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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 6 09

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"Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation, and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality." (Source: Wikipedia)

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Photo credit: mseyfang

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

  • Where We Are Spending Time... - Facebook and Twitter are recording enormous increases in amount of time spent on their sites by visitors.
  • Privacy Online: Google Is Watching - Offline, very few things are private - it wouldn't take someone much time to find out my daily commute, coffee drinking habits, etc. Online, however, this information is more readily available. We can discover personal information about others with very little effort.
  • Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning - ...suggests that "university students need to learn new network and software literacies to become digital citizens".
  • Google Wave - While Google has somewhat stalled in innovating in search, they have (with Apps, Docs, Knol, and now Wave) started to position themselves as a productivity and collaboration company.
  • We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity - We are witnessing historical shifts as society re-creates value points not based solely on physical work and property.
  • Modernizing Corporate Training - this post on modernizing corporate training is worth a read, even if only for the irony. It explores the history of corporate learning from 1980's to today.
  • How Much Information? - ...information workers, who comprise about 63% of the U.S. work force, are each bombarded with 1.6 gigabytes of information on average every day through emails, reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more.

 

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

 

Where We Are Spending Time...

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_time_id408031.jpg

Facebook and Twitter are recording enormous increases in amount of time spent on their sites by visitors.

Twitter records an increase of over 3700% (year over year). Understanding which sites are increasing is use is only part of the discussion. I'd like to know what we are doing less.

My email use is still the same as last year. I still read the same number of RSS feeds. I can't think of anything I've dropped from my online habits. I'm still at a "net add" stage. Guess that will have to change soon...

 



Privacy Online: Google Is Watching

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_google _privacy_id21064431.jpg

I've noticed a surge in interest in privacy and tracking. Several family members and friends have closed Facebook accounts, set Twitter and FriendFeed sites to "private", and stopped using Chrome (or other tools that are too heavily reliant on one company).

The interest in privacy is still somewhat isolated - many people appear to feel that paying with personal data to use monetarily-free tools is a reasonable transaction. Offline, very few things are private - it wouldn't take someone much time to find out my daily commute, coffee drinking habits, etc. Online, however, this information is more readily available. We can discover personal information about others with very little effort.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that large companies like Google are incredibly active in tracking users activity. Facebook is direct in stating that they collect indirect information about site users and that they will "collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook."

Privacy is an issue that flares up occasionally, but we are quickly placated and distracted.

 



Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_networked_learning_id17106901.jpg

Investigating the Application of Social Software to Support Networked Learning (.pdf) suggests that "university students need to learn new network and software literacies to become digital citizens".

In addition to being literate (and therefore be able to participate in the consequential conversations occurring through, or mediated by, technology), authors state students spend surprisingly limited time in socialization (p. 17).

As background, Vincent Tinto has produced a model that promotes academic and social integration as key requirements to student retention. Students who feel connected to each other an the institution are less likely to drop out.

I'm not familiar with studies to date that have looked at social networking services as a resource for reducing attrition... but it's a worthwhile concept to explore...

Later in the report, the authors share a view that innovators on many campuses likely hold:

"Centralised ICT Services departments have proved a barrier to the exploration of innovative emerging online technologies and services being explored in this project."

 



Google Wave

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_google_wave.gif

I thought Wolfram Alpha was hyped (though it presents a very interesting approach to finding / using information online - I've collected reactions to Wolfram on my delicious search tag).

Google's soon to be released Wave will, in contrast to Microsoft's release of Bing will be an entirely new exercise in hype and media attention.

Wave is another offering in Google's products for the enterprise. While Google has somewhat stalled in innovating in search, they have (with Apps, Docs, Knol, and now Wave) started to position themselves as a productivity and collaboration company.

 



We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_masculinity_id660765.jpg

An editorial on the change in society as entire industries fade (or are rendered unrecognizable) overnight: We are witnessing the passing of working-class masculinity.

"No matter what you think of the auto industry... It's the end of an era... for an entire way of life, when a man with a high-school education could raise a family, have a house with a backyard pool, and buy his-and-hers motorcycles so he can tool around the countryside with his wife on weekends.

Bill is not to blame for what has happened to him. He's simply been flattened by history "

After you read the editorial, you might find a recent publication from the Martin Prosperity Institute worthwhile.

We are witnessing historical shifts as society re-creates value points not based solely on physical work and property.

BTW - RIP: A Remix Manifesto (the last third of the video) questions whether the current approach to intellectual property is logical... suggesting that much of the global alterations in copyright law are driven by the US move from routine labour to an economy based on creativity and intelligence.

 



Modernizing Corporate Training

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_modernizing_corporate_training_id424361.jpg

I generally resist linking to organizations that monitor and use the ideas generated in the social / learning / tech space, and then produce reports that fail to acknowledge sources of inspiration.

However, this post on modernizing corporate training is worth a read, even if only for the irony. It explores the history of corporate learning from 1980's to today.

Today, according to the report (and roughly every other consultant) is the age of collaboration. And then they freely sprinkle half a dozen "registered trademark" signs. How quickly pundits recognize (monetize) change but fail to integrate change into actual practice.

The post concludes that we are going through the most important changes in corporate learning in the last ten years. Really? Thanks for the insight! If this pablum counts as corporate learning insight, maybe the training departments in institutions should be dismantled.

 



How Much Information?

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_information_id28009281.jpg

In 2003, UC at Berkeley released a report titled How Much Information. This was just at the beginning of blog's popularity, and prior to YouTube and podcasting.

Nice to hear that an updated report will be released this year.

Preliminary data, according to WSJ, states that

"information workers, who comprise about 63% of the U.S. work force, are each bombarded with 1.6 gigabytes of information on average every day through emails, reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more".

1.6 gigabytes of info a day. Wow. That's more than 1000 times the storage of my first computer with a hard drive. And I thought that was a lot :).




Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on Jun 6th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.




About the author

George-Siemens.jpg

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".




Photo credits:
Where We Are Spending Time... - Elnur Amikishiyev
Privacy Online: Google Is Watching - Sergey Galushko
Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning - Yuri Arcurs
We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity - MaxFX
Modernizing Corporate Training - Andres Rodriguez
How Much information? - Picsfive

George Siemens -
Reference: eLearnSpace [ Read more ]
 
 
 
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posted by Daniele Bazzano on Saturday, June 6 2009, updated on Tuesday, May 5 2015


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