Just getting a chance to read about the alleged copyright treaty that was recently ‘leaked’. Boing Boing talked about it a couple of days ago. If this is all true, this legislation coupled with discussions of net-neutrality discussions should really draw our attention to what many have been discussing for years-what does this mean for the 2.0-ness of the web? What does it mean for activism and voice? What does this mean for knowledge production and dissemination?

Along these lines, here is a great jump off resource for educators. This is something I think about a lot as a great deal of my research and teaching involves asking students to produce work from a variety of sources-a majority coming from the internet and other ‘already produced’ material.

From their website:

“MNet is a Canadian non-profit organization that has been pioneering the development of media and digital literacy programs since its incorporation in 1996. Members of our team have backgrounds in education, journalism, mass communications and cultural policy. Working out of Ottawa, we promote media and digital literacy by producing education and awareness programs and resources, working in partnership with Canadian and international organizations, and speaking to audiences across Canada and around the world.”

 

This site provide great resources for teachers and parents around a variety of media and technology related issues and themes. If you’re just getting started thinking about media literacy and the associated curricular, social and cultural tie-ins, this is a great places to start. The site is in French, as well.

Found this article a little while ago and recently went back over it while thinking through some writing I’m doing. Very interesting discussions of the challenges with technology-student lack of concentration, discourteous behavior, cheating. Makes me think about work that looks at how we conceptualize what knowledge and technology use is. I’m not excusing the above behaviors. I am just wondering about the larger school-classroom culture shifts that need to occur as what it means to write, learn with and use technology evolves and and morphs across contexts (e. g. out-of-school culture, in-school culture). In other words, as Doreen Starke-Meyerring (see blog roll) puts it, “what are the material realities of writing in digital environments?” How will our comfortable traditional literacy and learning cultures need to shift to meet the challenges and affordances of the so-called millenials”?

I know this is a white paper but it raises some interesting points. In 2003 (and I’m sure subsequent ones have been done) England put out their own white paper and comparing the two is an interesting exercise in idea developments over 5 years. Check out a recent response to the paper from University Vocational Awards Council, also.

Also, I was very interested in the discussion of distance education and the example university- Open University of Catalonia, Spain. The website front page (of the English site) alone drew me in. How often to you see a person balancing a child on their leg as they do work on their computer…on the front page of a university website. Yes, I see it with my friends and family who are doing this and other balancing acts to be in school–but they don’t see themselves on the front page of their school’s website. This image, of course strategic, seems to be well aligned with the school’s mission and target populations (see Economist article-and yes, I know that was the point of the image, but it does send a message…one that I haven’t see very often). Of course, I don’t know anything about the school other than what I have read in the Economist report and what I see on the website. I am excited to check it out in more detail.

Update: Here’s Athabasca University in Canada. Check out their example courses. I’m trying to solve the crime for the Psychology of Criminal Behavior course.

Instructional models for online and/or distance learning interest me. I know distance learning is a very old concept-I’d connect it to correspondence courses-but I’m just getting into in in a more nuanced way.

What I am most interested in is the call for education that is inclusive of all people regardless of social economics, ethnicity, ability, age, sexuality, gender, etc is becoming more wide-spread in technology circles. Distance education is thought to be a way for this inclusive education to occur.

So, what is happening on this front? Who is being served by online distance education (I join others and place emphasis on mobile technologies in distance education)? Who is not? What kinds of educational experiences are needed in the various contexts? Since education is so context driven, how can we know that online distance education is heading in the right direction? I ask these questions not as critiques but as genuine questions more aimed at interrogating my own work and making sure I can place it in a lager overall context of global discussions of inclusion. Where do we see ‘education’ being in the future? And who will get to participate? Who will the new exclusions be? Who will continue to be excluded? What exclusions does online distance education address? What exclusions are amplified?

Future-of-Higher-Ed-(NMC)

Application done.  Back to diss chapters. 2 by Dec. 1. My goal.

I’m re-posting this from a few days ago. If you’re in the Montreal area, check this out. Alan Wong is a good friend and his work is outstanding.

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From the website: “Remembering War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations: Oral History, New Media and the Arts is a three-day interdisciplinary conference co-organized by the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and the Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations project (www.lifestoriesmontreal.ca), an ambitious five year Community University Research Alliance (CURA). This conference seeks to bring scholars, artists, professionals and community-based researchers together to promote deep engagement with life stories that contain or are defined by experiences of mass human rights violations. Its guiding principle is a sincere commitment to public engagement.”

One of my all time favorite dramas of any genre. My little brother and I listened in one evening and it turned out that our favorite show, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, was not to be aired that night in favor of some show by a guy named Orson Welles [yes-we were/are nerds]. We decided to give this show a listen and see what it was all about*.

We were GLUED to the radio like I’m sure people were years before even our parents were born. It was soo good. And we got..nervous. I won’t go so far as to say scared…I mean, it was about 50 years after the initial broadcast when we were listening to it. We knew it was fake-the announcer introduced it as fake. It was fake. Right. Right?

And since we were in Somerset, NJ at the time, as soon as we heard that they were taking us to “Carl Phillip’s lab in Princeton, NJ”, we were stoked–this was all happening just down the road from us! I mean, the setting was down the road from us, cuz this was fake.

I’ve used this drama several times in classes that I’ve taught to introduce a variety of subjects, genres, and conventions. My latest discussion with a couple of of this drama related the “Balloon Boy” hoax.

Anyway. Enjoy and watch out for “meteoi of unusual sizes”…this is Dana speaking…I’m returning you now to my application whose deadline draweth nigh.

*The Old Time Radio Fan is one of my favorite radio drama websites. I’ve used it for years and just love the programs they have. I’ve found that when I introduce students to these shows, they end up really liking this medium and are fascinated by the technology that created these shows. I always end by telling them that today’s Soap Opera’s came from these shows…and as soon as they hear why we call them “soap operas”, we have great conversations about equivalent mediums, evolving names of technologies, advertising, role of literacies and technologies in communities and culture, and the role of hoax’s in culture. I bring it on back to ‘new literacy’ discussions to talk about entrenched established literacy practices…

This is a great great post by danah boyd (I posed a video of her last week). Everything she mentions I have had to think about during my doctorate. I’m ABD now and still learning. Of course everyone’s experience varies, but this is an excellent list of advice for beginning to think about getting your Phd.

I’ll add three areas I wish I had known about:

1. As a woman, I have had interesting conversations about the ‘role’ of women in academe, balance, and what kind of academic I’m going to choose to be (“you’re only allowed to be one of three: the mother, the flirt, or the witch”- I changed the last two to more their more PG synonyms). As a woman beginning to think about getting your Phd, I’d recommend two books:

a. Women in Academe: The Unfinished Agenda, edited by Judith Glazer-Raymo. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 2008. (I’d recommend these books for men, too, honestly.)

b. Women Writing the Academy: Audience, Authority and Transformation by Gesa Kirsch.

2. Taking a look at the the overall lay of the land post doctorate is crucial and something I didn’t do. Stepping back and, as a person of color and ally with others, looking at trends, demographics, local and global challenges and possibilities, and analyzing long-term issues and successes for historically marginalized people has greatly helped me keep a community and global focus to my work. Getting a Phd can be a very isolating process where you focus on your work, at your desk, in your office. But it’s important to keep in mind our purpose-our goal. Here is a great resource that I have used to begin thinking along these lines. (Source 1)

3. I’ll keep this one simple: build community where ever you are. Now, I know some people like doing things on their own and that’s great. I’m not one of those people. I can’t honestly say I ever didn’t anything ‘on my own’. Someone came before me and paved the way. What am I doing to the ones who come after me? Building community doesn’t have to be a grand sweeping gesture-it can be smiling when you’re in the hall. Remembering the names of and meaningfully talking to the person who comes into your office everyday and empties your trash. Attending a colleague’s research talk–(on a subject you don’t or care about and on by a colleague you don’t even know)–send them an email after saying one thing you learned and wish them luck. It’s the little things. And these little gestures saved my sanity while going through some interesting times in grad school. I also believe it has made be a better person and academic.

Ok. Stepping off soapbox…and into my office. To write. Alone.

I remember when Baby Einstein came out. My mom laughed and told me, “I didn’t let you two [my little brother and I] watch tv until you were in school [my note: and even then it was rationed]. Till then, we all talked, you played, cooked, we talked, pretended to read, we talked and we talked. You didn’t stop talking and we encouraged it.  We didn’t use baby-talk and videos aren’t babysitters.”

Recently she reminded me of my childhood as she listened to me talk about my research and said, “new technology isn’t a babysitter, either.”

Not making mom out to be prophet. She just came to mind as I read that Disney will be giving out refunds for Baby Einstein. (Source 2, Source 3)

Something to keep in mind as I contextualize and theorize my research. I’m reminded of Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology…

I’m starting a new weekly series called “This week in research…”

Saw this post in the NYTimes. Thought it was interesting but had some issues with some assertions, so I decided to look some of them up from information sources I trust. Nothing fancy but this exercise made me think about finding and reading quotes and references in their context. More on that in a later post.

Anyway, I started here.

Then ended up here.

In this series I’ll be showcasing the research of people I have worked with from a variety of field. I’ll post interviews, comments, audio clips, videos, etc from these folks and make liks to their work available. I will also be starting a page dedicated to  this series where you can find this histories of these series. I’ll announce the first showcase on Thursday, October 29, 2009.

End of quote.

ps: Thanks to folks who’ve emailed and said they read my blog but don’t comment. No worries about commenting but if you do feel the itch, go ahead and write. It’s good to know I’m not talking to myself.

People ask me what information literacy is and why do we call it a form of literacy-especially as it relates to in-school learning for students. Some of the best ways I’ve been able to explain it has been through examples of how being able to find, sift through, analyze, correlate, corroborate, extend, synthesize and explain vast amounts of the information that comes at us is a hugely important “skill”. (A google search reveals how many people have talked about this topic. The paper I most often refer folks to is the one by Henry Jenkins from 2006. He as a new one that came out in 2009.) danah boyd also does informative related work in this area:

I think information literacy is a very important “skill” to have and a key component to teaching–but, this is not new. Or is it? Again, I’m thinking of Lankshear and Knoble’s discussion of a “new ethos” to determine what’s new and what “new”.

Another point that must be considered seriously and with a hands-on manner is how to we teach this form of literacy within the existing public school curriculums? It’s not just about teaching something in a class, it must be bridged into the everyday experiences of both the teachers and students and surrounding school community. Disjointed literacy practices create spaces for manipulation (especially when we are graping for anything that fits a pre-formed idea that we have). Literacy is social practice. Information literacy is social practice.

This has me thinking…there a connection between the disjointed-or de-contextualized-practices, the role of the hoax in society and government and transmedia storytelling and entertainment (been reading the readings that Jenkins listed)…I gotta keep working on this….

And I’m on a deadline. Gotta go.

Came across this blog recently. I’ve been meaning to link to it. Great work being done-this link contains a fantastic reference list that John Postill put together on online worlds and social networking. Please check out the entire site!

And speaking of anthropology and digital technologies, make sure you check this work out: Digital Ethnography .