New Media, Moore's Law and My Office Space

For almost six months now I've been gathering material for my New Media course. I can, with as much certainty as I can come up with about anything these day, say that I don't have enough disk space or office space (or brain space). Like never before in my career, prep-ing for this course feels nearly impossible. I've done all the normal things - emailed listservs for tips, tweeted about it, did the serious scholarship literature review, did the more useful Google/Bing searching, watched hundreds of YouTube, UStream, Hulu, videos. Read more blogs, wikis and web page "articles" than any one person should. Now I'm left with a hard drive full of annotated, highlighted and organized PDFs that I can't ever find the one I'm thinking about, printouts scattered all over my office in piles that have become mostly meaningless, outline notes for my course that look more like a massive oak tree in winter with its bifurcating limbs going every which direction, stacks of DVDs, CD, and mp3 files that I'm trying to decide on, hundreds of URL's all nicely tagged in Del.icio.us that seem to do nothing but divert me from what I REALLY need to do - FOCUS, four different "desk copies" of books that various parts of I'd love to use, etc., etc. Screw the digital revolution.

Technology's Attack on "Dirty Jobs"

Mike Rowe's Ted TV talk found here is worth watching. He forces us to reflect on how technology, media and modern society is waging a war on, what he argues, is an important part of our culture - dirty jobs. IMHO he's got it right and this is well worth a watch. It is another way that technology is breaking our culture - and creating a new one that we don't know recognize. I like the many ideas he suggests we should consider. Things like humility in the face of our ignorance, reflection on our lives and what gives them value, and finally, what place do we want technology to have in our lives and what is the Faustian bargain in accepting it.

The Digital Facelift

At the 2006 SUNY CIT Conference there was a session by a group of faculty from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). It was entitled, "Does Technology Imperil the Academy?". At this session, Steven Zucker, Beth Harris and Eric Feinblatt first introduced me to the idea that the "cloud" (Web 2.0, social networking tools, or whatever you want to call it) was going to change education is a way that was different from what previous technologies had done. That a dark cloud was gathering in the distance and the storm it was bringing to higher education could be more than a gentle breeze.

Ever since then, I've read, watched and listened to everything I could find about the new "cloud" of software services and what people thought their impact on higher education would be. It has been a long and winding road (or a long strange trip if you like the Dead better.) Hardest along the way has been trying to articulate this gathering cloud. Today, I feel its cool breeze coming. I can see its clouds growing larger and darker, but I can't find the right words so others at my campus see it. Sure there are a few sympathetic ears, but for the most part no one is paying attention. As we start another strategic planning process for the campus, I struggle with how to get this issue on the radar of the strategic planning committees. (I hear your laughing.)

Hope springs eternal and my failures at being able to articulate this issue received an incredible spark from Gardner Campbell at Baylor University. Gardner, IMHO, masterfully articulates the issue first introduced to me years ago in this talk. I am so impressed with this talk that I am using it as the "text book" for my course on "Communicating Using Social Media" here at SUNY Oneonta. Watch this, it is well worth it.

I am not someone to jump at the next techno marvel that will "fix" education. I have studied the history of education and know from experience that "we have heard this before." This only makes me worry more deeply. I fear our experiences with failed promises that technology has too often produced will make us so skeptical as to ignore these clouds. We so do at our own peril.

What About Rite of Passage?

I've lived and worked in higher education for 30 years now and I found THE IMPENDING DEMISE OF THE UNIVERSITY [6.4.09], By Don Tapscott interesting but missing something I think I see every summer orientation. As a parent of three boys (two in College now) and one to go next fall, one of the REAL things College is doing in our culture is providing a "rite of passage." It is the postmodern world's way of ceremonially moving young people into adulthood. All cultures have them, and don't be fooled, they are very powerful things. I agree technology is impacting education in ways we don't understand, but until another rite of passage comes along ,I don't think Higher Ed. is in trouble. What do you think?

Some Scientists Modify Views on Singulartiy

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”

Read the entire story in the NY Times at:

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

Also check out the long list of reads and resources at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's page on ethics and technology.

Bb and NBC - Everyone is OK with this?

Let's see now... Blackboard now owns the CMS market (except for those in the OpenSource world) and they (Bb) just partnered with NBC. NBC folks... are we paying attention? NBC News President Steve Capus was recently heard saying about this new partnership, "At NBC News, we have made a big commitment to working in the education space, and this project is the most substantial one yet. There is tremendous opportunity to combine our vast resources of information with an audience that is hungry for it in an environment they are comfortable consuming it. That, combined with the technology of iCue which dramatically alters how video, digital content and peer networking can be used to support student learning in a safe, engaging virtual environment, makes this an incredibly exciting project."

Given who owns NBC and what their motivation is, are we all really ok with this is education? Are we all ok with NBC's "vast resources of information?" I for one feel a bit uneasy. Can anyone tell me who NBC answers to and what their motivation is?

ANGEL and Bb Merge... Running Just as Fast as They Can

Yesterday two major players in the Learning Management Systems game merged saying, "Now we have the opportunity to join these strengths together with our Project NG vision for a more flexible and engaging learning platform." Hmmm, I hope they can move much more quickly than they have been, or at least recognize what is REALLY going on and change to take advantage of the intermediaries that are rising from the haze of Moore's Law.

When I see an environment out of them that allows aggregation and flexibility I'll believe they are paying attention. Until then, they are just moving along incrementally giving in to the loudest voices (or largest customers) in education and this may be a bad idea given how much those of us in education are paying attention.