What do you think?

[Leigh Blackall]

I'm giving a talk to a rather large business crowd tonight, and this is what I'm attempting to need out:

Ubiquity

• SxSW 2011 themes have been fluid money, gamification, and ubiquity (web3)
• What might this bring to business in Canberra within 2-5 years?
• We focus on the technology because it is easily seen, but it is the values and ethics within it that are important.
• Social media developments, like their US creators, tend to value democracy, individualism and the finding of voice, freedom of expression, tolerance, flat and free markets, competition. And then across all this is the drive to monetise these things through capital investment and return.
• Fluid money, gamification, and ubiquity are production briefs inspired by this values - monetisation will come later. I think this is an important reliasation to the 'business' sense embedded in social media development and dialog.
• Social media activities that reflect this ideology - something termed webism, stand to gain the most from this technology. Real monetary returns beyond bubble value are yet to be realised across the sector.
• Let's look at ubiquity - a term traditionally associated directly to technological affordance, but I want to consider the values and ethics of it. I think we can better appreciate our relationship to these technological innovations, if we consider our relationship to the ideology within it.
• Do Australian's share in this ideology? If so, to what extent? And if so, why do our innovations struggle to reflect it?

--
--
Leigh Blackall
+61(0)404561009

[Derek Chirnside]

Less is More Leigh.
Depends on your aims.
And where these guys "start" from.
And how much question or dialogue there is on your last point.

Go well!!

-Derek

Derek Chirnside - lits.gen.nz
For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago--silently, without warning--that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current. Without at first noting, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century - Bowling Alone; Putnam, 2000, p.27

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[Leigh Blackall]

Thanks Derek

By less is more, do you think I could make it less?

My aims are to deliver a 15 minute talk, last of about 6 talks, to a large audience who have come to hear 15 min talks at annual event called Business Showcase (and that's about all I know about it)

I don't know where these guys start from, but the organiser asked me to talk based on here experiences with me talking about social media and openness.

The question at the end is to stimulate dialog after the talk.. to get the businesses and those engaging with social media activity, to reflect on how much they share in the ideology of "webism". mine is the last talk, so its probably important that I have a question to finish.

[Leigh Blackall]

Well, here goes nothing:

I've been invited to talk tonight, at the University of Canberra's Faculty of Business and Government Business Resource Showcase 2011.

I'll be sticking with ubiquity in this 15min, end of the evening talk, and taking the opportunity to flex some of the ideas I've been working on in the essay-in-progress, Ubiquitous Learning - a critique.


Here's the slides



The links and references for this talk are at http://delicious.com/leighblackall/ubiquity

I'll try and record audio and add it to a Slideshare copy tomorrow. 

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Posted By Leigh Blackall to Leigh Blackall at 4/11/2011 05:50:00 PM

[Alexander Hayes]

Did you show them this ? - http://womma.org/main/Quick-Guide-to-Designing-a-Social-Media-Policy.pdf

Regards,

Alexander Hayes
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[Leigh Blackall]

Thanks for this Alex, yet more American examples flooding our vision. As far as policies go, I think its pretty good - especially if you're a large scale American corporation or similar. But I struggle to interpret such things in the context of individual practitioners and small business.. in Australia. It reminds me of the days KMart was introduced to Australian towns in the early 80s, overwhelming mainstreet small businesses, changing public transport routes, and changing our community values to ones that would later accept Westfield Shopping Centres, and Coles/Wollworths. McDonalds did the same... there have remained pockets of resistence, Mullumbimby is currently resisting Woolworths, but its futile over all. 

I used to think this was aggressive cultural imperialism from the USA, until I visited the USA and saw just how far down this line of business they are! LA for example, McDonalds is just a small business chain among many chain businesses like it! This style of business seems embedded in their ideology, to the point that its not possible for them to imagine an alternative. And the shear force in their numbers can absorb all challenges. 

This is what I'm trying to get at with this presentation. Creating a space for us to reflect on the ideology embedded in social media, the sheer force of it, and how we Australians might relate to it. Do we really, deep down, share that ideology? Or is it building in us, like you might say it has in other regions (North Africa/Middle East?) generating points of friction, and overwhelming our consideration and self consciousness...

This might explain the excruciating difficulties we've all experienced in trying to introduce the tools and their ideology to our places of work, friends and families...   

[Leigh Blackall]

Hello again everyone

I'm seeking reviews of the first near-finished draft of my essay Ubiquitous Learning - a critique. 

This paper reviews the term ubiquitous learning and its influence on educational development, including wider considerations of technology in society, and delving into problems of technological determinism. It draws attention to an absence of critique, and proposes that the phrase become less about device, platform, applications, or ideas of technologically 'enhanced' pedagogy, to something more like an ethical framework, a concept of values and principles that guide perspectives and practices in learning. Ubiquitous learning then, becomes a term more associated with free learning, conviviality, and open access.

My first port of call goes out to TALO, where I hope I will get a volley of quick-to-fix feedback, as well as harder to consider criticism. As usual, I will copy any feedback into the discussion page of the essay's wiki.

If a few people in TALO pick this up, I will rework the essay based on their feedback, and then seek academic peer review by direct email. This would include a request of them to send at least a 200 word message containing whatever review and feedback they saw fit. Of course, this step would be open to anyone in TALO as well.

Once I rework the essay based on this final step, I will submit it for publication in a range of Journals.

This is part of an experiment and development of a Networked and Open approach to Doctor of Philosophy work (NOPhD).

Hope this captures the interest of some in TALO. Thanks.

[Leigh Blackall]

Thanks Botts, I've copied your valuable feedback into the discussion page of the wiki, as well as sending it back into the TALO thread.

Good spotting on the spelling, I need as much as that as possible. Fourth is fixed.. I'll hold off on the surnames however, I want to see if I can get away with first names. Only 'cause I cringe a bit using surnames...

Bring 'true ubiquitous learning' to the top is an excellent suggestion, and one I will now work on. It will be difficult as it involves a pretty significant restructure. If you have more specific ideas how, please let me know. Many thanks on this suggestion though.. it solves a dilemma I was having!

Regarding the problem of formal education and institutionalised learning being so far removed from these ideals, my only response to date on practical terms, is for those who work in such conditions, to go about their work so that it compliments ubiquity and conviviality. I've been pretty consistent with this over the years, rejecting education conducted in Learning Management Systems, encouraging open education using popular social media like Wikipedia and Youtube. So, perhaps I add that to the Examples section - which by the way needs more work.

Many thanks for this feedback Botts, much appreciated. Leighblackall 07:48, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 3:29 PM, craig bottomley <botts...@gmail.com> wrote:

hi leigh

not sure if you wanted this added as part of the overall talo conversation or not - so i took the more personal route.  feel free to repost to talo if you want.

firstly the picky little things...

in the ubiquitous learning section, just after the link to ubilearn, forth should be fourth.
in the its not about the technology, or is it? section you mention the film the net.... just after that link you talk about fred and lutz that needs to be turner and dammbeck.

and now the good stuff...

it has only been a recent discovery for me that ubiquitous learning referred to the link between technology and education.  previously i had assumed that the concept was more about the idea that learning should be seen as an activity that can happen everywhere and anywhere, with or without a formal framework, and ultimately regardless of the use or otherwise of technology.

my reading of your critique suggests that you are favouring this idea as well.  

i therefore wonder whether it is worthwhile making more of this in your critique.  maybe take illich and his ideas and stick them up near the top.  use that as your springboard into the ubiquity of learning which then lends itself to a further specialisation into the use of technology to facilitate the everywhereness of learning.  to me this takes the current ubiquitous learning model which starts with technology (as you so rightly say) and ends with learning and turns it on its head.  i think the critique should mirror the concept.

one of the other struggles which you touch on but perhaps warrants further deconstruction is the fact that the current educational philosophies of competency and the isolated development of skill sets really don't lend themselves easily to the idea of ubiquitous learning.  your example of the en route art is a classic example.  the art works because it is as much about the journey as it is about any sort of end product.  the line between what is and isn't art is blurred by the participant's approach and their own self conceived ideas and ideals.  on the other hand, teaching students in a tafe course is all about the end product.  their is absolutely no credence given anywhere to the journey. 

what we end up with is a bastardised version of something that vaguely correlates to education but in fact is actually teaching.  institutionalised delivery of core facts and figures, followed up with an assessment that merely proves that students are capable of spewing back the recently ingested information.  i personally struggle on a daily basis with how this approach can have anything other than negative long term effects on students.

there's a lot of good stuff to be read on the failings of training packages and certifications like the taa.  i've got a thesis full of them if you're interested.

anyways - enough of my ramblings and rantings - have a great day and take or leave anything i've said.

botts