Social media implications and contexts

Two observations with regard to working as an information professional in education.

Participatory culture includes being a member of a group or “affiliation”, creating new content and feeling that it is valued, and solving problems collaboratively (Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison, & Weigel, 2006, p. 3). Jenkins et al (2006) also note that participatory culture is essential for success in society.  They observe that many young people actively participate in participatory culture via informal learning through social networking applications and gaming culture.  While these skills, for youth who are able to cultivate them, increase their chances of future academic and vocational success, three issues are raised.   Firstly, that the opportunities are not evenly distributed and the digital divide between school students who have access to fast, consistent Internet services and those who do not, still creates inequity of opportunity. Second, that young people, even when prolific users of the social Web often are not necessarily learning to equate this environment with the structures of power, commercial interests, and other elements shaping their experience.  Third, as socialization amongst young people is taking place in a range of informal arenas, the socio-political preparation for being prolific content creators in the public sphere is in danger of being bypassed. Jenkins et al (2006, p. 12, 15) stress the need to “engage [young people] in critical dialogues” about the online landscape, to develop literacy not only in the use of technology and new media but also in critiquing its constructs.

Nelson (2009, p. 1656) advises that the current development of cloud computing (where both “data and software reside on the Internet”) presents as disruptive a change in the way we use networked computers as the World Wide Web presented in 1993. Adaption to cloud computing will have enormous ramifications for the openness of data, and interoperability between organisations and resources.  It is vital that organisations, including libraries, work tirelessly now to develop and create the appropriate policy frameworks to deal with “open standards, collaboration between cloud service providers, security and privacy, [and] online copyright”, among other factors (2009, p. 1656), in order to contribute to and benefit from the greatly reduced costs, and vast possibilities of running systems in the Cloud. 

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Nelson, M. R. (2009). Building an open cloud. Science, 324(5935), 1656-1657. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/cgi/reprint/324/5935/1656.pdf

A 3D Virtual World

Over the last few weeks, some of the members of our class have been exploring Second Life (SL) as a learning and teaching environment.  This was the first experience of a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) for several of our class, including myself. 

One of the most useful features for new students is the ‘teleport’ function, not only as a way to move to a completely new location, but also as an aid the teacher is able to extend to students who are having trouble ‘keeping up’ as the group moves within one location and its landmarks.  

(Stanford's SL Archive Collection):

There are two compelling features of SL. One is the element of play inherent to the environment, which can free the user from the fear of making mistakes (everyone is finding their way), and from timidity (users can style an avatar to present a ‘confident’ persona), and which encourages cognitive processes which encourage ‘learning by doing’ – the user is placed in a mental space of discovery and experimentation which is quite powerful, that is ‘experiential learning’ (Gregory et al, 2011, p. 484). 

(visit Vassar's Virtual Sistine Chapel )

The other is the reason SL exists: to nurture communities.  As a learning tool for distance education (DE) students, SL is invaluable in that it brings members of the class together with the educator and each other to interact in a social space.  Even a five-minute chat with a fellow student before an SL class, or the chance to ask a question of the teacher directly, greatly enhance the DE experience. 

Some ways information services are able to utilise SL to support learning and collaboration goals are:

providing links ‘in-world’ to library services, such as the CSU-SIS Learning Centre’s links to the library’s live chat service, or to Stanford University Library’s  links to actual research documents in the Stanford archives;

also  - “tutorials”, “lectures”, “tours”, information literacy assessment, and visually stimulating  ways in to library resources  (Gregory et al, 2011, p. 484);

and for staff – “meetings”, “conferences” and  “scenario-based training” (Gregory et al, 2011, p. 484).

The main concerns around SL for educational institutions are lack of funding, bandwidth and security issues, as well as difficulties with accessibility (Gregory et al, 2011, p. 484).  Probably the greatest challenge is the SL learning curve.  However, whether it is in Second Life or something like it in the future, understanding the virtual learning space is an essential part of the social networking librarian’s education.

Reference: 

Gregory, B., Gregory, S., Wood, D., Masters, Y., Hillier, M., Stokes-Thompson, F., Bogdanovych, A., Butler, D., Hay, L., Jegathesan, J.J., Flintoff, K., Schutt, S., Linegar, D., Alderton, R., Cram, A., Stupans, I., McKeown Orwin, L., Meredith, G., McCormick, D., Collins, F., Grenfell, J., Zagami, J., Ellis, A., Jacka, L., Campbell, J., Larson, I., Fluck, A., Thomas, A., Farley, H., Muldoon, N., Abbas, A., Sinnappan, S., Neville, K., Burnett, I., Aitken, A., Simoff , S., Scutter, S., Wang, X., Souter, K., Ellis, D., Salomon, M.,Wadley, G., Jacobson, M., Newstead, A., Hayes, G., Grant, S. & Yusupova, A. (2011). How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds? In G. Williams, P. Statham, N. Brown, & B. Cleland (Eds.), Changing Demands, Changing Directions. Proceedings ascilite Hobart 2011. (pp. 475-490).
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/hobart11/procs/Gregory-full.pdf

Human 1.0 looks to the future (and the past)

         While reading the set text for my study subject, I find a term for which I don’t have a definition.  I go to the index to find an earlier instance of the word where it might be defined.  As I scan my eyes down each page instance of the word listed in the index, I find myself thinking that this find sweep is not very effective.  Then I remember that it is my own brain which is conducting the find.  It’s not very efficient and it’s slow.  I find the definition after about six minutes, but find myself comparing the effectiveness of my human searching of the pages of a book with the find function which I am used to using on my computer screen and coming up second best - and being frustrated by this.  Am I now entering a phase in my life where my need to existentially jack in and upgrade myself will become more and more apparent? Where my version 1.0 of myself is just incredibly out of date and incompatible with the software all around me? Am I suffering from a kind of usability envy of my own digital devices? As there was a secret gestural prehistory of mobile devices, am I now experiencing a prehistorical frustration in anticipation of my human integration with the digital? Am I yearning for cyborg status?

           Perhaps yearning is too strong a word. Will I look back on today and remember with yearning the days when simple word-processing and blogging were the extent of my content creation? Will I see this as a peaceful and uncluttered time, much as I now see the 1970’s as a golden age of being outside in the fresh air, doing one thing at a time, and not recording it or conveying my experience to someone somewhere else until I saw them later in person? Of relying on memory and of not worrying if the details were a bit fuzzy? Of using my hands to draw and write on paper? This nostalgia coupled with future yearning happens on a pinpoint axis of desire, intention and frustration.  Where I am in technological history depends upon what I want to do right now – in the sense of whether I am in the beginning, the middle or near the end of life as I have known it… and whether I judge this to be useful or frustrating.   This then colours how I see myself - am I using a technology, is the technology using me, or am I part of the technology, or am I the technology, and where do we overlap? Or am I on a continuum of use, as well as on an axis of usability? 

One thing I do know, I am running out of caffeine (and this issue probably won't change in the near future...)