Blog Number One

January 7th, 2009 came and went quickly. It was the first day that I officially started my masters program. I walked into Sherida’s class, AEC1131H S: The Internet, Adult Education and Community Development, and didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit nervous returning to university and quickly realized that while I have some good ideas, my peers have even better ideas and interesting thoughts regarding the different forms of technology.

That first class was typical in that we went over the outline, had our questions answered and did a bit of an introduction. Sherida showed us different internet sites that would be useful. She mentioned that on delicious, you could use a social bookmarking tool to store, organize and search different web pages. I had never heard of this before and found a quick video on social bookmarking that I’d like to share with you. Just go to the video at, http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english.

The weekend after that class, I read the articles in preparation for the second class, only to find that each article reiterated the discussions that we had in the first class regarding internet usage. I liked the simplicity of these articles and the fact that we, as a group, stated similar uses for the internet in everyday life.

In the second class, we talked about technological determinism and the social construction of technology. While I would agree more with the fact that “human’s shape technology to meet their needs”, I would argue that a common critique for both paradigms is the fact that the relationship between technology and society cannot be measured separately. Rather, I believe it is a complex connection, a synergistic relationship, where there is co-dependence and co-influence. It has occurred since the emergence of humankind. For instance, think of the telephone. When it was first invented one had to communicate with an operator to make a call. Next, rotary dial phones were available, which shifted to the touch tone phone, which evolved into a cell phone. Each telephone became more modern as society developed. Society; however, depended upon the modernization of the telephone in order to advance in the corporate world, maintain and improve personal relationships and be secure in the state of an emergency. Would you agree?

In the second class we also talked about the concepts of dystopian, utopian and syntopian. Sherida mentioned the Syntopian project, but didn’t have quite enough time to go into detail about it. I was interested in learning more about this project and found a good website, http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/cmcs/director/projects/syntopia/index.htm, which explains the project. Basically it describes the trends in access, political and civic involvement and social interaction. It is worth the read.

I suppose this would be a form of self-directed learning. I intentionally read articles about the syntopian project to better understand it. Speaking of learning, I will never forget the time when incidental learning occurred at my horseback riding lesson. I was young, approximately 12 or 13, and the individual preceding my lesson, was jumping. I observed his movements with the reins and the shift of his body weight while riding. When I mounted my horse, I asked my instructor if I could give it a try and she agreed. Without her instruction I performed the jumps seamlessly and received acknowledgement on my skill. I did not have any intention of learning how to jump, as I was a western rider, but I was conscious of the fact that I did learn something from watching the individual preceding my lesson.

Twitter is also a type of informal learning. My blog is getting too long so check out this site, http://internettime.ning.com/forum/topics/656824:Topic:6381. It has an excellent example of informal learning with the first reply to the discussion.

The first group did an amazing job on their presentation. They asked pertinent questions to their topic and thoroughly explained informal learning. Good job! This week, on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009, Megan and I will be presenting our topic on literacy, cyberliteracy and the digital divide. At first this topic seemed daunting, but as I sifted through the information I am quite excited to share what I have learned. I will leave you with an interesting video on the digital divide and two questions that we may be asking you in class. You can find the video at, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=B6AQv2l6UsM and ponder the questions:

1) What government policies should be implemented to increase literacy?
2) How can educators use technology to truly make a difference in society?

Thanks guys :)