I had the opportunity to go to the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wisconsin this past August. The last keynote speaker, Teemu Arina discussed how culture and education are changing with emerging technologies. His presentation illustrated how we are moving from linear and sequential environments to those that are nonlinear and serendipitous. Topics of time, space and social media tie into Teemu’s presentation. The video of the presentation is about 45 minutes long but the themes tie nicely into our course and into many other courses within the MET program.

In the Age of Real-Time: The Complex, Social, and Serendipitous Learning Offered via the Web

As one of themes of this course relates to technology and information retrieval and storage, I thought I would share this video. The folks at MIT have created a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. The device, based on personal criteria that you input, allows you to interact with an environment and call up relevant information about it, simply by gesturing (e.g. while shopping a hand gesture will bring up information about a particular product). What is controversial about this device is that it makes it easy to infringe on people’s privacy. Filming and photographing can occur by simply moving one’s hand. Also, think about how annoying it is to listen to a multitude of mobile users chat in public spaces – this device allows a user to project and display information on any surface. Imagine, hundreds of people displaying information all over the place at once!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBohrmyo-I

Hello my friends,

I have had the idea of making cartoons to create communication in the foreign language classroom, but though I had searched the Net, I hadn’t found anything suitable. Well, from the great site Cogdogroo: 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story (http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools#toc33), I got on to PikiStrips (http://www.comeeko.com/”>http://www.comeeko.com/)

It actually took me a long time to make the comic, first taking the pictures and then figuring out how to work the software. The program is pretty cool, but it has a few bugs; plus it doesn’t give much flexibility with the layout. Nevertheless, I am happy with the results (except for the photo on page 2 that is rotated 90º; I can’t fix it, so never mind).

The idea was to make a comic with photos and bubbles instead of words so that students create their own dialogues. Of course, the next step would be to have the students create their own comics and then switch them around, so each group got another group’s comic.

This is the first page of the three that make up the complete story:

They look a lot better if you download them, as the images are much bigger.

You can find page 1 at: http://www.comeeko.com/ps/gallery/view_image/33124353

You can find page 2 at:
http://www.comeeko.com/ps/gallery/view_image/33124943

You can find page 3 at: http://www.comeeko.com/ps/gallery/view_image/33125163

There is a button on the page to download the image. I hope you enjoy the story.
Dilip

Throughout the course there has been a lot of reflections in our Blog posts, and many of my classmates have commented on how the very nature of posting to the Blog has made them reflect on how they do so. Some individuals get right into it and type directly into the Blog, others type their entire post in a word document first, to be edited and polished before posting, and others do a mixture of the two methods or alternate between one method or the other depending on the topic or nature of that particular post or comment.

The very act of reading and commenting on each other’s posts requires us to reflect and express who we are, what we believe, and what knowledge and ideas we hold and/or chose to change. I really like how Bolter (2001, p.190) describes this as, “…we write both to express, to discover, and to share who we are, and in a postmodern age our written identity is, like hypertext, dynamic, flexible, and contingent”.

I have appreciated the use of tagging specific words within our posts to organize and categorize our topics and key words as it made it much easier to jump to similar-topic discussions. The diversity and creativity of topics, images, and ideas that have formed our online collection is stunning. There have been a lot of images and videos used in the Blog posts, not more or even equal to the amount of text (which has been massive!), but there has definitely been a “breakout of the visual” (Bolter, 2001). With the ease of uploading or linking these visual forms of representation, our Blog has become a visual world which has allowed us in many cases (my own posts included) to simply let the image or the video ‘do the talking’ and express the point we were trying to get across to our peers. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.  This was the case in the following posts:

The Media Revolution by Ashley Jones

Technology by Liz Hood

Melding the two T’s by Drew Ryan

New technology, old concept by Ashley Jones

Technology – definition by Lindsey Martin

Shedding the light on the meaning of technology by Ashley Jones

A matter of metaphor by Peg

Working smarter not harder by Ed Stuerle

Technology = system by Erin Gillespie

Derrida and writing by Stuart Edgar

Text by Stuart Edgar

Text by Liz Hood

Text we R, text i Am by Svetlana Gibson

Text by Noah Burdette

Text us…. by Ana Cecilia Tagliapietra

Although I have chosen to focus on the connections made on the Blog site, I have also really enjoyed using Vista and the Wiki. Using three different platforms has allowed for different methods of expression, high levels of creativity and an increase in the sharing of knowledge. Thank-you everyone for the excellent contributions and feedback, from which I have learned so much!

Resource:

Bolter, D.J. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print.London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Hypertextuality in Cyberspace: A new genre and a new way of learning?
Commentary #3 [pp 26 -28 Bolter text: ETEC 540]
The use of technology for communication, the digital “word processor” and in particular the advent of the use of “hypertext” within electronic media has fundamentally altered communication, the ways we use language and twenty-first century e-learning environments. Digital modes of communication and potentially hypertextuality itself may result in the creation of more knowledge (Heim, 1987) and reshape or reconfigure our ways of thinking in positive and creative ways (Kamin, 1984). In his book, “Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext & the Remediation of Print” Bolter asserts that hypertext enables a specific type of remediation [a process involving the transition from one media to another] that allows for the emergence of a distinctive and new genre. A review of what is meant by the term “hypertext” as Bolter uses it will begin this discussion followed by an overview of three important features that distinguish it from its predecessor [print media] including it’s immediacy, flexibility and interactivity (Bolter, 2001). Finally, a specific type of learning that is uniquely enhanced by hypertext will be examined through the lens of its conceptual or theoretical support in constructivist learning theory (Mahoney, 2003).

Two other major components of hypertext include its flexibility and interactivity, features that according to Bolter help to transform electronic writing into a new mode and genre, that of hypertextuality (Ibid 2001). The flexibility of the use of hypertext operates on a number of levels, helping it to serve both informational and rhetorical purposes. Hypertext links can clarify meaning [contextualized to a specific use] and lead the reader back to the text or it can prompt the reader to explore entirely different sites or nodes of information related to the topic. Hypertext also encourages different types of learning styles involved in knowledge acquisition and according to some psychological literature, to ways of thinking and of cognition also (Mahoney, 2003).

Bolter asserts that hyper textual links are associative in terms of their impact on knowledge acquisition. Constructivism is just one of the major learning theories that provides conceptual and theoretical support for Bolter’s argument that hypertext is not only a different genre but supports also a different way of learning and acquiring knowledge and information. Hypertextual learning is facilitated in keeping with Constructivist notions around the importance of the search for Meaning as both an impetus for and outcome of, the process of Learning.

Within this larger theory, the principles of Engaged Participation, encouraged by the structure of hypertext itself is further promoted by facilitating unique virtual and conceptual links between the material and the reader/learner. In tandem with this feature of interactivity, hypertext also encourages synchronous movements and unique learning pathways through the virtual ‘text’.
An analysis of the process of reading and learning involved in the use of hypertext, quickly reveals that like psychology, not only are there many theories of learning, no one learning theory fits every use or application of hypertext (Jonassen 2003). Moreover, and drawing on this same parallel example, what is best for the learner [or patient] may be a combination of learning paths rather than a unity, a requirement that hypertext readily facilitates.

Hypertext and Learning: as The Search For Meaning
One of the many layers of the complexity of hypertext in terms of its functionality in e-learning contexts is its ability, from a Constructivist perspective, to provide the learner with Meaning, which is as noted above, the primary impetus for learning in this view. Hypertext provides a web of meanings, a configuration that is constructed uniquely and actively by each student, driven by their own needs and particular learning objectives and styles.
Complementary to the use of the hypertextuality in constructing meaning is its enhancement of interactivity as students engage with the layers of information provided within in a specific topic area. A self created trajectory through the electronic text enables the individual to effectively embed content more firmly within their own pre-existing schemas or world view, resulting in more comprehensive assimilation of information, better retention or memory of key concepts, and greater practical application of the new knowledge or skill (Sutherland 2001).
The notion of conceptual coherence is also inherently woven into and throughout hyper textual materials and allows innovations and improvements to learning materials by providing flexibility to the instructor or curriculum designer, in terms of its format, structure, and choice of pedagogical methodologies (Sutherland 2001).
A critical feature of hypertextuality is that it can provide a conceptual framework, not only for the design of virtual curricular elements but also in supporting a cognitive substructure from which key concepts and learning objectives can be constructed. Importantly, hypertextuality as a learning tool, also demonstrates an effective translation of learning theory into practice, by facilitating and encouraging students to arrive at the same learning objective via their own unique cognitive or conceptual pathway.
To sum up, key elements of hypertext including its immediacy, flexibility and interactivity extend the reach of the both the type and the scope of the information provided. Bolter provides an effective argument [only briefly touched upon here] to support his contention that hypertextuality provides not only a remediation from print to digital media but that it also expands the parameters of the medium itself sufficiently to be considered a new genre. Finally, in an e-learning context, hypertextuality also enables new ways of reading, thinking and of learning, which are given conceptual support by Constructivist learning theory.