One Time for Technology

Since my last post I talked about some complaints and hiccups about technology, I figured I'd reflect on some more positives.

For example, currently, I"m sitting on my laptop hooked up to a thunderbolt in an office across town, fully functional as a type away.  My email is up, my office phone is forwarded to my cell.  Many staff members are experiencing the same.  The video texted to me last night showing a waterfall cascading through a building and leaving office components unusable for the next fews days, and photographs of the area as pieces were covered moved to prevent damage are on phones as evidence of the experience.  Others were communicated with and news spread quickly to get things taken care of.

And we keep going. And we can because of technology, and some of the tools that allow communities and networks to come together, to travel and move, to be in various places and still communicate effectively.

I may not physically see too many people today, but think of how productive I can be!

Working the Kinks Out...

Today I participated in an online module, the first of a few in the next few weeks that I will be participating in.  It was done through Google hangouts, and there were two academics giving the presentation, with grad students monitoring the Google questions, Facebook questions, and Twitter questions.

My favorite part was under the screen, there was a thumbs up and down button, and it was tracked across the bottom of the screen, increasing or decreasing when the academics said something people liked.  Of course, you know my love of google, when I hit the "green thumbs up button" a little yellow smiley popped up and there was applause.  I'm assuming not at the presenter, but it amused me none-the-less.

I mostly participated in the conversation on Twitter, folks really weren't engaging on Facebook, and there were just too many questions and complaints about technical difficulties on the Google Hangout for it to be an effective space.  Twitter also seemed like the venue where there was the most community happening - through the favoriting and retweets and getting others not at the presentation (Which, why not, it was free), to at least see some of the glimmers.

In reflection, I'm glad I'm participating, but often when people said "enjoyed the conversation", I struggled.  What conversation?  We heard some awesome smart people talk, showed folks what our favorite parts were, and highlighted the things that really resonated with us individually, but did we have a conversation?  Or did we just watch a conversation unfold?

In reflection, though, I just took a class with hundreds of people across the country, where some really smart people shared some information, I didn't pay for it, and also did some work while listening and getting a little inspiration.  Yes, there were some technical issues and it seemed like some people really struggled with getting connected, but, overall, pretty cool.

Still not required?

I appreciated the Goodyear, Casey, & Kirk (2014) article "Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice" because, one, that is basically my produsage project (phew!) and, two, I think that higher education and student affairs has been doing this in a lot of ways, and was interested to see what the study on teachers would reveal.  

Professional higher education and student affairs associations (I'll use ACPA because I'm a bit more familiar and have been a part of the organization's decision-making conversations) have been adapting to using more Web 2.0 engagement components to build community for a little bit of time now.  Present on all mediums, engaging in the creation of an online mentoring connection program, were starters, but really focusing on what Goodyear, Casey, & Kirk (2014) discussed in terms of the "financial and time implications" that impact teachers from being able to work together, is also found at the collegiate administrator level (p. 1).  Enter video-recorded convention speakers, teams dedicated to blogging and posting/managing the Twitter fall, live-streaming of educational events, video information posted on a regular basis (http://videos.myacpa.org/home) and, most recently, a hybrid model of one day conference with Skype sessions and satellite conversations this September- http://www.myacpa.org/events/2015-presidential-symposium-fulfilling-our-promises-students-fostering-and-demonstrating.   Kind of cool services that a membership to the Association make available without the hassles of leaving the office, traveling, and the cost of attending; and while that has ramifications for the Association's bottom line, lets focus on how more people are getting the opportunity to learn and participate in a very digital way. Cool.

Tied to that are also folks in the field and their social media personalities - communicating on a variety of the spaces that we have indicated throughout the class. All good stuff, keeping the conversation going, engaging people with others who do the same work they do, helping knowledge and learning happen outside of their institution (or, for the article's sake, classroom or school).

I was totally on board with the article, until towards the end, "It was ineffective as a means of support for the two non-users.  Consequently, as a community we need to ensure we empower and facilitate practitioners to develop their practice without alienating those who don't want to engage with social media" (p. 14-15).  I immediately scrolled up to the top of the article, convinced that such a statement must have been written a decade ago.  To my chagrin, just last year it was published.

And, so now, I'm at a place of struggle.  I have been the person that didn't want to engage in social media and Web 2.0 tools.  I'm still not in love with video conferences and RSS blogs and I think Wikis are kind of ugly and not how I want to spend my time online.  But I realize that the nature of my work, and the nature of the world in which we live in, requires online presence, knowledge, participation, and engagement.  And yet I know that not everyone is there yet.

So, I wonder, when will technology tools that create opportunity for learning and engagement stop being apologized for and simply become part of the fabrication of the work that happens every day?

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Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice. Sport, Education and Society, 1-17.

Evening the Playing Field?

An article from the New York Times has been circling all over my social networks today, about "RBF" or "resting bitch face."  If you haven't seen it, it is actually an interesting (and pretty true) read, with a link to a pretty funny buzzfeed, but an honest commentary on some societal sexism and "outrage" that has been created by famous (but also basically all) women not smiling all of the time, and getting called out for looking mean (I'll just leave it at that for Web 2.0 class, but there is much more to say about all that).  Check it out here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/fashion/im-not-mad-thats-just-my-resting-b-face.html?_r=0.

It got me thinking about how we represent ourselves in Web 2.0. While on a class discussion board we were talking about some privilege pieces tied to not posting on Wikipedia (not feeling like an expert, feeling like an impostor, concerned we didn't have all the information correct, etc), I'm wondering if Web 2.0 also provides a venue to actually post more.

Obviously, the ability to be anonymous, or to create a different online identity has it's perks, one of which could be participating in conversations and communities that may have been limiting in personal conversations.  The online pseudonym is like the new age version of some pen names seen in old literature (the Bronte sisters would be so proud).

Whether using a pseudonym or not, most Web 2.0 allows for barriers to exist in communication circles, even within those communities where people are active.  If a concern is resting face, or formulating thoughts, or getting interrupted, or not being listened to due to a variety of (messed up) social constructions, Web 2.0 could create some leveling of the playing field...

Does Web 2.0 take away some initial judgment and assumptions that are created during face-to-face communication?  Do people feel more comfortable communicating via technological methods then face-to-face in some settings?

Are You In It for the Money?

So this blogging thing...

When I was working on my curation project, I learned a little bit about how people blog for money, and then use Pinterest to drive people to their blog.  Interesting, I thought, but kind of left it alone, besides wondering if that was why some of the blogs I was seeing had similar advertisements on all the pages.

And then, my silly (I say that, but I'm the one blogging about it because I read the whole thing, so, there is that) Costco Connection came in the mail this week, and the cover story was about some women who blog..."Building a Blogging Business."  Apparently, in addition to blog advertisements, people also make money from sponsored posts, and for some (yes, mostly white women and moms) who now blog for income, going from a couple hundred, to a couple thousand, to you know, millions of viewers, selling products from their blogs, spending time writing about food, business, parenting, and paying off debt. 

Even today, my Twitter feed led me to a post about tips on how to drive more people to your blog or your business: http://www.postplanner.com/bloggers-clueless-about-key-blog-post-ingredients/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=postplanner&utm_source=twitter.com.

So, interesting, turning possible pastimes into income, perhaps a Web 2.0 version of your traditional flea market or craft fair... just spreading ideas more than physical pieces?

As I contemplate this possible end to my day job (I mean, hey, I have a blog now at least, that seems like a good first step), I'm also grappling with the idea of community in Web 2.0, which I feel like has been the bulk of our class conversation.  Making money off of communities you create online does sound intriguing... and also that it could have the potential for some delightfully capitalist ugliness.  Hmmm...

What do you think?

Collaborative Community Learning

I set out with this post to reflect upon one of the class articles, but in the introduction paragraph, I got stuck on this sentence:

"Web 2.0 is currently understood in various ways, but generally regarded as the new knowledge transferring agent promising to serve as an effective learning community environment particularly enabling dynamic collaborative learning and group reflection processes" 

(Kim, Hong, Bonk, Lim, 2009).  

We've chatted in one of the discussion boards about social media for news and information, and how that has even been true within our communities.  But the sentence above made me think about the larger collective that participates in web 2.0, how the conversation engages and changes, the possibilities of that dialogue, and power and voice that web 2.0 creates in, often, a less controlled environment.

Just shy of one year from the events that occurred in Ferguson last summer, I was reminded of how web 2.0, and social media played such a role in the conversation, knowledge being shared, reflection of individuals and communities, and often, in some of the first pieces, it was web 2.0, particularly blogs and tweets and video, that were shaping that dynamic collaborative learning component in ways I'm not sure we have seen.  

This link for a CNN article tells a little bit more about how the story unfolded, looking particularly at Twitter: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/19/us/ferguson-social-media-injustice/.

More recently, a video of a similar case was distributed through technology, but also through much more systematic means in the indictment of the police officer who killed Sam DuBose.  While the outrage surrounding the case didn't come from Web 2.0, on Web 2.0 the conversation continued, the hashtag began, the dialogue was shared.  The personal and heartfelt reflections shared on my Facebook Newsfeed and Twitter fall again reminded me of this quote.  It also made me wonder if such outcry for the video stemmed through the information we have become accustomed to having at our fingertips via Web 2.0.  Is media, perhaps the old "knowledge transferring agent" learning from Web 2.0?  Is it simply competition?

What are other ways we have seen Web 2.0, even in this class or in everyday life, living up to this definition?  What are you seeing through your networks?

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Kim, P., Hong, J., Bonk, C., & Lim, G. (2011).  "Effects of group reflection variations in project-based learning integrated in a Web 2.0 learning space." Interactive Learning Environments, 19(4). p. 33-349. 

When World's Collide

I was excited for the Barry Wellman guest online lecture this week, and, even with the technical difficulties, appreciated the anecdotal stories that went along with his slides and told a story like only he could.   

And then, this evening, I decided to take a look back at the slides, and found this gem: 

Photo Credit: Barry Wellman, "The New Social Operating System: The Impact of Networked Technologies on Community, Family & Work." www.chass.utoronto.ca/~well

I don't know if I just missed it when watching the webinar, or perhaps just wasn't in the headspace at the time I was watching, but sitting here on a Saturday night knee deep in qualitative and quantitative data, all I could do was laugh and enthusiastically yell "YES."

Yes, lets stop looking for proof and start looking at everything that is changing and happening.  Yes, lets come to terms with the obviousness of our personalized networks and how differently we are now connected (loosely or not) to others in a more global sense.  Yes, lets start having more conversations about things like this (free access to internet in San Francisco) and continue to think about moving forward with regards to how the tools of web 2.0 and technology help us.  

It is a conversation that has evolved, but hasn't peaked, in higher education.  I still hear far more concern about students looking down at devices, contacting parents too often, sharing things too anonymously (or not), not being able to have personal conversations, or do research, or respond in more than 140 characters... or...

I think these are valid concerns, some of which I share, some of which, by nature of when the web became "a thing" in my life, I have moved past.  And while I think it truly is a shame students today don't have the opportunity to learn the art of expressing themselves through angsty AIM away messages or perhaps staying up all night due to a riveting game of Snood (seriously though), I do think we have the opportunity to think about how tools can make us better educators (as we are learning about in this class), not only in the tools that are out there, but in the tools that students are using everyday.  I've talked about how we can do more in terms of digital capital and student learning through Twitter here (shameless plug), and even made it a requirement for discussion (much to a few moans) in courses I've taught, but know there are so many more opportunities available. 

I wonder, too, who is truly utilizing Web 2.0 to help with additional student services, from assessment and admissions to internships and resumes.  (And beyond the college level, what is being looked at in K-12, because if nothing else, those Google Maps for Education are pretty darn nifty!)

In just a few short weeks, we've learned of probably half a dozen things that I've never heard of to continue or support learning, how can we best transition these into our colleges and classrooms to create seamless learning experiences, using new tools, and teaching our digital natives (Crook, 2012) effective strategies not necessarily learned through on-the-app participation?  

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Crook, C. (2012). The 'digital native' in context: tensions associated with importing Web 2.0 practices into the school setting. Oxford Review of Education, 38(1), 63-80. 

Rainie, L. & Wellman, B. (2013). Networked: The new social operating system. Boston, MA: MIT Press. 

Wellman, B. (2015).  "The New Social Operating System: The Impact of Networked Technologies on Community, Family & Work" Webcast Lecture for Florida State University.  www.chass.utoronto.ca/~well