The knowledge society is a very nice slogan. Yes, I mean a "slogan" and not a concept or a idea. If we use the definiton of knowledge as prestened by Plato as: "justified true belief" than the modern society has got more to do with skills than knowledge.
First of all, our goal (by our I mean a typical user of a computer based on my private observations)is not to understand the way the modern devices work but how to work with them. Who actually, apart from the ones often called geeks, want's to understand how does uploading photos to facebook work? And how many want to know how to upload them?
What is more, the school system and curriculum is more and more about gaining habits than knowledge. You do not have to know how you solve the math task, what you are actually calculating, just remember that if you see that kind of a equation you press button no2 on your complicated calculator than you put the x number and just press enter.
We say that everything that children learn should be useful and practical. That is why children read less novels, poetry or have fewer history classes. Why should they know who was Cleopatra? What for? Does she even have a facebook site (she has, just checked)? But SKILLS in COMPUTERS "are" essential.
Even if one gains knowledge it is not about science nor literature but more about Paris Hilton in many cases.
So maybe it is like professor Tasaka says, that there is a paradox in naming the current state of society the knowledge society?
piątek, 23 kwietnia 2010
No12. ICT and social ethics of privacy
It's not hard to find the descriptions of the treaths to one's privacy in the Internet. Every once in a while the media show the examples of identity stealing, cyber-bulling and e-stalking. But on the other side ICT and neglecting pricacy allows the social control on a informal level to an extent unknown before. The days of wasting time in front of the good old telly are almost gone, now one can waste time on Facebook, MySpace or any other social network. But in order to play that game you have to fallow rules such as: show yourself, comment, engage. And allow other's to react and they WILL do react with no mercy when you break the rules of society.
And I do not mean the gossip way, i mean that our current village as it happened in prabobly every village people know a lot about their neighbours and they use the knowledge to be sure that every thing is "as it should be"
So, you are 9 years old girl and want to have a nice photo for your profile on Nasza-Klasa (Polish Facebook-like network) or a photoblog? That's great, take a nice one with a pet or your dad. Privacy threat's? Let your parent's decide. But be prepared that if you break the rules that are regarded as important in Poland not only the press is going to be all over you but also your peer-e-comrades. Not to leave it without a proof. Imagine a 9 y.o. girl who goes into an oven (THAT OVEN) in a concentration camp gets a photo, posts it and gets a comment "sweet photo" from a friend. Shocking? 3...2...1...
It happened.
The forums where full of anger, sarcasm and judgemental comments. And in my opinion in that case the lack of privacy of an indyvidual allowed the society to react towards deviation.
The matters regarding taking care of the children, being a "bad" or a good parent are very developed in every developed society. That's why the people react to such a behaviour as commented on the demotivator:
Mother of the year
Maybe there would be no comment, no social reaction if the privacy settings were set high.
The norms of the society one lives in may be not accepted by other societies (i love my cliches). That is why a person who is non-normative, like this young guy bellow must be prepared for heavy criticism:
Such like this (not so heavy):
Also you can find comments on various forums, like this one for PC geeks
Luntek touches matters of gender roles and the acceptance of the society towards crossing the normative behaviour. However, if you want to see the strongest social reaction watch this movie and read the comments (in Polish once again).
Strong isn't it? I am not saying that social control is always good nor needed in an obejctiv way. However from the point of view of the society as a whole and not single units the lack of privacy allows to control, comment and moderate the unwanted behaviours.
Still, I think that social control via ICT should be analized in a more metholodical way. Maybe we, once again living in a village (this time global), will become a "tribe" which members use the social control in order to survive and keep balance? Not by gestures, not by banishing but by commenting and banning?
And I do not mean the gossip way, i mean that our current village as it happened in prabobly every village people know a lot about their neighbours and they use the knowledge to be sure that every thing is "as it should be"
So, you are 9 years old girl and want to have a nice photo for your profile on Nasza-Klasa (Polish Facebook-like network) or a photoblog? That's great, take a nice one with a pet or your dad. Privacy threat's? Let your parent's decide. But be prepared that if you break the rules that are regarded as important in Poland not only the press is going to be all over you but also your peer-e-comrades. Not to leave it without a proof. Imagine a 9 y.o. girl who goes into an oven (THAT OVEN) in a concentration camp gets a photo, posts it and gets a comment "sweet photo" from a friend. Shocking? 3...2...1...
It happened.
The forums where full of anger, sarcasm and judgemental comments. And in my opinion in that case the lack of privacy of an indyvidual allowed the society to react towards deviation.
The matters regarding taking care of the children, being a "bad" or a good parent are very developed in every developed society. That's why the people react to such a behaviour as commented on the demotivator:
Mother of the year
Maybe there would be no comment, no social reaction if the privacy settings were set high.
The norms of the society one lives in may be not accepted by other societies (i love my cliches). That is why a person who is non-normative, like this young guy bellow must be prepared for heavy criticism:
Such like this (not so heavy):
Also you can find comments on various forums, like this one for PC geeks
Luntek touches matters of gender roles and the acceptance of the society towards crossing the normative behaviour. However, if you want to see the strongest social reaction watch this movie and read the comments (in Polish once again).
Strong isn't it? I am not saying that social control is always good nor needed in an obejctiv way. However from the point of view of the society as a whole and not single units the lack of privacy allows to control, comment and moderate the unwanted behaviours.
Still, I think that social control via ICT should be analized in a more metholodical way. Maybe we, once again living in a village (this time global), will become a "tribe" which members use the social control in order to survive and keep balance? Not by gestures, not by banishing but by commenting and banning?
niedziela, 18 kwietnia 2010
No.11 ICT and national mourning
Mouring is a term connected not only to psychological phenomena but also to customs and habits created by different cultres. Every civlization, and every tribe had it's own way with dealing with the death of the people important to the group. Whether it was a king, a chiefmen, a pope or a sage the culture determined how to deal with the tragedy. Much is said about the cultural dimensions of ICT in regards to multiculturalism, the democaracy and so on. This time I was able to see the way ICT is connected to the phenomena as old as mankind - grief and death, death and grief.
My previous post regarding the National Tragedy in Poland had a rather emotional than cognitive approach. I decided to write one of my posts about the reaction of the people on the crash and further events in the Internet and show that it is the most democratic medium nowadays.
In Poland the most popular messenger is a Polish program called Gadu Gadu. One can set a status regarding his emotions, or whatever he or she feels like it. After the crash in Smolensk the status of the majority of people (in my contacts at least) dealt with the current situation. There were once like “I can’t believe it” or “Tragedy”. However, very soon the owner of the service decided to earn some money from the recent events. In Gadu Gadu if you send a premium sms you can pick one of the graphic status (extra paid). Very soon some people decided to choose the one with “National Mourning”
However, unlike the Polish TV the Internet allowed all kind of emotions to be let out. And so one could see a status like “What’s all the fuzz about. They have a back up copy of the president”.
Now for my favorite medium, which is Facebook. Very soon after the crash groups and sites of the tragedy were created. Every comment that I have seen was rather balanced and full of reflection. But after the decision about choosing the Wawel castle as the place of the President’s funeral all hell broke loose.
The Wawel Castle in Cracow is the national pantheon in Poland, and president Kaczyński was not the most popular politician. Due to the Polish tradition that you shouldn’t talk bad things about a dead person no one in the TV, no matter public or private had the guts to say that Kaczyński was not a hero in the eyes of many Poles.
However, Facebook users seemed not to care about the political correctness and several “No to Kaczyński on Wawel” groups were created. More than 30000 people joined the group within few hours. They organized protests in the real world and had to be acknowledged by the media. Not only in Poland. All over the World.
ICT allowed something that was unthinkable few years ago, when the Pope John Paul II died. Back than with social networks being just emerging in the TV you could only hear praises and simply propaganda claiming that everyone in Poland was mourning. It was several months later that some people said that the parts of the interviews that claimed the Pope to be controversial were cut out of the tapes. Now Internet makes the society more pluralistic and even if you find the group “I didn’t cry after the Pope” something not proper you have to acknowledge it’s existence.
poniedziałek, 12 kwietnia 2010
The Polish Tragedy and ICT
The things are rather emotional right now in Poland. I think most of you know why. I do not want to focus on the grief itself nor the names nor the prognosis for the state. This blog is for ICT. And belive me it is a cyber-mourning.
When I woke up on Saturday and saw the news I picked up my mobile and tried to call my dear ones. It took my some time, the lines were dead. Too many people. To much calls. To much shock.
I turned on my computer and logged to Facebook. Everything worked there. Chat window.
"Tragedy", "Have you heard?", "I can't believe it". Those were the first lines, both in and out-comming...
Check the news, turn on communicators.
And than...
The most popular Polish Celeb-Gossip site:
http://www.pudelek.pl/artykul/24051/katastrofa_prezydenckiego_samolotu_lech_kaczynski_nie_zyje/
"Gossping is front of such a tragedy is not proper"
Polish "demotivators" are full of uploads regarding the tragedy. One of them states "My mother asked me if I heard, I said yes, I've seen the demotivators"
Facebook
[*]
Mourning groups (and "I am irritated when people show their grief in the Internet" group)
Tragedy Sites (Wanna become a fan? Or maybe just click on the "I like it" button)...
Added movies.
[*] [*]
Seen the photos.
Commented on some conspiracy theories (The russians did it, the secret service is to blame). Mourners and morons.
(*)
The status, the comments the digital candels.
The discussions - Will they open the stock on Monday? The quotes, the links to news sites...
Signs of the time...
Still I wish I could be in the crowd in Warsaw.
And not youtube it...
When I woke up on Saturday and saw the news I picked up my mobile and tried to call my dear ones. It took my some time, the lines were dead. Too many people. To much calls. To much shock.
I turned on my computer and logged to Facebook. Everything worked there. Chat window.
"Tragedy", "Have you heard?", "I can't believe it". Those were the first lines, both in and out-comming...
Check the news, turn on communicators.
And than...
The most popular Polish Celeb-Gossip site:
http://www.pudelek.pl/artykul/24051/katastrofa_prezydenckiego_samolotu_lech_kaczynski_nie_zyje/
"Gossping is front of such a tragedy is not proper"
Polish "demotivators" are full of uploads regarding the tragedy. One of them states "My mother asked me if I heard, I said yes, I've seen the demotivators"
[*]
Mourning groups (and "I am irritated when people show their grief in the Internet" group)
Tragedy Sites (Wanna become a fan? Or maybe just click on the "I like it" button)...
Added movies.
[*] [*]
Seen the photos.
Commented on some conspiracy theories (The russians did it, the secret service is to blame). Mourners and morons.
(*)
The status, the comments the digital candels.
The discussions - Will they open the stock on Monday? The quotes, the links to news sites...
Signs of the time...
Still I wish I could be in the crowd in Warsaw.
And not youtube it...
piątek, 19 lutego 2010
No 9. Information Society - implications for education and socialization (talking bout' a revolution)
Oh yes, the revolution... Digital, Virutal, Communist, Insurections, Liberté, égalité, fraternité... The first, the second, the new, the frontier...
In the texts provided by the course everything seems very nice (it is the goal of every revolution to makes thinks nice after all). However (IMHO), the aspect that is not stressed enough is the resistance towards the change.
You think I'm talking about the teachers? About their lack of motivation and getting stucked to "old way"... Well no...
I mean the students. OK, after their parents go to work, they are brougt up by Uncle Google and taken care of by Aunt Mozzilla or cousin Explorer but does it mean that they are keen on the new media in school?
Last semester I conducted a course in "Methodology of self-study". I didn't want my students to prepare a text for their finall project or a PowerPoint presentation. The first would collect dust in the archive, the second would be burried on a CD. I wanted them to prepare a short movie related to the subjects covered by the course and post it on youtube. The goal was to prepare something that would be usefull for a person who looks for materials about the human brain, fast learning techniques etc... Edutainment please....
I was shocked when a big group of students said that they would preffer THE OLD WAY. The Folk said no to the revolution - bring back the emperor, away with the parlament.
Maybe it was very autorative of me (yeah it was) but having the power I decided to enlighten them (narcissism on my side right) and bring them happiness even against their will (talking bout a revolution).
When the time for the submission of their projects came, I made quite a revolutionary (i like that word today) discovery. The students who durring the class were rather lame made really nice movies - vivid, amusing, interesting. But the ones who were always prepared, read the texts made movies that were more of a lecture than a movie.
As in every revolution, the ones who were on the top of the ladder before have some hard time adjusting to the new situation. The ones who were already ahead are ok.
But what are you going to do when it comes to giving grades? Punish those oldfashioned? Give them some time to adjust?
As every revolution before, the revolution brought to the Education by ICT will need some time to become the regular way. What will happen next? Will it be remembered as the revolution of 1989 in Poland? that brought us to the times of democracy? Or maybe like the Revolution in Russia, that despite nice slogans brought only terror? Or maybe it will be the French way? Great ideas and let's celebrate it despite the quite a big number of cut heads on the way?
Here are two movies that I really liked, both given the maximum grade... Sorry guys they are both in Polish... However the first one doesn't have to many text and it's about the difference in being in High School and at the University. The second one is on the brain (quite a nice thing). Mind you, how different they are in techniques. The first one is well made, the second one was recorded with a mobile phone camera pointed at a PP presentation). Enjoy and feel free to comment:
wtorek, 2 lutego 2010
No8 (Education, new media and the concept of a stage)
If University is a stage than I would like to be a comic relief...
Like Wittgenstein said: "A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes."
But seriously ("where's the booze"):
In the concept of the stage I'm an actor, my students are the audience.
Ach ja oder nicht nicht?
In the concept of the stage my students are actors, I'm the audience.
Ach ja oder nicht nicht?
Both true to my opinion. I try to start with a stand up comedy, do a bit of drama and than encourage them to improvise on their own. Let's call it a performance:)
Sometimes my script is well written, sometimes I just have some basic goals and try to see what comes, what the audience likes... I try to create myself and to influence their parts.
Sometimes the audience plays their parts too. The are well known ones like: Cute Idiot (who in fact is smart as hell but knows that being soooo cute should bring profits), the Rebel (OK so I am here but do not think for a second that I'm going to enjoy a single minute at the University), the Nerd (oh please stop trying to be amusing and give me some reading), the Fool-Challenger (Let's see who's smarter and more funny) and so on...
If me and them are the audience and acotrs, the classroom is the stage then what is new media?
IMHO we could compare it to FX, visual effects, blue(green)screen. Such an act would allow us to see further analogies:
FX/New Media
- do not carry any meaning on their own
- can make a movie/class more attractive
- can be used too often and make the message superficial
- are not essential for a good movie/class
We all know classic and even quite new movies which are shocking although the effects are not used (e.g. I was terrified while watching Blair Witch Project) on the other hand we have movies like 2012 which would unbearable without new technology... Same is with classes/education.
Maybe education should follow the path of Avatar? Take some basic message the one that so many people have seen in Pocahontas and other pop-culture pieces, give it some bells and whistles and enjoy the praises. Maybe the new generation would find it revolutionary?
Technological determinism? The young ones are not able to focus if something is not NEW SPARKLY FLASHY?
Should we put Freud's theories into youtube movies and Aristotle's ethics to flash games?
Should we be shocked to do so?
I always considered myself to be pragmatic:)
Like Wittgenstein said: "A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes."
But seriously ("where's the booze"):
In the concept of the stage I'm an actor, my students are the audience.
Ach ja oder nicht nicht?
In the concept of the stage my students are actors, I'm the audience.
Ach ja oder nicht nicht?
Both true to my opinion. I try to start with a stand up comedy, do a bit of drama and than encourage them to improvise on their own. Let's call it a performance:)
Sometimes my script is well written, sometimes I just have some basic goals and try to see what comes, what the audience likes... I try to create myself and to influence their parts.
Sometimes the audience plays their parts too. The are well known ones like: Cute Idiot (who in fact is smart as hell but knows that being soooo cute should bring profits), the Rebel (OK so I am here but do not think for a second that I'm going to enjoy a single minute at the University), the Nerd (oh please stop trying to be amusing and give me some reading), the Fool-Challenger (Let's see who's smarter and more funny) and so on...
If me and them are the audience and acotrs, the classroom is the stage then what is new media?
IMHO we could compare it to FX, visual effects, blue(green)screen. Such an act would allow us to see further analogies:
FX/New Media
- do not carry any meaning on their own
- can make a movie/class more attractive
- can be used too often and make the message superficial
- are not essential for a good movie/class
We all know classic and even quite new movies which are shocking although the effects are not used (e.g. I was terrified while watching Blair Witch Project) on the other hand we have movies like 2012 which would unbearable without new technology... Same is with classes/education.
Maybe education should follow the path of Avatar? Take some basic message the one that so many people have seen in Pocahontas and other pop-culture pieces, give it some bells and whistles and enjoy the praises. Maybe the new generation would find it revolutionary?
Technological determinism? The young ones are not able to focus if something is not NEW SPARKLY FLASHY?
Should we put Freud's theories into youtube movies and Aristotle's ethics to flash games?
Should we be shocked to do so?
I always considered myself to be pragmatic:)
poniedziałek, 1 lutego 2010
No7
Beata asked me what do I think about this lecture:
The truth is... I love it!
It requires your attention for the entire 10 minutes. One may say that it's only 10 minutes. True... we could make quite a decent piece of academic 90minutes-borring-to-death-lecture out of it... The topic itself would not allowed it to be borring? One of my friends gave a 1,5h presentation on the sexual liberty in 18th Century France with some explicit picutres... I almost felt asleep...
The problem is in my opinion that many great scholars and scientist are poor teachers. Changing a lecture to a multimedia powerpoint presentantion will not profit to greater attention of the students without teaching the teachers how to teach. The sharpest sword is just a big kitchen knife in a hands of a Stepford Wife...
And honestly, can you imagine the "when I was a student" professor to show a cartoon during his class? He is a scholar (behave yourself young man)!
I consider myself to be already a part of that "FLASH" generation which attention span is to be compared with a gold fish... We need stimuli, sensetions more and more (and more and more)...
Just like "I could eat an entire Galaxy" Jean "Phoenix" Grey...
The truth is... I love it!
It requires your attention for the entire 10 minutes. One may say that it's only 10 minutes. True... we could make quite a decent piece of academic 90minutes-borring-to-death-lecture out of it... The topic itself would not allowed it to be borring? One of my friends gave a 1,5h presentation on the sexual liberty in 18th Century France with some explicit picutres... I almost felt asleep...
The problem is in my opinion that many great scholars and scientist are poor teachers. Changing a lecture to a multimedia powerpoint presentantion will not profit to greater attention of the students without teaching the teachers how to teach. The sharpest sword is just a big kitchen knife in a hands of a Stepford Wife...
And honestly, can you imagine the "when I was a student" professor to show a cartoon during his class? He is a scholar (behave yourself young man)!
I consider myself to be already a part of that "FLASH" generation which attention span is to be compared with a gold fish... We need stimuli, sensetions more and more (and more and more)...
Just like "I could eat an entire Galaxy" Jean "Phoenix" Grey...
piątek, 29 stycznia 2010
No6
ICT has got many advantages - that's a cliche. To say that the University is a union of people is also a cliche. The question is what is the relation between those two statements?
In the XXI Century we will, like it or not, rely more and more on technology. We will e-learn, e-work, e-meet, e-love, e-desire, e-fuck (e-provoke).
Let's get back in time to the year 1968 for a sec - Imagine the crowd of students demonstrating on the streets of Paris. Listen to what they shout, see the way they hug, hold their hands, sing, walk, fight the police. Revolution.
Now imagine them in the year 2010 - joining a protest group on facebook. Period.
You may say that they can meet in the real world. You may say that they may influence the authorities by signing an e-petition. But does it have the same meaning?
For me the Univeristy is not only a virtual union of people but also the place, the space of the buildings and parks around the university grounds that allows them to unite. The university is the place where I can listen to the students talks when I pass them by, a place where we meet in front of the coffe machine and a place where we (how ancient of me) ask each other to barrow a lighter in the smoking area.
Can one expect a revolution that can be 'shut down' from our eyes with few clicks to be more than superficial? It's way harder to turn your eyes away from the bricks. Still.
Not to be to bombastic let me finish with an example (not from the University but from the High School).
Being rebelious, resistant, nonnormative is essential for me in case of making the world a nicer place to live in.
Can you imagine this scene to happen online? It's the last episode of 1st season of the tv-series Popular. The story is that the teacher sends photos of one of the classes to all the places that they could go to during the "skip day" (last day of school) and informs the police of their planns. So as the only group they have to stay at school. Why they start to sing is yet another story...
In the XXI Century we will, like it or not, rely more and more on technology. We will e-learn, e-work, e-meet, e-love, e-desire, e-fuck (e-provoke).
Let's get back in time to the year 1968 for a sec - Imagine the crowd of students demonstrating on the streets of Paris. Listen to what they shout, see the way they hug, hold their hands, sing, walk, fight the police. Revolution.
Now imagine them in the year 2010 - joining a protest group on facebook. Period.
You may say that they can meet in the real world. You may say that they may influence the authorities by signing an e-petition. But does it have the same meaning?
For me the Univeristy is not only a virtual union of people but also the place, the space of the buildings and parks around the university grounds that allows them to unite. The university is the place where I can listen to the students talks when I pass them by, a place where we meet in front of the coffe machine and a place where we (how ancient of me) ask each other to barrow a lighter in the smoking area.
Can one expect a revolution that can be 'shut down' from our eyes with few clicks to be more than superficial? It's way harder to turn your eyes away from the bricks. Still.
Not to be to bombastic let me finish with an example (not from the University but from the High School).
Being rebelious, resistant, nonnormative is essential for me in case of making the world a nicer place to live in.
Can you imagine this scene to happen online? It's the last episode of 1st season of the tv-series Popular. The story is that the teacher sends photos of one of the classes to all the places that they could go to during the "skip day" (last day of school) and informs the police of their planns. So as the only group they have to stay at school. Why they start to sing is yet another story...
No5
I'm one of the people who hated lectures. Listening to a person talking for 90 minutes, usually with no visual aids and poor charisma, made me think about everything except the topic presented.
However, I was lucky enough to come across some academic teachers who durning those 90 minutes were able to make me think in a way that would seem impossible before.
One of those teachers had a course in Amercian Literature and Movies. The way she opened minds is still (and for a long time will be) an ultimate goal in my work with students.
Getting rid of prejudice, stereotypes and intelectual laziness (comfort?) if happened in my case, happened mostly thanks to her.
So, if you want to, forget all the bad things you think about popular culture, non-normative behaviour, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or whatever and simply enjoy one of the most beautiful love songs (in my opinion):
Buffy - Tara/Willow - Under your spell - MyVideo
However, I was lucky enough to come across some academic teachers who durning those 90 minutes were able to make me think in a way that would seem impossible before.
One of those teachers had a course in Amercian Literature and Movies. The way she opened minds is still (and for a long time will be) an ultimate goal in my work with students.
Getting rid of prejudice, stereotypes and intelectual laziness (comfort?) if happened in my case, happened mostly thanks to her.
So, if you want to, forget all the bad things you think about popular culture, non-normative behaviour, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or whatever and simply enjoy one of the most beautiful love songs (in my opinion):
Buffy - Tara/Willow - Under your spell - MyVideo
No4
OK, so this is a clip from one of my favourite TV-shows... Funny thing is that now I find it even more amusing (real?)
No3
For the majority of the students from my science club, today is the last exam in the winter semester. Lame as it may sound, I hope that they will pass the Philosophy Course... (Curse?). Would be a shame for them to drop out. Especially (Mainly?) that I need them for some future projects :)
Subskrybuj:
Komentarze (Atom)