learning'. I'm not going to be summarizing the paper as I believe the Journal is best used for my own personal reflection, and what I would like to reflect on is specific to attention and it's contribution to engaging the particpant learner. Although I was not really sure which age group of learners was being address in the paper I'm not sure it matters for the point of my discussion today. A topic that was only briefly touched in the paper involves the idea of why kids play video games? Besides work, I'm not sure anyone would do things for hours on end that they did not receive pleasure from. I believe with video games it's hard to pinpoint where the pleasure actually comes from. Let's take Pac-Man, one of the original popular games, that I personally spent hours playing between 6 and 7 years old. Where was the pleasure in moving Pac around the screen eating and trying best to avoid inky, blinky, pinky, and claude? At best assessment my only pleasure was found in my competitive spirit. I wanted my score, and my level accomplishment to be higher than any of the other kids on my block who played it. I learned that persistence in action is how you accomplish goals, a lesson I still very much hold with me today. So I do rate game education as valuable. However, we are not living in Pac-Man times, where there are not many other games to choose from. In today's market place, so much choice causes game players to stop when a game produces no pleasure. I see this being the toughest hurdle for educators who are trying to recapture the attention of younger generations for the purpose of educating them.
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It's time to continue for my rant again now that it's Thursday 4 days after Jennifer Jenson gave her guest lecture in our class. Overall it was quite good, a nice way to break up the lectures, and there seemed to be more lecturing than we normally undertake in the class. I guess I had been ignoring this point before, but it's clear women truly don't like video games as much as men. Besides the odd few, girls who talk about playing games really only do so because of the influence men may have on them. Is this due to not wanting to compete with boys, or just a lack of enthusiam in this form of simulated play.
I cam across an interesting book for anyone who is interested. There are a couple of intriguing chapters, 1 on cultural resistance and the other on experience.
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman ISBN:0262240459
The MIT Press © 2004 (670 pages)
Mar. 7th, 2004 @ 12:19 pm
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While on the 7th day God created Man, in my 7th post I will be taking a look at man in an examination of himself. Perhaps sociologists, psychologist, doctors, educators, researchers, and common observers have already skewed their interpretations in looking humanity and trying to come up with answers many of us would like to know. Will we ever know if we are already biased in our interpretation being human and using reason, something that is not fool proof to work out our theories? Will we have to wait for and evolution of the human mind, or for life with a higher intellectual capacity resolve our issues for us?
We take a look a Narcissus, and I question have I adapted an extension of myself and become a closed system? Numb? In particular facets of my life perhaps, but I am continually processing information some of which I use, some of which I store, and some which I may never consciously receive. I agree that the body does make itself numb in order to deal with certain exposing events. I have only been punched in the face once in my life, and I never felt a thing. Then there was the baseball smacked into my nose that also didn't really hurt. I guess this is what is referred to as 'self amputation'.
'Self Amputation' is something that I believe is more common in our lives then we may ever even realize. Our own psychological preoccupation with ourselves, in a 'pomo' time is matched with uncertainty and insecurity. On different levels we tell ourselves what we can or cannot do, places doubt in us and give up even before approaching the problems openly. The saying 'Man is his own worst enemy' applies but does also not run constant through our lives. Those with focus, intellect, and effort achieve moments of greatness. We have come and will continue to go along way, but sorry Frost, there are many paths in these woods, it is never just one or the other.
The idea of computers, or media as McLuhan would call it, as an extension of our selves, man. Evokes thoughts I’ve have about computers and their similarities to humans. While it is obvious computers have central processing units that help the think similar to humans brains that help us think. Memory processing is also more similar at a deeper level. Those who have studied memory know about short term and long-term memory. Even if you haven’t studied it you may have experienced it through out your lifetime if you used to remember something, but just can’t do it anymore. While my explanation cannot do justice to this field of research, humans have RAM, and hard drive, and even an operating system in their head. … Note to revisit this topic, could make for interesting research.
Feb. 29th, 2004 @ 03:55 pm
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Experiential Learning
Kolb reflection before Pickles:
This article did make quite a bit of sense. Different learning styles for learning different things almost sound obvious in it self. I could discuss why I think this was a inferior business school that was analyzed, but I would just be repeating what I said in class. What I think is really the problem pointed out is that Academia, or Universities stick to their role in providing education on theoretical aspects and do very little to help develop the students hands on practical skills. While the point of the study was to show different learning practices could be more effective for different types of minds, it just continues to remind me of Universities failures to provide the type of education provided by industry.
Coincidentally, I came across another article this week that discusses this vary same topic right here in Toronto. "IT educators grapple with theory vs. practice debate" http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asptheaction=61&sid=54861 What's discussed in that article is what was my first frustration with the curriculum provided in the IS stream at FIS. While I now believe the education I'm getting is much longer lasting then becoming proficient at the latest I.T. skillset, I can't help but stress over the fact that I'm not doing much that an I.T. recruiter or I.T. human resource person is going appreciate. Ah well there's always research, and there's always renting over buying.
After Pickles and others critisms of the Experiential Learning theory.
I first have to note, it was here I found out what Experiential learning theory is, and I was most easily understood by the image under this link. (http://www.infed.org/support/handouts/experiential_learning.htm)
The following are there 6 major issues against ELT:
1.) It pays insufficient attention to the process of reflection (see Boud et al 1983).
2.) The claims made for the four different learning styles are extravagant (Jarvis 1987; Tennant 1997).
3.) The model takes very little account of different cultural experiences/conditions (Anderson 1988).
4.) The idea of stages or steps does not sit well with the reality of thinking.
5.) Empirical support for the model is weak (Jarvis 1987; Tennant 1997).
6.) The relationship of learning processes to knowledge is problematic. Jarvis (1987)
My opinion is that there will always be criticisms and always be haters. Whenever someone comes up with an idea of reality, there will be someone just around the corner to point out what they've missed or where there wrong.
I'm still reflection on an issue raised in class. 'How would you design a perfect learning system' Without getting to philosophical on how perfection may be impossible and very subjective, I need to reiterate my point that is would be an extremely complex process. While we have mapped various quadrants of the brain, and can pinpoint certain areas and the functions they contribute to, we still know very little about the black box inside out head. While we know how data is written to a hard disk, we no very little about the recording processes in the brain. How do we know what we put in there, stays there, and does not get washed away or in unatainable underneathe the volumes of other existing information? At what point does a name spoken to us, transfer from our short term memory to long term? If we could find answers to these questions, we could realistically looking a designing contingent methods of learning for individuals. In my mind this would still not be an easy task, cause learning is different for each learner, everytime they attempt to learn. Confusing? maybe, but think about all the variables that can infleuence learning. We can look at if from the perspective of the 5 W's, Who, What, When, Where, Why, and let's include how. However, this leaves out issues related to emotion, and fatigue. While 1 in the afternoon, maybe a great time to learn most days, how do we account for days when the learner didn't get any sleep the night before, had a toothache, or just didn't eat properly today? Or maybe these are a combination of the who-what-when.
Maybe my point would be better demonstrated by asking ( if you even eat these ) what is your favorite type of chocolate cookie, is it the best, and can you percieve there being any better? Everyone would answer differently, and the best would only be superseded by an iteratively improved successor.
My learing style Results for: jperiod
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Feb. 25th, 2004 @ 01:07 pm
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Finally, getting to this Post after taking a couple weeks off my Journal entry.
I missed this class due to an unexpected death, but believe the only reading for the week involved Lyotard, "The Postmodern Condition". I had orginally begun this read prior to the February 9th missed classs. I really didn't get that far into, and really busy completing a database assignment. I feel like all but the first week of this winter semester was really interupted by the LSAT exam I studied for and wrote on Feb. 7th. I have lots to blog about the LSAT, the way I studied, and the help and advice I got, as well as my game day performance. This will likely be a lengthy journal entry, but as I missed class I feel I only have the option on writing about the Lyotard article.
Just a week previous, I had raised a question regarding modernism and post-modern perspectives. I was really confused by what I thought were abstract concepts about a time and place in humanity. I was also wondering what impact they had on learning. Lyotard's article has helped me to understand "the Post Modern Condition", and has done so in examining the problems of the attainment of knowledge. Before I began to read this I brushed up a little on the topic by reading the article posted at the following address. http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html
Of particular interest, is a concept of Lyotards called 'Grand Narratives', stories a culture tells itself about its practices and beliefs. He uses the example of democracy, and how it is supported by ideas upheld that it it the most rational, enlightened form of government, that must lead to universal human hapiness. I began to think, what are some of the 'Grand Narratives' of a school system. This was a little to general, there are so many separate school systems. I read a little more, and when reading that mini-narratives were more inline with a post-modern perspective, I could see how many mini-narratives (stories that explain small practices, local events, rather than large-scale universal or global concepts.) applied more accurately to how school systems may be influenced in the form of Education they provide.
Not too long ago, I had a talk with the Principle of Marc Garneau Collegiate. She told me about a mini-narrative within her school. They were forced to stop giving class material that involved the building of a computer. Once they taught their students about RAM and various other cards, they began to see these cards go missing out of their school computers. I guess the mini narrative, postmodern view that explains this all comes down to money. Really, there are so many things that come down to money.
In getting back to Lyotard paper for class, I have many comments. My first is with the introduction of the word or concept Bildung. This is apparently an old priciple that I don't fully understand. '...the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from the training (Bildung) of minds, or even of individuals, is becoming more obsolete and will become ever more so. ‘ What is this saying? Wish I had been in class to see what the others thought.
Important concepts I believe Lyotard focused on were the totality of knowledge. He looks at the narrative formation of knowledge, and the scientific formation of knowledge where he points problematic issues in these sets of knowledge formation. Much of his focus is on the scientific, rational formation of knowledge and shows that the game of language used to define methods and actions (?) creates issues as there have been recognized problems with these methods for some time.
On page thirty-three I found what I thought to be the most relevant for our course. “The great function to be fulfilled by the universities is to “lay open the whole body of learning and expound both the principles and foundations of knowledge”. I’m not exactly sure who he was quoting though.
In terms of his look on Narrative forms of knowledge I believe he has missed one point. He identified a three fold competence in acquiring narrative knowledge, but I feel he should have included a forth. Savoir-lire, reading is fundamental, isn’t it? Well it is for the LSAT.
Feb. 18th, 2004 @ 05:33 pm
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Oh what a crazy week, unable to come down to the Bahen Center to pick up my readings. I did get a chance to read the online article by Rheingold's, "Building Fun online communities". I was wonder what MUD, and MOO stood for even though I felt I had a pretty good idea on the concept. This week we have revisted the idea of constructionism through some examples. I really liked where the link for Amy
Bruckman took me. She has done some interesting work in the area of computer aiding constructionism. I took a quick look at her article "No Magic Bullet: 3D Video Games in Education." which discusses a topic which I believe has incredible future. One of the complaints by students using the tool mentioned, was that it was not as graphically rich as many of the video games already existing on the market. I believe this raises the question of whether educators will turn into serious game like developers, or will developers turn educators. It's hard to say, there is so much money in the current video game market why would the reverse happen. Currently, one can find construction like education in games like the SIMS and the "Age of Empires series." It's my opionion games like the SIMS already do facilitate good education. Unlike Bruckmans study is not for math, but something even more important to society. Yes, taking care of your responsibility. Duties like going to work, and cleaning up your garbage are important to the successful continuation of this game. What is more important? Should everyone learn trigonometry, or perhaps being a competent citizen has way more value. I really could continue to talk about the example of learning in the 3d game environment, but I still have some reading to complete before this weeks reflection includes all the material from the assigned readings. A last point on this topic, online gaming can offer us so much in the area of constructionism and gaming, but I will get more into that by the course.
Feb. 2nd, 2004 @ 02:30 pm
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Constructionism
Papert speaks about the simple definition of constructionism, in that we learn by making or doing. He then discusses the idea that it should not really be strictly defined because many have their own view or methods for constructionism. He contrasts ideas about constructionism in reference from our current and apparently inadequate model instructionism. His examples where helpful, and the writing style very easy to read, but I would have liked to know more about the Lego/LOGO activities. Did the students really build their spacecrafts in a top down fashion? When I was young and used to have fun with LEGO I created structure in a bottom up fashion, mimicking the way I believed it worked in the real world. I also played with the software program LOGO, which allowed you to make graphics by programming a little mouse to move around a screen.
My final paper will most likely have something to do with constructionism. I do believe it is an important tool to learn, and most valuable to a person who is successful in gaining knowledge in this fashion. I have just finalized the set-up of MOODLE, where I should be able to construct my own education. We'll see how things work out; so far I've had to fix a few setup problems so it works correctly. Most to all that I've learned about computers, programming and the Internet, comes not from an Instructional method of a classroom, but through my own construction of ideas and the people in my 'zone of proximal development'. I have always believed it was better to learn while doing. If I did intend to be a writer, University would be a great place to learn. Unfortunately, you don't really do much else besides read and write in most University classes.
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I've just finished assisting someone to learning by doing, and it feels great. Perhaps, mostly because it was a success, no major problems yet. In 1999, I bought the domain name 'non-linked to'. I built my first website under that name, but took it down in 2001 when I didn't have the time to make it what I wanted. My ear was not really to the 'ground' in the Toronto underground hip hop scene and it was going to be too hard with all the other things I was doing. About 9 months ago, someone who was wondering where it had gone contacted me? They claimed they used to like it, and thought it had a lot of potential. I explained my problems in maintaining it alone, and they jumped on the opportunity to become the content editor for the site. I basically gave them full access to turn torontohiphop.com into whatever vision they had. The only major problem was they were not a web designer. They mocked up some pages through Photoshop, I showed them how to use Dream weaver, but it was obvious they really weren't cut out for the tedious labour of a completely manual customized site. I had experienced many difficulties in design for other people, because in variably at some point they all want change. I discussed the idea of a content management system with my new partner. I showed them an example of one. ( phpwebsite from Appalachian State University) He really liked all the features for an online community, but it was obvious they were not impressed with the aesthetics of any of the themes. I said many exist out on the net, do some research and see if you can find one that will be suitable. 2 weeks later they were interested in PHP-Nuke, advanced content management system, and just after Christmas I deployed the CMS shell for them
I've never seen someone so excited about learning and building as I did on this occasion. Duxx was so happy about learning how to install modules because he could see new things working right in front of his eyes. So far I think he's installed about 15 extra modules, and loves it.
We just official re-released 'non-linked to' website last night, and with 12 hours gained 15 new users with no idea where they are coming from.
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End of the Day, 18 new users.
J
Coming Next Week "the blank picture"..
Jan. 25th, 2004 @ 12:33 pm
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In order to keep this simple, I will only provide one per week. These may be written all at once or is small segments, but you should not find more than twelve entries.
I'm not sure whether I should be focussing solely on the readings assigned. If this is the case I have a feeling this will get pretty boring fairly quickly. Just to keep my interest I will first write about some of my thoughts on the course, personal developments related to the course and discussions from the lectures.
I think I now have found my starting place for the major %50 paper due in this course this term. I am interested in evaluating an open source online software tool for facilitating learning. The product is called MOODLE, which stands for Modular Object Oriented Learning Environment. The designer of this system is heavily involved in the study of education and also used to be an administrator for WebCT. They have made the claim the MOODLE conforms to a social constructionist pedagogy of learning, and maybe it does. An investigation into the uses of this software for many different user levels may stand as a sufficient paper. As well, a test for the social constructionist view point is also worth validating. I have set-up the MOODLE environment under my webhosting package for jbl.biz. ( www.jbl.biz/moodle )
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Democracy and Education by John Dewey
Sorry, I acknowledge that Dewey is an important figure in Education, but these four chapters really sucked to read. While he discusses very valid reasons for education and what it accomplishes. ie. it's importance in life, a social function, and direction/control I found the paper lacked interesting information that could hold my attention for more than 10 minutes at a time.
The article on the 'Lancasterian' system was a bit more interesting. Before getting into the dynamics of the class room and the optical telegraph, I believed I was getting into a paper on the originator of the "For Dummies" line of books. Lancaster's 'monitor system' establised begginging of today's modern classroom. However, it does seem like control is more of an issue. While control is necessary for the modern teacher, the Lancaster system seems pretty harse in it's attempt to provide control. Designing the classrooms specially so that every student can be seen at the same time seems a little drastic. If this was the case how did we end up with blackboard that cause the teacher to have their back turned while writing on the blackboard.
Jan. 18th, 2004 @ 10:03 pm
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First Reflection
I’m glad somebody said it, what is Knowledge Media? While we have no set definition for this, I feel this is something I do know a little about. When I think about the term Knowledge Media combined with learning, many past experiences flash through my mind. I think about how groups of two were taken from my grade 1 class into the library to play a basic computer game in the PET computer. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I do believe the game facilitated the learning of basic arithmetic. Six years later that same library at Bessborough Public School introduced their first computer with a CD Rom Encyclopedia. Was this knowledge media and learning, or does this new area of study involve much more? Was my neighbour’s electronic speaking toy, “Speak ‘n Spell”, a form of knowledge media and learning? Perhaps, television on a good day also represents some form on knowledge media and learning.
My father while growing up, fell in love with the radio. It was the only non-printed media he knew, and he loved it so much he wanted to be apart of it and was for 35 years. Radio is mostly full of music channels, but my father claims it used to be so much more. I believe him, wasn’t it Orson Well’s “War of the Worlds” broadcast that shocked the nation. An early example of why not to believe all that media is telling you.
Before I get too sidetracked let’s see what I have to say after the first weeks readings.
“What is Curriculum?”
To be honest, this is something that I have never questioned. Kind of sad, I think. Who decided what was taught in school between 6 and 18 years old? Did the order of representation of different concepts alter my end result. Should I be concerned that just a few years’ later Ontario High School students scored the lowest English language performances in Canada? Maybe it was good enough that I took an OAC English class at a school where Margret Atwood also would have taken her final high school English class.
One aspect of curriculum I have questioned deals with the lack of relevant education in school that existed when I and my parents thirty-five years early went through various school systems. Finding derivatives, and writing papers on historical events was enlightening, but where was that course on the real world. Instead of learning the proper rules of volleyball in gym class, or lectures on Canadian rock formations, why not learn the skills needed for everyday life. For instance managing personal finances, economizing at the grocery store, maintaining your living environment, and how to recognize incompatibility in relationships?
Curriculum is of utmost important to me right now. It would feel good to learn something that would really give me a competitive advantage in any field. As a student I feel similar to how I look at a computer. I have loaded volumes of information on a multitude of topics into my system but at the end of the day I am still just sitting there.
“Creativity Across the Domains”
I will likely talk more about this article after the class has discussed it some, and since I started being honest I have not finished the article yet. (Still have 5 more days)
The article spoke on creativity and some form of dispair in upbringing. Talkin' bout the blues, which had lead many a great artist to perform some of their most magical works. Maybe anyone reading this has felt this themselves. The greatest creative expressions I've made have come at a time when I was truly feeling 'blue'.
The “ten-year-rule”, and ten year intervals is something I have never heard of before. Is this only true if you follow a “five year plan”? In some cases, I believe it is true, but for others perhaps not. Jennifer Capriati did become a professional tennis player at about age 14, and ten years later kicked her so called drug habit to re-join the elite in the top ten. Was this a resurgence of creativity, or simply strength in age? I guess this means I have to stick with something for 10 years now.
My survey response Whether you harbor some vestige of modernist morality or simply fail to see the irony in Reality TV, one thing is clear. You are just Not Postmodern.
Jan. 7th, 2004 @ 09:48 pm
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