Hello again! I'm happy to announce that's only Wednesday and I've already been through all the contents of Week 4 :). It was a holiday today in Argentina and that helped a lot, but I also intended to read all texts and watch all videos early during the week, so I could devote the weekend to working on the final project.
I think I'll probably be doing a Prezi presentation. And I've already written down some ideas for it. I guess the question I'll be working with is Can education be enhanced by technology?, fosucing on what education is and what is not (which I'll start to discuss by the end of this post). I'm not trying to actually answer this, but to pose new questions and suggest some ideas, using different languages (pictures, text, videos). A little bit like the mural I prepared for Week 3.
As for week 4, it focuses on posthumanist and transhumanist theories. Transhumanism, unlike humanism and posthumanism, has been a new concept to me. As Hayes summarizes, transhumanism "...is an international movement
dedicated to the proposition that contemporary technosciences can
enhance human capabilities and ameliorate or eliminate such traditional
verities as mortality. It holds that human evolution is incomplete and,
moreover, that we have a responsibility to further our evolution through
technology." It inmediately makes me think of sci-fi, and I guess it is inevitable. But actually us humans have enhanced our capabilities through technology in many simple ways. Just think about everyday devices such as glasses, or even writing --which, even when it doesn't seem so, is, as Ong suggests, a technology--.
To be honest, transhumanism ideals and objectives --or maybe the means they suggest to achieve them-- seem a little scary to me and I feel naturally inclined to reject them. But I do understand that they address some core fears of mankind: the fear of aging and death, mainly. And, in fact, as Hayles suggests, transhumanism is not really opposed to humanism, but based on some of its principles, such as rationality, scientific progress and individual freedom.
Now I completely agree with the idea that "human" is a social category, not only a biological or philosophical one. How we define as distinctly 'human' may change from one society to other, from a point in history to another one. And "education" is another social category. So, we might ask ourselves, what is education for a transhumanist point of view? It seems that, for a transhumanist, society can take control of technology and use it to enhance ourselves so as to learn more, or maybe better. But if that enhancement just means inserting microchips or USBs in our brains in order to copy into into large masses of information, or inserting some mega Google search engine in our heads, then I don't think learning means for them what it means for me. Learning is (not only) about adquiring lots and lots of information, but about analizing and criticising this information and turning it into knowledge. Learning is not about repeating what other say, but about discussing with others, exchinging ideas and points of view and transforming our life, society and reality through knowledge. While easy access to information might be helpful to learn more and better, it is not enough. And, though we can do many things to make it easier for learning to take place, we can't exactly control it.
We've been discussing the classroom metaphor for learning in the forums (and I've written about it in this blog). Classrooms aren't certainly the only places where we learn. Think about how much you've learned during your life outside a classroom or outside any educational institution. We learn by connecting with others, we might learn while watching a movie or reading a book, in a class at school or while taking a MOOC. It is not only about the content or the technology, but about how we conect and interact with that content.
These are the main conclusions or connections I am reaching after these 4 weeks. So that's what my artifact will be about... We'll see what I can come up with.
miércoles, 20 de febrero de 2013
domingo, 17 de febrero de 2013
#EDCMOOC Week 2: Looking at the future
Hello again! I didn't write any entry last week (though I was posting at the forums and social networks, as I was travelling during the weekend, I didn't have the time to write in the blog).
I liked having a core reading about the metaphors of the Internet for week 2. As a Communications student, I've read a lot about metaphors and I really like Lakoff and Johnson's work, on which Johnston's text is based. I do believe metaphors are powerful because they shape the way we think about us and the world and, thus, the way we act.
Let's think about technology. In Sight, the metaphor depicting technology is that it (as well as life) is just a game. There's no doubt games can be fun and a useful tool for learning. But, as Jamie Leigh McDaniel says in one of the forums, "maybe what a game does is isolate one goal or objective we might have in life and allow us to work towards that goal without being distracted by other considerations, or the real complexity of our experience.The Sight Guy chops the cucumber, he doesn't think about his hunger, the taste or smell of the food. He plays his Dating Game, he doesn't think about the woman as a free and autonomous being. We play Monopoly and try and amass money, we don't think about the moral implications of the global distribution of wealth." In a similar way, metaphors help us to understand life by comparing new things to other thinks we already know. It justs isolates some characteristics while it forgets about others. But that comparison is never complete or completely accurate. In some ways, life is similar to a game, but not in others. By making the world easier to understand, metaphors can be helpful, but they can also make us see the world from a simplistic point of view and even confuse us.
In Charlie 13, technologies are means of control. Charlie needs to expell the chip out of his body to be free. But can technology also set us free? What about this video? Can a car --a technological device-- help us break out of an artificial, unhuman world and into reality? Can technology help us to learn and set us free from the boundaries of paid education? Not always, not completely... As any other metaphor, 'technology is freedom' or 'technology is control' are partial and limited.
I would say it's not about technology, but about the way we use it, but that would be thinking of tech as neutral. Technology does use us at the same time we use it. And in this creative and sometimes confusing interaction (with technology and with others through technology), learning might ocurr. As Gardner Campbell says, "Beyond access and cost, 'open education' shouldn't be just 'open', but 'opening'."
I liked having a core reading about the metaphors of the Internet for week 2. As a Communications student, I've read a lot about metaphors and I really like Lakoff and Johnson's work, on which Johnston's text is based. I do believe metaphors are powerful because they shape the way we think about us and the world and, thus, the way we act.
Let's think about technology. In Sight, the metaphor depicting technology is that it (as well as life) is just a game. There's no doubt games can be fun and a useful tool for learning. But, as Jamie Leigh McDaniel says in one of the forums, "maybe what a game does is isolate one goal or objective we might have in life and allow us to work towards that goal without being distracted by other considerations, or the real complexity of our experience.The Sight Guy chops the cucumber, he doesn't think about his hunger, the taste or smell of the food. He plays his Dating Game, he doesn't think about the woman as a free and autonomous being. We play Monopoly and try and amass money, we don't think about the moral implications of the global distribution of wealth." In a similar way, metaphors help us to understand life by comparing new things to other thinks we already know. It justs isolates some characteristics while it forgets about others. But that comparison is never complete or completely accurate. In some ways, life is similar to a game, but not in others. By making the world easier to understand, metaphors can be helpful, but they can also make us see the world from a simplistic point of view and even confuse us.
In Charlie 13, technologies are means of control. Charlie needs to expell the chip out of his body to be free. But can technology also set us free? What about this video? Can a car --a technological device-- help us break out of an artificial, unhuman world and into reality? Can technology help us to learn and set us free from the boundaries of paid education? Not always, not completely... As any other metaphor, 'technology is freedom' or 'technology is control' are partial and limited.
I would say it's not about technology, but about the way we use it, but that would be thinking of tech as neutral. Technology does use us at the same time we use it. And in this creative and sometimes confusing interaction (with technology and with others through technology), learning might ocurr. As Gardner Campbell says, "Beyond access and cost, 'open education' shouldn't be just 'open', but 'opening'."
#EDCMOOC Week 3: Reasserting the human
This week's topic --humanism and defining humanity-- is most interesting to me. I've already discussed it during one of my courses at university, but I hadn't thought of it in connection to digital culture and education in general.
I've tried something different this time. I've created a mural using mural.ly, which I thought could also be a way to start practising for the course's final project.
So you can find my digital artifact here. It poses more questions than answers about the meaning of being human and how education can (or can't) make us human. But I guess no one has a final answer about this topic anyway.
I've tried something different this time. I've created a mural using mural.ly, which I thought could also be a way to start practising for the course's final project.
So you can find my digital artifact here. It poses more questions than answers about the meaning of being human and how education can (or can't) make us human. But I guess no one has a final answer about this topic anyway.
About loneliness, time management and the challenges of MOOCs
Here I am again! It seems it's been a long time since I last wrote here. I've just been posting in the course forums and commenting in the Facebook and G+ groups lately (a four-day holiday abroad and a very busy week at work certainly did not help). But, hey, there are just so many ways of participating in a MOOC and they are all valid. And, most importantly, there's no one watching, no one's assessing what you are doing, no teacher controlling your learning experience. So what or who I am doing this for? Certainly not for the teachers, but for myself I guess? MOOCs are quite a different way of learning and it does feel funny, mainly because you're not getting any teacher's feedback(and sometimes not even the other students'). So sometimes it does feel like a monologue. But I must admit that I do feel I'm learning and I find the course content most interesting.
Time management is another challenge. Yes, you could expend only 3-5 hours a week in this course if you just go through the weekly resources and limit yourself to leave one or two comments in the forums, and write a simple entry on your blog. But web 2.0 is absorbing and in the end you realize that you've maybe spent a whole day surfing the net. There are no time boundaries, there's so much to read and see. But, of course, the time you devote the MOOC is also competing with the time you devote to your friends, boyfriend, family, full-time job or your thesis writing process. Nobody said this would be easy, of course, but also nobody could have predicted how intriguing and interesting the experience could be (even when it feels confusing, lonely or overwhelming sometimes.)
Time management is another challenge. Yes, you could expend only 3-5 hours a week in this course if you just go through the weekly resources and limit yourself to leave one or two comments in the forums, and write a simple entry on your blog. But web 2.0 is absorbing and in the end you realize that you've maybe spent a whole day surfing the net. There are no time boundaries, there's so much to read and see. But, of course, the time you devote the MOOC is also competing with the time you devote to your friends, boyfriend, family, full-time job or your thesis writing process. Nobody said this would be easy, of course, but also nobody could have predicted how intriguing and interesting the experience could be (even when it feels confusing, lonely or overwhelming sometimes.)
domingo, 3 de febrero de 2013
#EDCMOOC Week 1: Looking at the past
Hello again! After introducing myself, I'm ready to start writing about Week 1 contents, focused on utopian and dystopian claims about technoloy and digital culture.
I guess the main reading for this week is Chandler's text, an introduction to technological determinism. I think it is quite necessary to discuss this concept, because utopias and dystopias about technology are based on the idea that technology can actually change society and our lives (a deterministic idea), either for the good or for the bad. The videos presented this week help to illustrate this idea. New media (nice to find an Argentinian video on the list!), with its sci-fi echoes, is probably the most pesimistic one (machines destroying the city of La Plata, while humans can just watch); while Inbox might be the most optmistic, as it shows the way technology can connect people, thus providing them with a means of communication (do not forget that connecting and communicating are two different things). Bendito machine III (a most interesting video) also displays a dystopian view on technology, dealing with many classical issues: the connections between religion and technology (humans can end up worshipping technological devices as if they were gods), the way new devices replace former ones, and even e-waste. Finally, I think Thursday shows the way humans, animals, technological devices are connected in a complex network of intertwined causes and consequences in which there's no place for determinism. Here I agree. I don't believe technology on its own can change anything, for technology is created within a society and it is conditioned (though never determined) by it.
Other authors, however, believe that technology is neutral and neither do I agree with this idea. Technology as a unique factor can't change our lives, but neither is it a mere instrument we can use in any way we choose. I've always liked the idea that we can't use technology without being somehow used and changed by it, we can't simply control all the outcomes. I think this is also true when using technology with educational purposes: we can only try to predict and imagine what students will do with the digital tools we are introducing, but we can never know for sure what will actually happen.
I've also found Prensky's article quite interesting (even when I don't agree with it). I've never liked the digital natives/digital inmigrants concepts, because I think they are deterministic and way too simplistic. Our relationship with technology doesn't only depend on age and generations, but on many other factors: you can easily find children and teenagers that hate computers and don't know how to use them, and middle aged people who are real geeks. I think the main challenge we face when studying digital cultures and their impact on education is to avoid simplification as well as technological determinism. What do you think? :)
I guess the main reading for this week is Chandler's text, an introduction to technological determinism. I think it is quite necessary to discuss this concept, because utopias and dystopias about technology are based on the idea that technology can actually change society and our lives (a deterministic idea), either for the good or for the bad. The videos presented this week help to illustrate this idea. New media (nice to find an Argentinian video on the list!), with its sci-fi echoes, is probably the most pesimistic one (machines destroying the city of La Plata, while humans can just watch); while Inbox might be the most optmistic, as it shows the way technology can connect people, thus providing them with a means of communication (do not forget that connecting and communicating are two different things). Bendito machine III (a most interesting video) also displays a dystopian view on technology, dealing with many classical issues: the connections between religion and technology (humans can end up worshipping technological devices as if they were gods), the way new devices replace former ones, and even e-waste. Finally, I think Thursday shows the way humans, animals, technological devices are connected in a complex network of intertwined causes and consequences in which there's no place for determinism. Here I agree. I don't believe technology on its own can change anything, for technology is created within a society and it is conditioned (though never determined) by it.
Other authors, however, believe that technology is neutral and neither do I agree with this idea. Technology as a unique factor can't change our lives, but neither is it a mere instrument we can use in any way we choose. I've always liked the idea that we can't use technology without being somehow used and changed by it, we can't simply control all the outcomes. I think this is also true when using technology with educational purposes: we can only try to predict and imagine what students will do with the digital tools we are introducing, but we can never know for sure what will actually happen.
I've also found Prensky's article quite interesting (even when I don't agree with it). I've never liked the digital natives/digital inmigrants concepts, because I think they are deterministic and way too simplistic. Our relationship with technology doesn't only depend on age and generations, but on many other factors: you can easily find children and teenagers that hate computers and don't know how to use them, and middle aged people who are real geeks. I think the main challenge we face when studying digital cultures and their impact on education is to avoid simplification as well as technological determinism. What do you think? :)
#EDCMOOC Welcome!
Hello everyone! Emilia here, reporting from Buenos Aires, Argentina :)
Coursera's E-learning and digital cultures is my first MOOC and this is my first blog entry on this course. #EDCMOOC, however, is not the first online course I've ever done (I've taken several ones covering technology and education issues, all of them free and offered by the University of Buenos Aires and this is, by the way, the blog I created to complete the activities of those courses), but a MOOC is quite a different thing, I guess, mainly because it's massive (which makes it overwhelming and scary at times, but also thrilling and exciting, as there is just too much to see and read). So I am here not only to learng abuot e-learning and digital cultures, but also to find out what a MOOC is and to see if (and how) it works for me.
Actually I have enrolled on two courses starting on the very same date: this EDMOOC and Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application. During this week, I've been exploring both of them, trying to decide whether I'll really do both of them (the workload, especially for Fundamentals...seemed too much for me, far too many tasks and lectures to complete). But after some really serious technical glitches and many awfull planning issues, Fundamentals... has been suspended, so here I am, diving fully into EDMOOC!
This is just a welcome post, but I've already been over all the materials for week 1, so I'll just start a new blog entry to cover my ideas on the videos and texts.
See you around!
Coursera's E-learning and digital cultures is my first MOOC and this is my first blog entry on this course. #EDCMOOC, however, is not the first online course I've ever done (I've taken several ones covering technology and education issues, all of them free and offered by the University of Buenos Aires and this is, by the way, the blog I created to complete the activities of those courses), but a MOOC is quite a different thing, I guess, mainly because it's massive (which makes it overwhelming and scary at times, but also thrilling and exciting, as there is just too much to see and read). So I am here not only to learng abuot e-learning and digital cultures, but also to find out what a MOOC is and to see if (and how) it works for me.
Actually I have enrolled on two courses starting on the very same date: this EDMOOC and Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application. During this week, I've been exploring both of them, trying to decide whether I'll really do both of them (the workload, especially for Fundamentals...seemed too much for me, far too many tasks and lectures to complete). But after some really serious technical glitches and many awfull planning issues, Fundamentals... has been suspended, so here I am, diving fully into EDMOOC!
This is just a welcome post, but I've already been over all the materials for week 1, so I'll just start a new blog entry to cover my ideas on the videos and texts.
See you around!
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