In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education and connectivism advocate George Siemens, takes you to news and stories on emerging media, communication technologies and education-related trends, helping you make good sense of the many changes taking place around you and of how these directly impact your daily lives.

Photo credit: Chris Harvey

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• The Brain Chip… - Consider the brain chip: "Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more".
• Chrome OS - Lots of reaction to Google's Chrome OS (web operating system, in theory, a means to do away with Windows, Mac, Linux).
• Salesforce Chatter - Salesforce, like many other companies, is jumping onto the enterprise social media bandwagon with the soon-to-be-released Chatter.
• Video Games: Modern Warfare - Controversy aside, Modern Warfare 2 is an interesting "sign of the times". In its first week of release, the game generated $550 million (in UK and North America).
• LearnTrends Recordings - After three days of five+ hours work of presentations, we have (Jay Cross, Tony Karrer, and I) wrapped up our third annual LearnTrends conference.
• Elearning Conferences 2010 - Clayton Wright publishes as complete a listing of educational technology conferences as you are likely to find anywhere.
• Oslo Presentations - I am in Oslo. I have a total of four face-to-face presentations and three online presentations to deliver this week. We are also running the LearnTrends conference online. So it is a bit hectic.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

The Brain Chip…

Our ability to do things with technology far exceeds our ability to understand implications.

Consider the brain chip: "Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more".

This got me thinking about how far I would go to adopt technology. Or humanity as a whole. Do you have a limit? Is there a point at which you would say "no more". And if you (we) did, would it matter? Would it abate development? Is transhumanism our future? Will technology always lead and humanity simply follow where it goes?

Chrome OS

Lots of reaction to Google's Chrome OS (web operating system, in theory, a means to do away with Windows, Mac, Linux).

Running Chrome OS at this stage is no easy task - it will be a while before it will be available for most users. And, once available, it is geared to the netbook market.

Not surprisingly, since Chrome started its life as a browser, applications run as tabs. Without being able to cite any research, I think most people seem more comfortable with a browser than any other application on their computer.

Google is targeting ease of use. For that matter, Google is seeking to do to the web what Microsoft did to the desktop.

Video introduction to Chrome OS (note the 7 second cold boot)

Mashup explores 5 ways in which Chrome OS is unique.

Salesforce Chatter

Salesforce, like many other companies, is jumping onto the enterprise social media bandwagon with the soon-to-be-released Chatter.

Basically, Chatter introduces some of the functionality found in Facebook and Twitter into a secure enterprise system.

Reactions vary (have a look at the comments on the article), including: "everyone is on Facebook already - why bother with Chatter", "this is great - just what I needed", and "Elgg does this better already and its free".

Still, the best way to determine if a software has gained traction is to have someone develop it at an enterprise level. Sadly, it is also the best way to kill the transformative functionality of new software.

Video Games: Modern Warfare

Controversy aside, Modern Warfare 2 is an interesting "sign of the times". In its first week of release, the game generated $550 million (in UK and North America).

What other media even comes close? What is a big weekend for a new movie release? $50-60 million?

I have been looking for something approaching an authoritative figure on the cost of developing MW2. Figures range between $30-50 million. Again, considering block buster movies can cost in excess of $100 million to make, the movie industry is being significantly upstaged by the gaming industry.

Plus, games run on a centralized device, so XBox can do things like this to prevent piracy.

LearnTrends Recordings

After three days of five+ hours work of presentations, we have (Jay Cross, Tony Karrer, and I) wrapped up our third annual LearnTrends conference. Scott Skibell of Skillcasting has completed and posted recordings of the event.

Topics include:

• convergence,
• mobile learning,
• design,
• social learning,
• managing information,
• microlearning,
• enterprise 2.0 and many others.

A great event - congrats and thanks to all involved in presenting / planning / attending!

For some reason, these intensive online conferences are more exhausting than face to face events.

Elearning Conferences 2010

Clayton Wright publishes as complete a listing of educational technology conferences as you are likely to find anywhere. Tony Karrer has posted the list on his site, so I will just link to it…

Thanks Clayton - an outstanding resource!

Oslo Presentations

I am in Oslo. I have a total of four face-to-face presentations and three online presentations to deliver this week.

We are also running the LearnTrends conference online. So it is a bit hectic.

I have posted two presentations on slideshare:

• Learning in 2020
• Educational Trends and Social Networks

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on November 20th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book "Knowing Knowledge" where he develops a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.

Photo credits:
The Brain Chip… - Ktsdesign
Chrome OS - Blogu
Salesforce Chatter - Salesforce
Video Games: Modern Warfare - Niki Crucillo
LearnTrends Recordings - Ariusz Nawrocki
Elearning Conferences 2010 - Elearningtech
Oslo Presentations - Johnny Lye