Connecting with others of intelligence!

Updated: 24th Feb, 2005 - addition from Headrush

Ken at Weblogs in Higher Education talks about a posting he read by a blogger, Dhar, on hiding the moves. Check it out here.

This relates to my earlier postings about Connected Intelligence and The Design Process. See, what goes around comes around! Reusing information! ;o)

I'm buoyed by the fact that there are others out there in the world who are thinking of the way we do-the way we be-the way we think! It's a nice connection...

Good timing from this post at Headrush - Creating Passionate People. Again, this applies to Dhar's thoughts about making things look simple - I am a visual person and really make lasting linkages when working with graphics or diagrams. I begin to see relationships between concepts, structures, theories, etc in this format. Not only that I seem to be able to recall things more easily where I possibly didn't before!

I still think it's important though that we also create a space in which people are able to experience things, not just be told or shown things. We learn much better by doing! The E-Learning Queen has much to say on this topic too!

From the balcony of the privileged...

I am in wonderment of our relative freedom of speech in 'the West' in light of this article in The Age about the plight of journalists in Zimbabwe:

Three reporters for major international news organisations have fled Zimbabwe and a fourth is apparently in hiding after police and intelligence agents searched their offices and threatened to arrest them for espionage and slandering the state.

The actions appear to be part of a campaign to suppress international coverage of events in Zimbabwe before crucial national elections on March 31....

Even this fairly short news story does not fully capture the gravity of the situation in which these journalists find themselves! We are so removed from this! News stories are being told with much more involvement of the journalist (remember Hunter S Thompson?). This example from a site called InteractiveNarrative shows how journalists are developing stories and breakiong down the line between objective journalism (if there is such a thing anyway) and participatory journalism!

What really captures me in this is that my senses get involved -- I am a sensing, experiential person, over being logical and rational per se. That is, I am more comfortable following my intuition than I am following logic and rules! Not that I totally disregard thopse of course, but it is my preference to rely on intuition and 'sensing' in order for me to feel comfortable in hanlding situations on a daily basis.

Online journalism asks a lot of us these days but is also quickly responding to viewers preferences in accepting news in various forms. I used to open my email program first thing when logging into my computer, now I first click my Bloglines to check for updates on my subscribed blogs!! Things change with your needs as they become better faciltiated by technologies I think...

...again, a rather privileged position don't you think? I'll leave with something by reporter John Donnelly.

Ciao from the balcony -- for now!

Is the future academy about connected intelligence?

Following on from recent posts about designing the learning experience, etc, I came across this great post at the Experience Designer Network!

I would ask: Are our educational institutions about developing intelligence? Or do they simply perpetuate the socioeconomic status quo?

Also, Ana Viseu writes about a connected intelligence workshop and argues for its relevance with references to Castells, Levinson and Olso, among others...and higlights

how Connected Intelligence as a practice fits into the landscape of the current theoretical discourse about the development of media and current concepts of the essentially social nature of intelligence. This fit of theory and practice is exciting and indicates potential of CI both as a pragmatic approach as well as a field for research.

And here's more about connected intelligence and its impact on the education system: Connected Intelligence Impact.

Sweat shop academies

Susan Smith Nash writes a very clever article about How to Eliminate Academic Sweatshops in Xplana (Feb 9, 2005).

Her suggestions are commonsensical and to the point. I love her comment about doing away with poorly designed LMS:

Get Rid of Bad LMS Design. Perhaps the quickest way to a sweatshop is to use a horrible learning management system that does not archive in any sort of effective way, does not integrate with online support services (the Oracle database, or whatever is being used), does not allow group uploading of files, and requires absurd levels of clicking between screens.

And I agree, that it is all too easy to nag about the problem - it IS about time we got in and did something about it!

...and then there's this!

If the world DOES fall into social and indecent chaos, I want to be in Dave Pollard's camp!
His uplifting article titled "In the year 2045..." was timely to the current discussion on our changing social fabric worldwide!

Perhaps I'll listen and take notes with Tony Delroy tonight when he talks with his guest about Pain Management! ;op

Knowledge workers - the millenial academic?

Pink's article in Wired on the left brain-right brain paradigm, tells us that '... Peter Drucker gave ... professionals an enduring [endearing?], somewhat wonky, name: knowledge workers'.

What distinguished members of this group and enabled them to reap society's greatest rewards, was their 'ability to acquire and to apply theoretical and analytical knowledge.

Pink calls the new age of information the Conceptual Age.

This reminded me of a recent ABC Radio feature on Tony Delroy's Nightlife, with Demographer, Bernard Salt (Wednesday 9th Feb, 2005). They discussed the changing demographics of Australian society from the seachangers to the 'treechangers', helicopter kids, and more! They discussed the characteristics of the babyboomers, gen x-ers and the y generation (today's teenagers and early twentysomethings).

This is quite topical at the moment. Salt commented in reply to a talkback question that todays 'millenials' are not intersted in blue collar jobs and want to get into the business, IT, communications, etc white collar world.

The Learning Space - new ways of knowing

It's funny, I've tried to write this entry three times over the last two months - each time it comes out sort of stale... new ways of knowing using new ways of communicating? There is a lot that is new, but old ways prevail often in terms of comfort, reliability (ie. better the devil you know!), habit...all those things!

I've decided NOW to post this - gotta get the prickly fuzzies out! ;o) It was while reading this post at Weblogs in Higher Education, that I thought well, this is kind of saying how I'm feeling right now... a little frustrated, perhaps even a little jaded? Maybe jaded isn't the right word - more 'challenged' and not knowing exactly what the best tool(s) is/are to get into the swing of dealing with it! [Hmmm, sounds like a Gemini trait to me!]...

Source: Regina Russell

...bloggers stretch their own job descriptions, making new things normal a bit at a time...

The same goes for those of us hoping to push the bounds of our job descriptions, particularly in academia. What will the millenial academic be like? What will drive them? What will they strive for? Who will they look to? History? The future? The here and now?

I think, with this second, more considered, wave of e-learning particularly, we have a great opportunity to explore new ground in light of our pedagogies and practices in teaching and learning. We're on the verge of new discoveried... that's if we don't drown under the growing weight of administrative tasks and job descriptions which read more like video player instructions!

OK, maybe it's not that bad, but managing these frustrations is important if we are all to perform our duties and still feel creative and enthusiastic about our work/professions. As an ed designer, it's important to transcend these frustrations to be able to work with teaching academics on developing possibilities that can enhance their students' learning. I'm all for opening the curtains and sliding the window open a little to let in the fresh air, rather than saying don't open the window the fumes will come in!