Learning, teaching and research

There is a lively discussion at the moment about the relationship between twitter and blogging in a ‘cloud’ of the same name, is twitter killing the blog?, at Cloud Works. I’m not quite sure where the discussion started but it was the topic of a debate between Josie Fraser and Graham Attwell at a F-ALT09 (ALT-C 2009 fringe conference) session at the Contact Theatre, Manchester on Tuesday 8thSeptember. The answer to the question, for me at least, is no. The evidence suggests that regular and frequent tweeting seems to be associated with a reduction in the frequency of blogging. Although this seems to be the case for me, I was already blogging less often before I became involved with Twitter and tweeting. In fact I am not a regular tweeter and tend to do so in little pulses of activity around conferences and other events, for instance the ALT 2009 conference that took place last week. On the other-hand, my lurking in Twitter is rather more constant. Speaking for myself, I feel that my use of Twitter may well revitalise my blogging, perhaps not so much by increasing the frequency of posts but, hopefully, by stimulating rather more considered and reflective posts. Generally in the past I have posted in order to record and clarify ideas and produce notes and resources for my future reference. This has been done largely for my own benefit but with the notion that it might be of interest and use to others and perhaps even solicit some response by way of comment. If so, this was a bonus rather than the prime motivation. Ideas about developing a ‘digital’ identity and a personal research network came later when I began to ‘listen in’ on conversations round these issues in the edublogosphere.  However, because my posts are beginning to be inspired by conversations in Twitter, they may become of greater interest and relevance to others than before.

Here is the gist of my argument. Twitter produces ideas, thoughts and topics as part of a fairly loose distributed discussion amongst those I follow and engage with on Twitter. As a matter of interest, I enjoy the social banter and seeming trivia as well as finding useful ideas, references, information and relevant focused discussions. All the ‘useful’ content is coming to me filtered by a network of people who in some sense I know, relate to, empathise with, value and trust as more rounded and real (rather than virtual) friends and colleagues, all to some extent sharing a similar(ish) world view and hopes and aspirations. This comes over far more strongly in Twitter than through the more formally written, structured and focused blog posts. This is a big plus for Twitter. So the general picture emerging is as follows. Discussion, banter, information exchange etc. in Twitter leads to the gradual emergence of an idea for a blog post. Some topic and a set of ideas and thoughts coalesces. In this respect discussion and comment precedes and shapes the blog post. The post summarises and clarifies (in the eyes of the author at least) thinking on the tweeted topic and, hopefully, feeds back into the ongoing discussion in Twitter. If this is the case, the relationship between Twitter and blogging is one of mutual enhancement with the bonus that your co-tweeters and bloggers are already contributors to the blog post and are more rounded and human to you as a result of the broader social contact made within Twitter. Blog posts become sites for summary and reflection within the stream of tweets and as such, and to some some extent, may contribute to, create eddies, even divert, the stream itself.

Another quick thought. Some one at ALTC2009 said (was it Alan Cann?) that their use of RSS has diminished somewhat since using Twitter. I think this is true for me. My feed reader only tells me what has been posted. My twitter network tells me what is worth reading – the wisdom of a crowd I have selected and am very happy and priviledged to be some part of. And technology, used in ways that its originators did not intend or foresee, has made this possible.

If anyone doubts the value of Twitter and the people it connects, surely the use of Twitter for the #altc2009 conference has given them pause for thought? What a pity the ALT powers that be did not see fit  to project the #altc2009 Twitter stream in the keynote presentations. A lost opportunity. Perhaps next time.

Tags:   altc2009 · blogging · falt09 · twitter2 Comments

The first meeting of the F-ALT09 group was on what might be meant by ‘postdigital’ led by Dave White. I posted First thoughts on ‘postdigital’  here before the conference. It was a very interesting and lively session and David has posted about it since – Post-digital – an update? I left a couple of comments on the post earlier today but I thought I would post them to my own blog so I can expand on there here more easily in future (and correct the spelling errors).

Pat Parslow has also reponded to David’s post - A technical post on the post-technical.

Noting that on-line platforms do not come with manuals and this doesn’t seem to be an issue for users, David says:

This is not necessarily because they are especially simple to use, but because they are massively multi-user and simply by watching the behaviour of fellow users it is possible to ‘pick up’ not only how to use the platform but also why you might want to use it. This should come as no surprise as we are particularly good at learning by observing fellow members of our own species. (There will be a fancy pedagogic/sociological term for this. If you know it then please insert it here as you read.)

I think this is a useful description of an important aspect of informal learning whatever fancy a name sociologists might give it – mimesis perhaps.

David goes on to consider if the term ‘post-technical’ might be closer to what he is getting at. Personally I don’t think we will ever be post-technical society as technology always evolves and there is always something new – these days often quite awesome. However, post-digital might be possible in the same sense that we are post-literate. That is not to say that we are beyond literacy or it has been abolished. It is just that, in our society, literacy is a given, an unstated assumption of practically all we do. Much of what we do is based on literacy and would be impossible without it. But this is now unremarkable and unremarked. As David says, “For many the term (post-digital) seems to imply a discarding of digital technologies as if they were no longer important” and this isn’t helpful. What may be happening is the emergence of a society where digital technologies and affordances become ubiquitous and will condition all our activities and experience in a way that is as unremarkable and taken for granted as post-Gutenberg literacy is today. We are witnessing the cultural shift that conditions and is conditioned by digital technologies and, like the colonial anthropologists of old, we need to explore and understand it now while it is in transition, visible and still remarkable; before we take it for granted. The best political thinking and sociology is often done when society is changing rapidly and previous ways of thinking and understanding seem to fall short, as in the birth of modern political thought and sociology in the transition from the medieval to the modern industrial world. As Graham Attwell says in his thought provoking impressions of  the ALT-C conference – Thoughts on Alt-C - “The perspectives we are currently using, to come to an understanding of the cultural/educational influence of digital technologies and the opportunities therein, need to be reconsidered”. He made it pretty clear at the post-digital discussion, and with some justification, that social sciences and particularly sociology have not offered us much by way of understanding of the current changes in technology and culture. It pains me to agree with this as sociology is my business mainly. However, my feeling is that there are important sociological theories and concepts around that offer ways into dealing with and understanding current changes more concretely and I hope to expand on these here in due course.

Tags:   altc2009 · falt09 · postdigitalNo Comments.

Home tired after the ALT-C 2009 conference In dreams begins responsibility at Manchester. Thought I’d do a quick post of impressions now with a couple of promises of more detailed posts soon(ish) particularly on the VLE is Dead and the Wordpress and BuddyPress sessions. Random thoughts:

Great to see so many people I have exchanged ideas, information, bad jokes and trivia with on Twitter and spend time with them, especially at the F-ALT09 sessions. Definitely a highlight. I just love pubs where you stick to everything if I’m with the right people.

Never got the hang of the wash/bog/shower cupboardette  which tripped me up everytime I went in and every time I came out.

Take loo paper next time. Manchester Uni accomodation has the cheapest this side of the civilised world.

Never use red to ‘highlight’ text on a black background in Powerpoint slides.

Never admit that you wouldn’t use a blog in a million years if you are giving a paper on how hard it is to get students to blog.

Do not give the impression that you align with the neocons when giving a keynote. Still very impressed with Martin Bean’s keynote. Giz us a job.

I need an iTouch badly. Please ask if you would like my birthday date.

I’d love a dump of James Clay’s brain, suitably filtered of course.

Must try not to be part of the ‘death or retirement’ strategy for overcoming institutional inertia but may have no choice.

That’s it for now. Thanks to all my real and virtual edtech and enlightened teacher chums for making everyday interesting and often inspirational and fun.

Tags:   altc2009 · falt09No Comments.

The Monday evening opening session of the F-ALT09 programme (http://f-alt.wetpaint.com/) is a discussion of what the notion of ‘postdigital’ means. Within the humanities and social sciences there has developed a rather sceptical view on many claimed post-phenomenon, for instance post-modernity, post-structuralism and so on. The general feeling is that ‘post’ is usually an overstatement of the case.  One useful way to think about what postdigital might be getting at is that we are approaching a time when the novelty of the digital age will pass and an emerging generation will take what we find new completely for granted and unremarkable. Rather like the notion of a post-literate society, we have not gone beyond literacy or superseded it in any way: we just take it for granted that most of the world, our world at least, can read and write. The next generation no doubt will be brought up in a world of personal mobile communications, texting, email, googling, social networking, downloading and streaming audio and video and all the things we see as novel and remarkable. We are already seeing the merging of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ communities and the distinction will probably fall into disuse eventually. So we will not become postdigital, rather it will become a ubiquitous and taken for granted aspect of life. However, I think we may be at an advantage living in this transitional period. The next generation of students and colleagues will not have experienced a time, or an education, that did not include all things digital. Thinking about the experience of students today and even more so over the next 10 to 15 years, made me reflect upon the incredible difference between their experience and my own experience of school as a child between 1951 and 1962 and university as a mature student between 1978 and 1981. I could enumerate in some detail what the differences are, as no doubt many of my colleagues could. Working today with students at university my feeling is that in some ways I have been better prepared for operating in and making sense of our new information saturated digital age than they have. The real digital divide is about the heavy premium put on the  information and digital literacy skills required today and it may be the case that students of earlier generations where better equipped by their educational experience to develop these than students who have been brought up entirely in the digital age.

Tags:   altc2009 · falt09 · postdigitalNo Comments.

Having missed ALT-C 2008 despite it being held at my own University in Leeds, I am particularly looking forward to this year’s conference in Manchester, 8th to 10th September. Following the #altc2009 and #falt09 tags in Twitter, the Friendfeed groups (http://friendfeed.com/altc2009 and http://friendfeed.com/f-alt) and the conference Crowdvine has only sharpened my anticipation.

Looking through the abstracts for papers and presentations there are so many things I would like to go to but can’t because of time clashes. However, some of the delegates will be using Twitter and the Friendfeed group to comment on sessions they are going to and every session has a discussion area set up in the conference Crowdvine. One way of another I hope to pick up on the sessions I will miss via these discussions and reflections. I’ll probably use a combination of all 3 depending on where the on-line action seems to be for each session.  The Crowdvine set up lets you know who has expressed an interest in each session and you can see their individual programmes if they have used the calendar tool to create one. In this way, and via any session based on-line activity, I hope to identify people who may be happy to continue a discussion or who are likely to blog on their sessions. I will try to discipline myself to write a series of posts here on the sessions I go to. And since I have added this blog as a service to Friendfeed any new posts here will be pushed to my Twitter and Friendfeed profiles. Oh what a tangled web we weave!

Update 29th August. My Schedule so far http://altc2009.alt.ac.uk/profiles/52918/talks. Also although posts from this blog are pulled into Friendfeed they don’t seem to then get pushed on to Twitter.

Tags:   altc2009 · falt09No Comments.