When we are out together dancing MOOC to MOOC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucianaruivo/3213137492/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Luiciana Ruiva

It was not until somebody said somewhat tongue in cheek yesterday that they liked my blog but that I did not update it regularly enough, I got that blogging guilt feeling. I was so good at blogging during February when I was part of the eLearning and Digital Cultures MOOC, although I did not do a final reflection as promised but I did complete the assessment and got my certificate. However, I have not blogged about the Disruptive Technologies MOOC also run by Coursera, my current MOOC outing. I suppose one of the reasons is because it was Easter and I started a bit late, but isn't that the beauty of MOOCs you can start whenever, well with some that is the case e.g. Saylor Foundation, however with Coursera you are bound by dates and times if you want to fully participate. I have been trying to play catch-up, I am almost there about half a week behind at the moment.

I think with eLearning and Digital Cultures, which was created using a curatorial approach, according to Jeremy Knox from EDCMOOC team, it had some excellent resources which I wanted to share, blogging for me seemed the best way to do this and I could integrate a bit of reflection at the same time. In addition, I was unable to contribute to the discussions as I normally would, as they were vast and too open, so I used my blog and Twitter to chrystallize my thoughts. I think, also, I found the concepts presented quite challenging, initially I think I did not have the patience for this, I wanted something more practical, possibly because when you are working full-time and have over 100 mile round commute it is difficult to muster the brain energy. In the end I did quite enjoy the theoretical challenge, it reminder me of my Sociology degree, although I was quite selective with respect to what I focused on. I was a bit disappointed about the lack of community despite valiant hard work attempts by participants, but unless there is some system that forces you into groups, I think Twitter is the only manageable back up. For those who would like to see the assessment outputs of this MOOC here is mine and a link to other participants.

• Feminism and Technology Site self created site that begins to look at technological determinism within a feminist framework and self created animation
• Artefacts Created by MOOCers on the course

The University of Maryland's MOOC run by the engaging Hank Lucas and his side kick dog Frankie...yes dog, is more practically focused. It looks at how well-known companies succeeded and failed in the context of disruptive technologies. I am on week 2 and so far there we have looked at the demise of Kodak, and the comparative rise and falls of Borders and Amazon, Netflix and Blockbusters. We have also been introduced to the Survivor Model

A company’s survival depends on an early move to either adopt an entirely new business model or morph the existing model to take advantage of the disruptive innovation. The latter option, said Lucas, is more feasible and has been the approach of the early survivors.

And the box score to analyse the industries which scores the incumbent's dilemma (Board of Directors, CEO and employees) out of ten (1 low 10 high) within the context of adopting new technologies on their:

• Denial with respect acknowledgement of new technology/innovation
• History with respect to using innovation and/or changing business model
• Resistance to change
• Mindset, openness with respect new innovation
• Brand, the strength
• Sunk Costs, the amount need to invest
• Profitability, how profitable previously 
• Lack of imagination

 I feel the Disruptive Technologies MOOC in comparison to Digital Cultures has been more thought provoking rather than thought challenging. For some this course may be a little bit dry but for me this has got me thinking about my own practice and professional approach as a middle manager, that currently manages a team of innovators within an inherited bureaucracy Higher Education, which also wants to push innovation. I, also, the like delivery, I felt distanced from those that delivered the Digital Cultures MOOC, there was a lack of tutor presence. However, Hank Lucas' (with Frankie) personable presentation, together with his video integrated slides and his scribbling on the slides as he talks, does replicate better the tutor presence, even though it is recorded, but it might not be to everyone's taste and you may want to change your MOOC partner and start another dance.  

Week 3 #EDCMOOC We were only being human

TechAdmin
http://www.flickr.com/photos/techadmiin05/2298049393/ 

The chorus of The Pet Shop Boy's song "Being Boring goes - "'Cause we were never being boring; We had too much time to find for ourselves; And we were never being boring; We dressed up and fought, then thought: "Make amends"; And we were never holding back or worried that Time would come to an end" I sometimes see our engagement in technology as a ceaseless attempt to make sure we are not being bored, we now have the answer to any question via the WWW, if we phrase it well, there is no sense of wonderment. However, I was contemplating on whether technology could bring about a sense a of wonderment, could it reinforce humanity? So I started to reflect on the intersection of humanity with technology and examples of such, in fact "Think it Big" actually awards prizes for this http://bigthink.com/humanizing-technology/2012-humanizing-technology-prize-nil-the-winners    . Here is my list I have applied a simplified typology

Protest

• 38 degrees
• Occupy Wall Street on Twitter 
• HM Epetitions

Philanthropy 

• Just Giving
• Hole in the Wall 
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• OER Africa

Inspirational

• TEDX
• PASSED Proudest Achievements Skills Education and Development 
• STEM Women at Science and Technology Facilities Council

Then I saw this article in the Observer Review this weekend "Digital Capitalism Produces few Winners" which reports on the poor wages Apple employees receive and refers to Sarah O'Connor's FT Article Amazon Unpacked and I quote

"She visited Amazon's vast distribution centre at Rugeley in Staffordshire and her account of what she found there makes sobering reading.She saw hundreds of people in orange vests pushing trolleys around a space the size of nine football pitches, glancing down at the screens of their handheld satnav computers for directions on where to walk next and what to pick up when they get there. They do not dawdle because "the devices in their hands are also measuring their productivity in real time". They walk between seven and 15 miles a day and everything they do is determined by Amazon's software. "You're sort of like a robot, but in human form," one manager told Ms O'Connor. "It's human automation, if you like

...where is the humanity here?

Here are what I think are the best resources from Week 3

Toyota GT86: the ‘real deal’ advert 

BT: heart to heart advert 

World builder

They’re made out of meat

 Steve Fuller’s TEDx Warwick talk 

Week 2; #EDCMOOC Ghost in the machine...or is it the cookie monster

Ghost in the Machine Doctor Popular
http://www.flickr.com/photos/docpopular/3901278186/

I'm a little bit late with this as we are at the end of week 3 for #EDCMOOC so I need to gain some momentum. In week 2 we moved form "Utopian/Dystopian" views of technology to "Looking into The Future", we were presented with a range of resources that presented images of technology, suggesting, leading, informing, profiling and tracking, as the course said these are evocative and disturbing. As with week 1 the choice of films were excellent, ranging from adverts presenting how technology can enhance our living in the future from Corning "Made from Glass" and Microsoft and "Productivity Future Vision" to technology ruling and intervening in everyday life as in Plurality (resources below). It got me thinking about Graphene developed in the University of Manchester - in fact  the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their work - and the talk about the potential of this in manufacturing technology devices, now and in future because it is exceptionally thin and strong as well as being an excellent conductor. In the world of nano technology we already have research where computers are made out of strands of DNA, at the Weizmann Institute of Science being led by Tom Ran,  as referred to in an article in the Guardian last year on the Future of Computers. Week 2's resources conveyed futuristic views of the power of technology acting on our behalf making suggestions on our behalf, almost implying that technology will eventually have mind of its own. We already can see the power of Cookies recommending related resources in relation to our web activity and the semantic web http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Main_Page, which enables people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and web sites . However, there would be no data without interaction, it is our behaviour which enables data generation, the profiling and the cross-correlations, once we enter the WWW territory we have no choice in the matter,  it is too late to turn back.

Day Made of Glass

Productivity Future Vision

Film 5: Plurality 

Week 1 #EDCMOO eLearning & Digital Culture - Utopian or Dystopian Experience

Lock Up You Data http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805590643/ Paul Downey

So I got through week one of the Coursera #EDCMOOC E-learning and Digital Cultures. Having completed a fully online MED a couple of years ago I was quite familiar with studying online and having that experience meant I had the skills to wade through the tremendous amount of digital traffic this course appears to be generating.Rather than focusing on the course theme of utopian and dystopia aspects of digital education and culture I thought I would reflect on the experiences of undertaking this course within this context. I think the Facebook exchanges reflect some the dystopian experiences of  engaging in online communication within the context of learning. Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter can streamline communication but with so many back channels the challenge, you have to decide what is meaningful, what is distracting - so a little direction and reassurance from the tutors would have been helpful. My experiences as an eLearner taught me to focus on the essentials and browse the rest so that is what I have been doing. I think the amount of people that are on this course makes it difficult to form any relationships especially with the time we have.  It is difficult to move beyond pure observation in the discussions because from my experience collaborative working online, it only works with a small group, with assigned roles, over longer period of time than 5 weeks. This is a pity because I found communicating and working with a diverse community very rewarding on my MED . In addition, I don't seem to have the patience for reading lots of text any more, unless I am using it for an article, report, qualification or my job but that's a personal thing. I think a word restriction on the discussions would be helpful and given the time I have I am going be quite pragmatic about how many articles I can read..

Finishing on a more Utopian note, it is really exciting to have a go at something I have not tried before. I think the resources that the course team has selected are excellent and the course is really well written and presented. Having a Sociology degree (although acquired over 20 years ago) has meant that I have visited some of the theoretical aspects before - so that helps. And it has made me realise with respect to eLearning and learning in general I think I want to focus in the future on developing my practical knowledge rather than my theoretical knowledge, so the Saylor Computure Science course looks really promising. The videos were engaging and thought provoking, illustrative of the issues and challenges associated with technology - here they are for your own pleasure

Bendiot Machine III (6.35); Inbox (8.37); Thursday (7.34)

New Year's Resolution...revisited

New Years Resolutions (1/52) 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrish_99/6632375445/ lucidtech

 

So how many of us have said I must blog more this year hands up! I suddenly can't see the wood for the hands. Motivation is always a challenge in January in fact I am very close to setting up an ePetition to change our calendar from 12 months to 11 months although this would be really unfair for those whose birthday is in January, which includes my niece, so that would be a particularly selfish idea. I think I just accept my sporadic blogging. What's on trend for this year well it seems to be MOOCs Massive Open Online Course   and weather we should believe the hype. For somebody who has been championing OERs for the last 3 years I am quelling my enthusiasm by participating in my first MOOC next week University of Edinburgh's eLearning and Digital Cultures 

Leaner Analytics for the Totally Bemused

  Some rights reserved 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/246717376/. 

I have just completed my first ever report analysing the usage data from our learning environment, and trying to continue the trend of finding an appropriate image to accompany my blog post I found this on Flickr, courtesy or Kevin Lim. I was contemplating whether I could justifiably use this as my subtitle but I thought I could be charged under the Trade Descriptions Act which was passed 44 years ago in 1968. However, the mere fact that I am not charging people to read this blog, being an OER kinda person and also the CC license precludes this too I think I am safe. I am not sure that opening the can of worms that is learner analytics causes more or less confusion. My analysis of quantitative data now opens the door to qualitative analysis, as I have detailed data on courses within our VLE, and my analysis suggests particular qualitative areas to focus e.g. why despite there being so much content in that learning room does it not meet the minimum standard? why does the amount of topics in a discussion not necessarily correlate with the amount of posts? why is there high use of the dropbox but low levels of feedback?  However, my challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to think of ways to negotiate that qualitative room, I already have some recommendations, which I currently presenting to colleagues. In a strange way I have enjoyed doing the report although I know it will possibly raise more questions that it has answered, and despite the fact I was qualitative sociologist by nature that a quantitative, I do quite like stats and order that is possibly my librarian roots showing through.

The alien world of text editing on an iPAD

Alien Pastoral  John Mignault

So I continue to bond with my iPAD, it follows me everywhere, it's almost like training a dog but I am not sure who is the canine me or the iPAD. One of the challenges has been deciding what tool to use for text editing so I am juggling 3 at the moment. CloudOn this is the Office replica or should that be replicant, as it is alien non grata at work where I can't open anything but at home it has been ok, apart from today when I had a bit of version wobble, you can also only use it in landscape which is not great if you don't have a bluetooth keyboard. The second member of the trio is QuickOffice which I purchased although it does not live up to its description and is not quick at all, it slowly plods registering text input in a bloated manner as if suffering from alphabetical indigestion. The final member of the trio is my old favourite Evernote which has possibly been the most reliable although I use it for creating text and use my digital scissors everywhere cutting and pasting into word and winging notes via e-mail. By the way both Quickoffice and Cloudon integrate with Dropbox which is very reassuring.

And then I also dabble in Google docs which works ok but is a little bit laboured on an iPAD possibly panicking because it being hosted by an alien body iOS not Android...sorry no more talk of Aliens. Then blogging that is really out of this world not necessarily in a good way.  Mobile blogging is what the blogging world has been waiting for but if you want to add an images to blogger/blogspot, ironically another Google product, you have quite a bit of a challenge as there is no Dropbox integration and it is quite a challenge getting images into posts if you don't link to Picassa, as it does not appear to pick-up images on your iPAD. So if I want to mess around with images I have to go back to my PC.