Oh, pen excess!

This is just too good NOT to share even though I don't have time.

2008-12-03T23:13:00.005-07:00

I know I get excited about weird things -- but the potential and uses for this just caused an explosion in my brain. So while I clean up the mess it made, read for yourselves. But you've been warned.

I've found it in a couple of places - but I think this site is where it's being developed.

Strange Intersections - Revisited

2008-10-26T02:13:00.004-06:00

This post discusses a dissertation that could have easily been included in my "scholarly research" post, but I felt it was worthy of a post of its own. The reason it’s a "strange intersection" is because it is directly related to three different significant academic interests of mine, and they all converged in one dissertation. In fact, I had trouble deciding on which blog to post it, and finally decided this one – and make a link to this post from my other blog.

Why do people engage in social computing?: A need fulfillment perspective
by Sachdev, Vishal, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Arlington, 2007, 112 pages; AAT 3307230 This is a dissertation that thoroughly explores constructs related to measuring and defining interactivity. (You may need to be logged into a library data base with access to ProQuest searches, such as BYU's library, to access this link)

I was first interested in the content of the dissertation because of our new media class. And also because of the two main research questions it attempts to answer:
a. What is the motivation for users to participate in social computing?
b. What will it take for these sites to retain existing users and attract new ones?

I was interested in it from a web analytics perspective because the key element Sachdev researched in answering these questions was interactivity. Interactivity and all of its’ sub-constructs are exactly what we’d like analytics to be able to measure better for educational purposes. Sachdev’s study gives me some solid research on which to base ideas about possible improvements or applications of web-analytics. Additionally, there are some possibilities about segmentation that can be gleaned from the information here – another big part of web analytics.

Last, but not least, (nerd alert here) he presents his hypothesis and his results in (among other ways) factor analysis diagrams, which I recently studied this summer! So…instead of just flipping through the statistical results to get to the “meat” of the written conclusion, I was actually quite interested in reading about the methods he used. I was also familiar with the software he used for the analysis, and actually understood what he did, and the diagrams and reported results made perfect sense! That, in and of itself was really exciting (as well as a little unusual  ) I also was encouraged to see that he used both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

Ok, Ok, but will YOU be interested? Well here are the factors he explores in relation to interactivity: control, autonomy, responsiveness, social presence, deep profiling, self-presentation, competence, and relatedness – all loading on motivation, and then intention, and then use. Wouldn’t most everyone in our field with interests in improving learning want to know more about those constructs?

Bits and Pieces

2008-10-26T00:54:00.004-06:00

Or...maybe Bits and PCs (as in the type of computer rather than political correctness. Oh wait, maybe they are related after all! heh.) ANYWAY...In case you didn't actually look at my delicious bookmarks from my previous post, there are a few interesting (and current) ones that deal with social media and how it will weather (or thrive) in a poor economy. One linked to another but here they are separately.

Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn From Jeremiah Owyang a web strategist.

He updates that post with a link to another post entitled: How Will a Recession Affect Social Media which includes discussion about the opportunities that adversity can bring -- I always love that perspective! From the tags on that post I found another of the same Australian author's post, applicable as well as intriguing.

James Duthie's Blog included an earlier post entitled Explaining the Social Web to Clients Something we might learn from as we attempt to explain to others what "New Media" is all about. However the really fun (weird?) thing to me here is that he uses a very similar analogy to the one I used in my recent posts, (that included the notions of space, universe, planets, orbits, etc.)

Catching Up!

2008-10-25T23:12:00.005-06:00

After the "journey" there is always so much catching up to do, even if you do have jet lag :-). So let’s do a little assignment housekeeping:

Sharing Part 1: Delicious and Flickr.
Here is a link to my Delicious account (I actually think I prefer diigo – I know they aren’t exactly the same, but diigo works best for me) and I really do not have the time or brainpower to divide between two bookmarking sites – unless it’s really going to benefit me in some way –so there are just a few bookmarks there. (Sorry I know that in the world of social bookmarking that seems a selfish attitude, but really it’s a survival technique) And here is a link to my Flickr account (with a few seemingly random pictures to be explained later).

I liked this post from a (no-longer-updated) blog about "homework-casting" (or rather file-casting). I like it, because it’s one of those instances where someone figured out a nifty way of using an attribute of a technology for a (probably) unintended use. I’m not sure how much the idea has caught on though. But is it because the idea isn’t good, or because there aren’t many teachers that are technologically savvy enough to know about it or use it, or (this is the one that I would go with) maybe it’s because most teachers can’t assume that all his/her students have access (much less equal access) to the technology. And...where is the incentive for a teacher to create multiple ways of assigning homework? One answer might be the draw of the "cool" factor for the students, but I’m not sure that trumps extra teacher time – especially for those teachers who may also be a bit "technology resistant".

Another post gives teachers handy tips about how to organize their delicious bookmarks for use in their classes, and also has some interesting links to a few teacher’s delicious accounts to browse.

As far as educational uses for Flickr I noticed that on Nikon’s site there is a link to the digital learning center on Flickr. While I was there I found these interesting posts: one on silhouettes and one on photo humor . So those two subjects were the motivation for the 7 photos I uploaded to Flickr for this assignment. They were all taken on a trip we took in 2005. I have a fascination with odd or funny signs – and somehow they are so much more noticeable the farther I am away from home. The most amusing picture I took of a sign I can’t find anymore!! (arghh – too bad I didn’t know about flickr and photobucket two years ago!) It was in a little round-about near Bath, England, and it was a sign for a grog (elderly people) crossing, complete with a silhouette of little bent old man and old woman – it would have been perfect for this group of pictures!

Into the Brainstorm

2008-10-19T03:07:00.015-06:00

In an earlier post I promised this one would: "explore curious ideas, to seek out unusual perspectives, to boldly go where no one has cared much to go before (probably for good reasons)" This may not hold up under the scrutiny of "truth of advertising" but here are some thoughts I've had:

It's obvious that people who are willing to share (information, friend's information, photos, thoughts, writings, bookmarks, music, screencasts, lesson plans, podcasts, recipes, art, their 'virtual' selves, or whatever...) are the life-blood of the "New Media" or Web 2.0 You might have picked up from previous posts that privacy issues are a concern to me as is how all of this information could be used for good or otherwise.

I think we need to hold "social network sites" and other sites based on user contributions and web 2.0 technologies to be just as transparent as they ask 'us' to be, their users - who are really their evangelists too. Hey, we are their content providers AND their best marketing tools -- so we should insist on this. I want to know/see (or at least have the option of seeing) how many times my contribution is accessed and by whom - or at least the location of the access. And...if it was used by an app, I want to know which one, and when. As long as we're into cool little "visual network" applications -- let's create some that show where my content/information has "been".

I think this would have several effects. First of all I think it would greatly surprise many people. I think most 'users' totally underestimate just where their little piece of freely contributed and personal content-in-a-bottle ends up after they toss it into the webic ocean. I know I have been surprised before at what I have learned just from simple web-analytics I installed on my blogs. Secondly, I think it may make a FEW people a little more thoughtful before they push the Send/Upload/OK/Join/IAgree/Publish buttons. The illusion of anonymity would slowly start to fade. In the end I think it would hasten sharing because having that information would be incredibly interesting, and because narcissists and selfless-altruistic-sharers alike would be encouraged by that information. It may (though this is probably just a naive and hopeful wish) deter some people from using the freely shared data in unethical ways.

Now on to the exotic...I suppose the following work might have been included in the "Scholarly Research" tour, but to me it is so "off the beaten path" that I think it goes here in the brain-storm category.

It is a master's thesis by a Clemson fine arts student. It's got to be one-of-a-kind. At least I would be surprised if there were many (if any) other successfully defended recent theses out there that contain only one cited reference, and THAT reference is a website!! Figuring the Digital by Morin, Molly C., M.F.A., Clemson University, 2007, 34 pages; AAT 1447739 The intent of this thesis (as described in the abstract) is:

"a way of understanding, reflecting on, and contributing to a contemporary dialogue about the impact of digital technology and the Internet on society by looking at the organization of information that lies behind the computer screen, and creating work that is sourced directly from the Internet but becomes a tangible object in the physical world."

Though far from qualified to judge the art that was produced, I think I can comment on her method for creating that art. Morin believes that the art reflects patterns found on then internet generally and facebook specifically. She explains:

"I create systems for moving through the internet and generate images in which the size, shape and repetition of each line is determined by the organization of existing websites and information published on social networking sites like Facebook.com"

When I read her 34 page thesis, specifically the methods used to produce the art, it occurred to me that the art is just as much based on random numbers and creating patterns using those numbers as it is on the structure of the web, or facebook information. That you can obtain (at least pseudo)random numbers from data on the internet is not surprising as (pseudo) random numbers can be found in such mundane things as phonebooks, license plates, and paint splatters. I'd love to hear your opinion about this artwork - if you agree that it truly reflects structures of the web, or answers one of her "research" questions: "How webby is the web?". I've included a picture of part of her art work below. No matter what your opinion - you have to agree this is a curious idea, and an unusual perspective.

One other brief point: I feel like this thesis could possibly serve as a valid counter-example to the opinion held by some that all academic research is somehow more legitimate than what "just anyone" can post on the web. What do you think?

And just in case those two nuggets didn't really deliver as the post advertised, here's something to watch. I found it both mind-boggling, expanding, and honestly a little creepy in some ways, because at the end of the video, what Kelly is describing sounds so incredibly Borg-like!(Google "Seven of Nine", "Borg" or "Star Trek The Next Generation", if this is not familiar to you.) He says: There will be "Only one machine (The One)", "the web will be its OS, All screens look into 'The One'","No bits will live outside the web", "To share is to gain", "Let the One read it.", "The one is us."

Thankfully, some commentors seemed to have been a little uncomfortable with his prediction as well. It is fascinating to think about...the next 5000 days.

Ports of Call – Social Networking Universe – Scholarly Research

2008-10-19T02:10:00.006-06:00

(image by Laura Givens) This is going to be a REALLY quick (though NOT short) “dock”. There are so many “places” to visit and so little time! This whirlwind tour covers just four of the artifacts from my foray into the “scholarly” forest – and not as much synthesis as I would like, but…that’s life. I’ve tried to collect souvenirs that do double duty, that is they are scholarly research about social networks – but also have direct connections to education. Signing into an online library database (such as BYU's) maybe needed before being able to access these links.

Engaging others in online social networking sites: Rhetorical practices in MySpace and Facebook by Vie, Stephanie, Ph.D., The University of Arizona, 2007, 221 pages; AAT 3254886. This dissertation considers “pedagogical implications of social networking sites” . Vie says:

"Online social networking sites can provide teachable moments to talk with students about audience, discourse communities, intellectual property, and the tensions between public and private writing. Thus, if writing instructors ignore the growing conversation regarding online social networking sites, they may potentially miss out on familiar and accessible spaces for teaching rhetorical analysis."

She also discusses surveillance and privacy issues, as well as other aspects of education and social networks including considerations changing the traditional relationships between students and teachers.

In “21st Century Learning and Information Literacy.” Change Mar./Apr. 2005: 21-27 Patricia Breivik makes points that are even more relevant today in the world of 2.0 . She attempts to answer the question: What is information literacy, and what is Education’s role? She begins by explaining the problem:

“Without a doubt, these young people are far more awash in information than their parents were. However, neither all of this information, nor their ease with the computers and Internet that bring much of it to them, are translating into better-educated and informed college graduates or more competent and efficient workers. What went wrong? Why haven't these technological enthusiasts evolved into an extraordinary American workforce?...As far back as 1982, futurist John Naisbitt presciently wrote, "We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge" (p. 24). What is growing ever more obvious is that today's undergraduates are generally far less prepared to do research than were students of earlier generations, despite their familiarity with powerful new information-gathering tools.”

Understanding the Facebook Generation: A study of the relationship between online social networking and academic and social integration and intentions to re-enroll by Kord, JoLanna I., Ph.D., University of Kansas, 2008, 186 pages; AAT 3304096 . This dissertation is surprising (to me) in its findings. Given that facebook’s historical roots were founded in university populations, the conclusions seem counterintuitive and disturbing if true. However, I’m not convinced that other explanations of the results were explored. Correlation is not causation. Kord states in the abstract:

This research contributes to the literature by providing significant findings that online social networking was a negative predictor of academic integration as defined by Tinto (1993). Online social networking was a significant negative predictor for student's perceptions of faculty concern for student development and teaching and for academic and intellectual development. This led to the conclusion that online social networking was a negative influence on the college student academic experience.

Online Networks in Process Change and Innovation by Mortensen, Tye, M.A., Northern Kentucky University, 2008, 108 pages; AAT 1450503 This dissertation explores online networks in organizations and adoption of new forms of technology. From the abstract:

Online networks have experienced rapid diffusion for social applications but have experienced relatively slow diffusion in the organizational world. ... Through an examination of online networks this study explores the history and scholarship of social network models.

He references a G. Gotzenbrucker article (Journal of Communications, 29, 467-494) that I find particularly interesting if this holds in an educational setting:

Seven possible effects of online organizations emerge and are identified by Gotzenbrucker as (a) development of new power structures and hierarchies (b) emphasis on knowledge over organizational status (c) decrease in pressure decisions and snap judgments (d) reduction of emotional components of decisions (e) suppression of personal glorification and need for attention (f) protection against weak cohesion and (g) documentation of various forms of communication. It is also important to note that Gotzenbrucker finds that hierarchal structures are not as prevalent in online social networks. Often hierarchal configurations become less important in online interactions and can often shift or change from the actual organizational power structure. More users are encouraged and have a higher likelihood of participation in this type of setting (Gotzenbrucker, 2004). This is attributed to the fact that more people are willing to voice their opinions and thoughts when they aren’t forced to face immediate response from colleagues and supervisors.

Ahh…times up! (Or at least space!) There’s so much more...but it will have to wait for another journey. Who knows, by the time we make it back here – the landscape may have changed drastically!

Why I love/hate our New Media class.

2008-10-17T01:11:00.012-06:00

We interrupt my regularly scheduled blog to bring you this news flash. The opinions of the author expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the class instructor, the McKay School of Education, BYU, or any other student in the class.

heh. First let me make one thing perfectly clear: the title of this post has nothing to do with the individual members that make up the class, but rather with its content. No. It's not really the content but rather the format/presentation. No. It's not that either. No, no, no! What I really love/hate is not the content or the presentation or the method or the media (grin) -- it's how my involvement with the class is affecting me and my life.

You see I LOVE it when my perspectives are widened, when things I had never considered or experienced before illuminate new discoveries or things that at one time seemed "all figured out" in my mind. It's kind of like when you move a particular piece of furniture either because you realized that it had been bugging you where it was, or because you had a brilliant idea so you just had to try moving it somewhere else, but that lead you to move something else somewhere else and so on and so on, so that before you know it, the whole room is rearranged, and you wonder why you hadn't used that arrangement at first.

And then your family walks in and says: "Whoa! You must have had extra time on your hands today." And your response is: "Extra time? The concept is completely foreign to me and NO! now that I've rearranged this room I have even LESS time, so I wish I had never started!" Except you know that's not really true and you're glad you did it, but you are wondering how you are ever going to explain why that was more important than say, fixing dinner? .... for a week.

The point is: I love all the new thoughts and perspectives I'm having, considering, rearranging, pondering, debating, trying out, etc. I love all the interesting things that I read, research, connect to something else, which connects to another great resource, which gels two previously disparate things together, which generates other ideas to research, ...etc. I love it when I feel like "UH-OH! The thought tsunami is upon me, and I'm just going to let go and enjoy the ride!"

But I hate how I know that I'll never be able to document the experience adequately, so I just take a big breath, hope I come up often enough to gulp for air, and then wish I could remember all of what I REALLY experienced after the ride is over and I am sitting in a puddle of a few remaining thoughts that are quickly evaporating! I especially hate it when there was something REALLY big that I noticed in the flotsam, but can't now quite recall what it was. But I guess it doesn't REALLY matter if I can get it all down -- or have TIME to get it all down in words because the experience changed me, and that's the important part. It moved me to a different "line" (to understand what that means, I need to SHARE one of my favorite devotional addresses.)

The biggest problem is that there's another task-oriented side of me that complains: "Hey!! Yeah--YOU! Are you ever going to get anything DONE! This turbulence is fun I know -- but progress is the name of the game, and instead of posting more entries of all your great new ideas you're posting fewer! Now get on the stick! Check it off your list! Move on to something else, you DO have other classes you know! (And I'm NOT talking about web-analytics - you're spending too much time on that as well!)" And I hate it, but that task-oriented side has a very valid point!

So for all of you 'out there' whose preparations, comments, opinions and questions help generate those inner tsunamis all I can say is: "Thanks. I really appreciate that. It's just what I needed." And you can take that however you'd like!

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, the main living area of my house has not been re-arranged since we moved in nine years ago. And I have fixed dinner this week!

The Launch

2008-10-12T00:19:00.016-06:00

I chose Facebook as my carrier into the “system” of social networks. It began uneventfully, I found family easily enough: one (of three) brothers (is it kosher for a stake president to have a facebook account with 139 “friends”? :-), neither of my two sisters, quite a few nieces, a nephew, the youngest (of 5) of my own children, one daughter-in-law, and one sister-in-law. I also readily found several IP&T friends. There were two additional friends that I found unexpectedly: an old friend from my Flagstaff Arizona high school whom I hadn’t seen or talked to since her graduation a year earlier than mine (she replied to my message: “Nothing happens by accident”.) and a friend from Stockholm whom I met when we collaborated on a work project (both of us from different countries and companies). She had visited our office in Provo, and I had visited their office in Stockholm, back in 2000. We kept in touch for a several years by email and phone, but I hadn’t heard from her for a couple of years. It was great to find her on facebook – and easy! I also easily found many of the young women I had worked with in my church calling, and a few young women leaders.

Then I started getting updates from everyone. It felt really...peculiar...kind of like a big party where I had invited lots of friends, but from so many different contexts...it was just odd, especially to know that if someone visited my “space” they would see this rather incongruous hodge-podge of messages and updates. It was also a little disconcerting when one of my new 'friends' sent an update that included language that I didn’t really care to have on my 'wall'.

I thought it interesting that regardless of whether or not I was someone’s 'friend' I could examine THEIR friend’s names and pictures, just by searching for their name, and then viewing their friends. I noticed that there were some people where the option to "view friends" was missing. So I checked settings and after digging around for awhile found the radio button to turn off the ability to see my friends – unless you were one. However I realize that most people don’t know (or care) how to do this – or even know that it’s an option. What this means is that you could easily traverse through a network of MANY people by looking up friends of friends of friends...etc.

So I began to be concerned about the whole privacy issue. Especially so when I went to install an app, and they always ask:

"Allow access? Allowing access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work….By proceeding, you are allowing (name of app) to access your information and you are agreeing to the Facebook Platform User Terms of Service... you also agree to the (name of app) Terms of Service."

Which I’m pretty sure no one really reads – they could be agreeing to ANYTHING! (I would LOVE to write my own app and include ridiculously random things in the “Terms of Service” just for fun.) This is when I realized that any of MY friends who install apps have given permission for it to access MY info too - at least what they have access to. Is it only people over a certain age that this bothers? I remember reading the George Orwell's "1984" in 1974 and thinking it could never happen in 10 years (and it didn’t) but I see now that the possibility is definitely there -- not because of "big brother" but because of information that hundreds of thousands of people post at will! And I’m not generally one to be on the paranoid side.

When we briefly discussed privacy and safety issues in class Kimberly mentioned (and later bookmarked for the new media diigo group the reference to) an article published in the Feb-Mar 2008 issue of American Psychologist entitled: Online “Predators” and Their Victims Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment. The crux of this article is summarized nicely in it’s first paragraph. My take on it is NOT that it’s refuting the dangers, but only saying that it’s not (statistically speaking) the unknowing or innocents that are seduced – but the ones who already engage or seek to engage in risky behaviors. This doesn’t mean that there is not a risk – only that it is higher for those who fit a certain profile.

One question that was raised: If having all that information "out there" is risky or dangerous – have we heard of any "disasters" or large problems with it? There are two notes that may be of particular interest to those who ask this question. The first is that there has been at least one huge privacy infringement – but either it was not (by choice?) passed on via the same or similar networks that were breached, or those who received notification did not perceive it as noteworthy enough to pass along, or we have all chosen to forget about it.

The misuse of information to which I refer occurred August of 2006 and links to discussions about it are listed here including TechCrunch , wikipedia, wired and the NY Times. There were some efforts to spread the word which seem to be mostly ineffective based on the inability of anyone in class to quickly recall such an event. Several posts could be created from this event and its consequences alone, but I will refrain.

I also found an eye-opening 2008 computer science thesis written by Jack Lindamood entitled: Privacy Preserving Methods In Social Networking Data (This is a Proquest link: you may need to be signed in to a library database to access it). His thesis is fascinating for many reasons-- including a "machine learning algorithm"-- but more specific to this post, it shows what a machine can learn about you, simply by traversing facebook data from your friends!

This method of obtaining information by querying friends is not new, as anyone knows who is a friend, relative, or neighbor of someone who has applied for a position that needs a ultra high security clearance from the government. The difference is that you (ostensibly) know who you are giving the information to, who you are volunteering information about, and a general idea of why it is being collected. This information is all completely hidden from you when your electronic data is mined - data that at some point in time you gave permission to access with no more than a few grams of thoughtless pressure from your index finger when you installed the latest, coolest, facebook app – or signed up for some other social network "service".

The applications available to install on facebook are myriad. There seems to be a preponderance of apps that are trivial at best, and hopefully at worst, a waste of time. I even found a website that concurs about the dearth of any worthwhile apps. Though even most of their top 10 aren't all that great. I smiled as I read this interesting comment from a user of the Slide Funspace application :

"Do Not Grant Access Unless You Know What It Is (by Steven Brundage at 7:20am on October 3rd, 2008: ) This is actually an application that, once downloaded by you, allows others with it installed to know when you have viewed their profile. In my opinion, this application should be removed from FaceBook. I have no problem with such an application (let anyone choose what they want), but this one masquerades as something it is not. I'm going to report it, if I can find where to do so."

–That’s my whole point – giving a blanket permission for data access without knowing how it will be used is something I am not comfortable with. I’m sure it’s more than just this app that takes that "liberty".

On the other hand, I think I like the idea that you can write and put your own application "out there" and sort of make an end run around all of the traditional marketing and business roadblocks. There may even be money in it for a lucky few. I do like the picnik application I installed that lets me quickly and easily edit graphics and pictures. And yes, I admit I agreed to the "terms of service". Yes, I sold my soul for completion of a class assignment (j/k). There honestly weren’t many other applications that I was even interested in downloading though. Have I missed some app you just can't live without? Maybe I've looked for application love in all the wrong places, I dunno.

One other fact that people (especially those new to the job market) should know is that it’s not unusual for employers, perspective employers, or admissions committees to view your social networking account. Even if it’s an account you’ve ‘deactivated’ or deleted it’s usually available from a cached or mirrored site. If there is something on your account (post, photo, etc) that you (or a friend) posted indiscriminately, as a teen, in the heat of the moment, etc. it may be forever available. It can be viewed by potential employers and influence their decisions, and you won’t even be aware that they viewed it. You can find posts about this many places, here are just a few from msnbc, PCWorld, CBS News, and ZDNet (this last one has some do’s not just don’ts).

After my facebook foray and signing up for diigo and delicious (which by the way I really LIKE), it seems that the underlying trend is toward creating a "space" that will virally attract people - people with common friends, interests, objectives, etc. Even though there is talk about the "social objects" that these networks are built around, I think they are all after the same thing: members and whatever will attract and keep them, be it friends, applications, social objects, or a sense of a "personal portal" –your one-stop platform for whatever you want, whenever you want, and however you want it to be. In essence they want the "space" to become your world.

Social networks have existed throughout human history. But the recent ability to easily form those networks with individuals of such diverse locations, cultures and interests holds incredible potential. I subscribe to the philosophy that technology in general, and of itself, is merit neutral; there is potential to accomplish great good as well as potential for great harm and destruction. What determines the technology’s worth is how we choose to use it, and, as a result what the technology ends up supporting or even becoming, because of the sum of our individual choices. Do we think about this in our visits and web 2.0 behaviors, do we make conscious choices to improve what's in the cyber? If we don't, can we complain when it's not what it could be?...what do you think? Oh, and did you catch this on LDS Media Talk?

We're OFF!

2008-10-12T00:06:00.004-06:00

Blogs, tweets, wikis, bookmarking, sharing, etc are all just planets orbiting the sun which is the gravitational force at the center of web 2.0: social networks. I think that it will take more than one post to cover my thoughts and brief travel through this solar system. So here’s my advance organizer travel itinerary (which of course may or may not materialize as planned)

First just a post about my experience that began with the assignment to join facebook, and include sightseeing there and a couple forays into the land of facebook apps.
[The launch]

Next a post that summarizes travel through some scholarly research about social networks – and how that may (or may not) apply to education.
[Ports of call]

Then winding up with ideas about places to consider visiting “off the beaten path” –to explore curious ideas, to seek out unusual perspectives, to boldly go where no one has cared much to go before (probably for good reasons)
[Into the Brainstorm]

Optional side-travels: I may place a link to my journaled thoughts and musings that focus more on an eternal perspective of what this all “means” or where it might all fit from a personal and gospel perspective.

Welcome aboard… please prepare for take off... we ask you to place your comments in the upright but un-locked position…it should be a real…trip…(multiple meanings purposely implied)

Social Networking: Multiple views?

2008-10-06T13:04:00.010-06:00

"Overwhelmed into inactivity" is a favorite saying of a great friend of mine. She says that whenever there is so much to do/say/think about/process that wheels just spin instead of moving forward. It's not the deer-in-the-headlights-frozen-with-fear inactivity, but more like how your computer just kind of sits there and does nothing and yet does more than it's ever done before, while you're running several memory hogging apps, and then open ONE MORE! Churn. Thrashing. Lots is going on, but no visible signs of movement. So just imagine a little hourglass for this blog. Or for you 'other' folks the spinning wheel.

That's part of the reason that this entry is a placeholder for "the most thoughtful and perhaps longest" of my posts to date. [BTW that's a little scary as my biggest struggle is being succinct]. But the other reason this is a placeholder is that I'm not sure where my internal conversation about social networking is headed, and until that is all sorted out, my postings about the subject might be evidence of a multiple personality disorder (That's a joke. No it's not. Go away, who asked you?)

One other note (excuse?) is the battle I've had just today in attempting to install several Facebook applications. I decided it's time to quit for now and return later. For some reason one of my favorite quotes keeps coming to mind: "Never argue with an idiot. First they drag you down to their level and then they beat you with experience." Not that I think ALL Facebook applications are idiotic (it just seems like there's a preponderance of them?) The idea and potential of applications fascinates me, but I must say I have not been overly impressed with the whole experience so far. Stay tuned...I may feel differently this evening. (Yeah you will, I'll see to that. Right, you and Job's patience? That's it - I'm leaving until you can all get along. Hey, maybe you need more than ONE facebook account, hahahahahah. Or at least add us ALL as friends. Yeah!)

Two 'Other' Articles About Social Objects

2008-09-27T00:20:00.017-06:00

I thought I’d really hit PAY DIRT with this one entitled: The Consensual Definition of Social Objects. I mean, someone got consensus on that? Then I want to know what it is! (and let Smith and Searle in on it too).Ms Garretson must have been DECADES before her time!Haha.

I found an interesting article by Donald Norman entitled Sociable Design. He is the author of “The Design of Everyday Things,” “Emotional Design,” and “The Design of Future Things.” He lives at www.jnd.org.

While not about social objects in the theoretical or abstract so much, it’s definitely informative about concrete ‘social objects’ and their design. The last sentence of this quote intrigued me:

“Design of both machines and services should be thought of as a social activity,one where there is much concern paid to the social nature of the interaction. All products have a social component. This is especially true of communication products, whether websites, personal digests (blog), audio and video postings mean to be shared, or mail digests, mailing lists, and text messaging on cellphones. Social networks are by definition social. But where the social impact is obvious, designers are forewarned. The interesting cases happen where the social side is not so obvious.”

Educational Social Objects (Edsobs?)

2008-09-26T21:50:00.006-06:00

If, as Martin Weller posits, a social object is "something (real or virtual) that facilitates conversation", then educational content, assessments, and/or assignments can be social objects. The strength of the educational content as a social object would be directly related to how well or how much conversation is facilitated by it.

It seems to me that there are two ways that something might facilitate conversation: by enabling the process of conversation, or by stimulating a conversational response.

The compatibility of an LMS and (educational content as) social objects might logically be measured by how well an LMS enables the process of conversation, as well as how strongly the educational content it contains stimulates a conversational response.

Food could be considered a social object in that it enables the process of conversation by drawing people together. It also naturally stimulates conversational responses about it’s attributes (flavors, quality, preparation, effects, etc) and people’s preferences and experiences with it.

Food could serve metaphorically for education in that its quality and availability does not guarantee consumption – though it is often correlated with it. Certain types of food are preferred over others based on such things as personal preference and interest, as well as cultural and biological factors. Food can nourish as well as poison. It is possible to consume much food, and still be malnourished dependent on the food’s nutritional value, as well as the current nutritional needs of an individual. Nutritional needs are in part determined by conditions in which an individual lives, and the performance requirements and expectations placed upon them. Unmet nutritional needs, due to inaccessibility or inferiority of food, especially early in life, can have pernicious and lasting effects.

For me the best example of a social object both metaphorically and literally will always be an individual human being. An individual enables the process of conversation, as well as stimulates conversational responses. Individuals draw people together, especially and dramatically as they enter and leave the human existence. Individuals create, destroy, share, give, receive, judge, and value (or not), all other social objects. They are the “nodes” of any social network. The implication of this ‘metaphor’ for education is something that educators (formal and informal, aware and unaware) would all do well to remember: though there may be a “body” of educational content, it is only through the individual that it will ever have context, meaning, or worth.

Check that off the bucket list. (kind of?)

2008-09-20T20:59:00.007-06:00

Yes. I have now edited a Wikipedia article. I didn't even stress over word selection - because it was a number that I corrected. A search of BYU's online catalog listed 26 PhD programs. However the Wikipedia article on BYU listed the number of doctoral programs as 25. [Which makes me wonder how often the other numbers are updated] So I edited it.

Then the turmoil began. I found another reference to the same count later in the document and edited that. After I edited the second count, I noticed that it had a citation, so I checked it (which I should have done BEFORE editing). The citation was from BYU's website. On the web page it mentioned "as of Fall '07", and so I assumed it was accurate for that date. Rather than find a reference that backed my edit from searching and counting, I reverted both of my edits (call me lazy).

Kind of fruitless work, but in the process I discovered that there is a talk page for each Wikipedia article (a wiki with a history) and each editor can also create his/her own talk page as well (also a wiki with a history). So I created my own talk page and explained my two edits that I had promptly reverted. I also added my talk page to my 'watchlist' to see what, if anything, happens. I'm not holding my breath. :-)

Would Whacky Wikis Work?

2008-09-19T04:37:00.020-06:00

I think that David Wiley may have created a monster. I could blame it on his encouragement. But I won’t. I’ll stand accountable for my own thoughts. And my thought processes. Though I can’t blame him for my thoughts, YOU can blame him for me feeling a little more willing to share them with you. After all he encouraged me never to lose my perspective about unintended and off-the-wall uses of technology.

Wiki’s …where to start. First I must admit that I didn’t feel “so inclined” to edit a Wikipedia article. I have a hard enough time editing my OWN writing, why would I want to take on the responsibility of someone (or somethousand) else’s? So, if I don’t HAVE to I won’t. At least today. But I will add it to my class "bucket list" - something I want to do and experience before the class is over. Actually I guess we all edited a wiki when we added our blogs to the syllabus – but the syllabus isn't really like Wikipedia (yet?). But I digress…Here are some thoughts I’ve had about Wikipedia and wikis.

First of all I found an interesting website that lists weird Wikipedia articles (most of which are not up to Wikipedia standards by the way). On it, I found this referenced Wikipedia article about “open cola". It was especially amusing to me on several different levels (and connections). While still in that sort of recursive-folding-in-on-itself flavor I hit a gold mine with this Wikipedia article about unusual Wikipedia articles! That’s interesting in and of itself – HOWEVER- talk about educational uses! If you couldn’t hook some hard-core, I-dare-you-to-TRY-to-teach-me-something students with this, I don’t know what would. Of course I must first warn you that there are some less-than-rated-for-general-audiences entries here. However you could look through those and find many harmless yet extremely interesting or entertaining possibilities to tempt the ‘non-interested’ student.

Next I wandered off on the tangent in my mind that told me that the history feature of wikis alone holds a wealth of possibilities. Couldn’t that be a natural deposit of “real” data that is free-for-the-asking, and just waiting to be mined for the social ‘sciences’? I think so!

I also really liked Lyndell’s blog where she mused about family uses of wikis – because I had already thought of using a wiki for my family. I thought it would be a great way to build a family history – but in a very easy and fun sort of way. First of all someone thinks of a memorable family event that took place in the past like : “The Christmas Mom Really Delivered” – which has reference to when my youngest brother was born. This person then writes about the event as THEY remembered it and how it affected their perspectives, day, life, etc. They let others in the family know it's there (if they don't have an RSS feed) and encourages them to add (or edit) in their 2 cents worth! I’ve noticed that when all of us get together to reminisce we all remember things a little differently. Sometimes we argue about the differences, sometimes we laugh, but I always wish we could record everyone’s version. A wiki could do that, and even the editing wars might be fun –if there were any- because you never really lose anything, and part of the charm and interest is to see the history anyway.

Lastly, I had a way-off-the-wall thought about: what would it be like if laws were created and changed by wiki??? I mean isn’t that BY the people? Well at least those with access to the internet… What if you tried THAT out as a simulation in a highschool government class – or even at girls’/boys’ state? Or try the same thing with class rules or – gasp- grading policies? Something to think about anyway…as if there were a dearth!

Strange Intersections

2008-09-19T04:37:00.018-06:00

I couldn't decide which blog to post this in. I finally decided to post it in my Web Analytics blog - and link to it here. Warning: it's not short. And as an update see this link on the same blog.

Some Educational Uses for Blogs

2008-09-11T03:07:00.018-06:00

Hmmm...let's see isn't that something like: Some Educational Uses for Reading and Writing? Besides using and encouraging those two quintessential educational skills, with Blogs you can easily add multimedia, hyperlinks, and cool “widgets”. The possibilities for educational uses are limitless - and so it seems are the blogs/webpages that discuss educational uses for blogs like what you see here and here and here and here (and I could go on ad nauseum).

So what did I find ‘out there’ that was interesting or insightful? I liked a Reuters article about businesses use of blogs. Think about it: in many ways students are educational clients, and hopefully consumers, if not paying customers. Read the following excerpt and see how it could apply to education:

'Indeed, one of the best ways to achieve credibility when your business is small is through an informative and educational blog, say veteran business bloggers. Let key debates and other important topics affecting your industry drive the content, and always provide a way for readers to become part of the discussion. Post frequently and monitor your traffic. "It's really just information and talking about all areas of the process," says Robin von Halle, Conception Connection's president. The blog "does foster a sense of community and enlist people in every facet that we work with...' (emphasis mine)

The one blog about educational uses for blogs that made me want to comment the most (though I didn’t there so I will here) is this posting on how NOT to use blogs. Though there are probably some useful guidelines about any type of technology, I really couldn’t decide whether the author of the post was trying to be the 'blog police' or truly wanted to ‘rescue’ others from spending time in an effort that is doomed for failure. Sorry, no rescuing necessary. I’ve observed that just as much (often more) can be learned from a failure as from a success. So I think bloggers will soon come to their own conclusions from their own experiences about whether or not a particular use of a blog is an effective educational use.

I really need to say at least something about three of Christoph Merrill's four 'rules':

1) Never never approach blogs as discussion boards, listservs or learning management systems

First of all, should you ever say “never” (much less “never never”)? Yes, the learning management system seems a bit of a stretch, and granted if all you have is a hammer, everything is going to look like a nail, but “never approach blogs as discussion boards” – really? Does he mean to say that if you want the function of a discussion board (discussion in a particular format) don't use blogs? Why not? He doesn't really say. Maybe I’m totally missing his point – but to me it still seems to be a sweeping (and misled) generalization.

I think Mr. Merrill’s second rule rates (only) a flat-out “HUH?!?” from me:

2)Group blogs are a bad idea and don’t work: Sure there’s a place for collaborative/group blogs but that place is not in education.

“HUH?!?”

Lastly I must take issue with his third ‘rule’:

3)Don’t try and force blogging into something else.

Though potentially dangerous, using something for which it was not initially intended* is how many great ideas are generated. If you're using a blog for a web-site because it’s easier, so what? It re-confirms the Simple Wins article.

In fact, in opposition to this “rule” what I’d really LIKE to see (but haven't yet) are any off-the-wall, out-there, ultra-creative educational uses for blogs. You know, the kinds of ideas that are catalysts for other similarly ‘non-conforming’ ideas that may end up generating a whole different type of application or use. Ideas that are usually so different, yet so simple that everyone says: “I wonder why no one thought of THAT sooner!” So...do you have any of those types of ideas spasm-ing just outside your consciousness that you could bring to the surface with a little extra thought (or sleep deprivation :-) ) ? Please…by all means…share!! And maybe in the morning I’ll have a few too. For inspiration try something like Cahlan Sharp: BLOGS = DONUTS?

*As a mother of five (four of which are boys) I have ample personal experiences with this - but those are being saved for a future 'I survived Motherhood' blog. If you're curious - ask me about the vacuum cleaner used as a novice exterminator's tool.

Why I'm taking Dave Wiley's New Media class

2008-09-08T14:14:00.001-06:00

Here are a few reasons (in no particular order)

1. Elder Ballard's BYU-Hawaii graduation address
2. It's the little "extra" incentive to jump into blogging that I need. I kept telling myself I would do it once "things slow down" a little - which I realize is only a self deception (or a pleasant fantasy) that such a thing will happen in the foreseeable future.
3. To start my creative juices running about how it could help accomplish some church-related goals and interests.
4. It's just a very exciting bonus that we'll be highly involved in open access discussions/activities. That's something I could become (over?)zealous about, because it adds passion and purpose to my natural interest and absorption in educational uses for technology.
5. Fun!
6. Association with great people and their attendant minds and spirits :-)

Blog title explanation

2008-09-08T11:12:00.001-06:00

Really, it was just a whim, because I needed a name -- BUT -- it also is a subtle warning about:

my propensity to make any type of written communication longer than is necessary (or sometimes even prudent)

a possible downside of open access (or open content) initiatives, which is: SOOO much content that we are even more adrift in a sea of information without the requisite tools and skills (or restraint) to efficiently find only what is needed