Running on the flat

I got here. The end of week 3. The catching up was like running uphill, and the breathing became a little easier on reaching the flat.  It might also have had something to do with the course content:
Reasserting the Human' Exploring these materials was more like jogging in worn -in-trainers.

I liked the inclusion of the Real Deal  Toyota advert. Well, how could any course considering the role of technology not include a car somewhere.?
Although city life is reality for millions of people, it is shown here as the artificial, digital, or virtual.
Cities across the world  have rapidly grown because of technology, often sucking the life out of the countryside that surrounds them, consuming the space to grow further. Most are not as modern, clean and organised as the one portrayed here.
The irony  is that in order to escape from the city the man needs the ultimate shiny Toyota technology. Evidently careful not to pick a bank holiday week-end to travel, he finds  no traffic jams, just wide open spaces. This is where REAL driving takes place isn't it? I have wondered for years why car manufacturers engineer vehicles capable of travelling way faster than any road speed limit in the world. Is it to indulge  this fantasy?
 I am city bred, but have lived in a  rural enviroment for over 20 years. I have seen Toyota man many times!  He drives as if he is starring in the advert,  He only encounters the REAL DEAL reality when the technology fails and the car breaks down! Then he discovers he can't get a signal on his mobile phone, and wonders why there is not a breakdown truck just waiting round the next corner to help, (even if cover was included when he bought the car!) If he has crashed, but  alive, conscious, and in pain, he wishes the roads were not quite so deserted, and when he is found, wonders why it takes so long to get to a hospital.
The virtual world is the only place were it is safe to take technology for granted!

Film 4 They’re made out of meat, was an amusing appraisal of what or who humans are. It follows a well worn storyline of experiencing humans from an alien perspective. I found myself thinking about the late 70's series Mork and Mindy,..and the brilliant Dr Xargle series of (children's?) books. Highly recommended light relief from academic tomes, and perfect gift for  any new parents!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/832171.Dr_Xargle_s_Book_of_Earthlets 

Watching Professor Steve Fuller's Tedx lecture was thought provoking yet comforting. It made the very techno-orientated MOOC seem more human, and not because humanity was the subject of his lecture. It had the same effect as the hangout, in putting faces to the learning.
He looked at historical definitions that limited the scope of who was regarded as human. I understood this to mean that because there has not always been a consistant definition over time past there is no reason why there  should be in the future.I have to say that the idea of enhanced humans somewhat disturbing, It is of course available already with cosmetic surgery, laser eye surgery, medical implants etc It seems to me that to be an enhanced human, you need an enhanced bank account! I am glad that he thought it was too soon to give up on the 'humanist project'. A Charter for human rights has only as yet existed for a brief period of the long history of 'humans'. If it has failed thus far is it because the UN is a collection of government representatives. Maybe the internet enables  individuals to make the direct connections that will help it succeed ?

Monke, L (2004) The Human Touch, EducationNext  . This just put into very eloquent words all my reservations about technology and young children. I particularly like the counter argument to the need to prepare the children for the high tech world of work.
Considerations of the real world and virtual worlds have been made already in this MOOC. Our view of the future is a virtual world, a fantasy, informed by  knowledge of the present. It only becomes real when with time, it  becomes the present.  It may then look and feel very different from the expectation. To substantialy alter a child's experience of now, to enrich an adult's fantasy of the future seems wrong to me.
 I wonder if there is anyone on this MOOC teaching in Pennslyvania or Ohio who has Amish children in their class? How are their cultural differences respected within school ?

Now, will those old trainers last out for the last stretch of the course?

Broken Bones and a Ripped 'Red Bag'

 As I am trying to use more 'digital tools, I searched soundcloud for an appropriate sound effect, to introduce this post, to no avail. I found a film industry source-  one on that required payment, but I don't have a film maker's budget to study this MOOC. So I shall resort to crediting anyone reading this, with an imagination, and trust that will not be considered too old fashioned :

Puff  Pant Puff Pa nt WHeeeeeze  Pfffff Pant Pant wheeze

 I am, I fear, along way behind in the MOOC Marathon., and am still reflecting on Week 2.
I did however have to divert to the first aid post,and onward to hospital, to assist a race onlooker, namely, my elderly parent. Having sustained a broken arm, she will need me to regularly divert to follow the scenic route for the remainder of the course. As if that were not enough. I have been forced to spend  almost a week as a digital  bystander following a family broadband bereavement. This was a 'torn red bag ' situation that sellotape would not resolve.
The long wait for the next generation wi-fi box to be sent from BT, served only to highlight my existing concerns about access to internet in rural areas. No 'internet cafe' to go to, and a public library with opening hours reduced to less than 2 days a week! It all seems a long way from the vision of the techno future as depicted in week two films.
 I am only going to mention one. A Day Made of Glass. It is a Utopian vision from the perspective of  those who produced it, and I know many people reviewing it were excited about the possibilities portrayed for education, but I found it disturbing, and certainly FAR too clean . Even in Orwellian style dystopias there are characters who are aware that they are being deprived of something !
Of course it is only an advert for glass, but the marketing strategy here is as transparent as the glass! High tech education is going to be expensive, so aim the products at a market that can afford it !
This is doubly disturbing. Not only will  social inequalities widen, but the advantaged, will as now, end up in positions of authority. The prospect of a world run by those given such a sterile, artificial education, is very scary.
I did find it interesting to note the cultural perspectives in all the comments, particularly with regard to school uniforms, which were used in the film to denote elite status. If Corning intended this advert for a global  market then it seems arrogant to have projected this particular stereotype.

Course Concussion

Week one of this E Learning and Digital Cultures course is almost over. The marathon analogy has life in it yet, so I will stick with it for now.

 I feel as if the shoe laces on my trainers where tied together and caused me to trip over the starting line. I have limped in a concussed fashion since.

A marathon route through an interesting city provides much distraction from the goal of reaching the finishing line. The challenge is to sort out which of the distractions will provide the food for thought required to fuel the journey, and which are indulgences to bookmark for the post race convalesance.

The required refreshment stop offered 4 short films on the subject of  utopian/dystopian views of technology.
I particularly liked the first two.

Benditto Machine was very dystopian. The question of who was controling who was not, for me, really clear.  Was some sinister being pulling strings? I do not know. Much clearer was the willingness of humans to embrace, worship and depend on the lastest incarnation of the technology god, and perhaps, their fickleness, in the undignified disposal of their deposed idols.

Inbox was short and rather sweet. It was a novel way of demonstrating the power of  currrent technology to connect people. I detected a splash of warning about dependency though. Any teacher who has ever a planned a lesson requiring a live internet link will surely appreciate the despair of the torn red bag moment.
How many such  moments are there when there is a mobile phone outage?

The core reading, Chandler:  Technological  Determinism. is in race sustinance terms, as dry as ships' biscuits, yet it provides the calories needed. Perhaps the Google Hangout provided the tot of rum or glucose drink to go with it. It was interesting to see the faces behind the organisation of this well organised race.
( In deference to them, should I have used an analogy to the Edinburgh rather than London marathon?)
Watching this I was quickly reminded of my concerns about access and inclusion, as local broadband speed was again found wanting.

The #ecmdchat session  on twitter last night was a diversion into a lively, noisy, pub if ever there was one! It was great fun, but was it a good idea to go there when I was already concussed ?

There is a treasure chest of race training techniques,( ie digital tools )to expolre. I have opened accounts with google plus, diigo and wiki,  to add to the facebook, twitter and pinterest ones I had already. On reflection, this could be red herring stuff. Changing training techniques when you are already in a race is not such a good idea. If I don't delete these soon, I will forget the passwords anyway. I may have to explore and persevere with something new in order to produce a 'digital artifact' but that begs the question is the assignment about content, or mastery of a new tool?

From bare feet to superfast broadband

If all the course parcipitants were actually massing at the start of marathon, it would be interesting to survey the range of footwear worn. The elite runners will no doubt have some hi-spec kit. There may be a few who have gone for the fashion statement, in order to be noticed. Most I suspect will be wearing what is most comfortable within their budget, and available to buy or borrow . Anyone participating in flip-flops or bare feet is surely going to struggle unless perhaps they are in the wheelchair event.

Does the way we present our podiatric digits have any relation to the digital divide? The UN may well have passed a worthy resolution to say access to the internet should be a basic human right, but how should access be defined? Without a considered definition it will be of no more use than saying it is a basic human right to have footwear. Unsuitable footwear can actually be a bigger handicap than having non at all.

It would only be interesting to know what brand of sports footwear course participants wear  if it did indeed relate to how they access the internet to persue this course.
Is internet access their own or borrowed ( home, work or library?)
Do they share a computer or have one for their exclusive use?
Is internet access via satelite, dial-up or broadband ?
If the latter, what is the average broadband speed of connection?

Online learning has so much potential. Can it be inclusive and reach places that establishment based learning can't or will it just add to the choices already available for those living in large cities, and deepen the digital divide?

The Crowd at the Starting Line.

Coursera DID send the links and suggestions a month or more ago, but I left it all to the last minute. This evening I checked into the facebook group, and searched for twitter posts with the edcmooc hash tag. Now I feel overwhelmed. This is a BIG event. This is the London Marathon of learning.There are hundreds...or thousands? of celebral athletes massing at the starting line. One thing is for sure, I am not in the elite runners section! My digital fitness is hovering at litttle more than analogue level.
With all the dismay of an athlete whose trusted trainers have split, I have discovered that my laptop has digital conjunctivitis.otherwise known as sticky " i ". So the chances of typing errors abound!