Seagulls Ahoy

This article is worth reviewing as it has a message for those who use the web medium and how similar it is to other communication mediums that have been used to spread misinformation

Second attempt since upgrade to post a comment that the site is working flawlessly (almost)

The damn thing works!

http://www.thepigsareflying.org/

Saturday, 12 August 2006

Losing History in the Digital Age

“…digital information lasts forever or five years, whichever comes first.” Jeff Rothenberg, Scientific American, Jan 1995.

Do you have data on your PC’s hard drive that isn’t backed up? Or stored on 3.5″ floppy disks? Or worse, 5.5″ floppies?

If so, you may be unwittingly contributing to the loss of your family’s history. It’s a consequence of the digital age, where technology changes quickly and today’s data formats and hardware are obsolete within a few years.

Microsoft’s answer is found at the following site

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3618176

Associate Professor Bob Pithers and Dr Tony Holland published their findings of student expectations of their lecturers in an article found at

http://www.education.uts.edu.au/news/2005/May/04.html.

While the focus here is on face to face teaching, there is a strong sense of an electronic aversion coming through.

So are there general implications for e-Learning?

Or is it just me?

Holy, shoot me dead! Apart from the mistake of getting distracted by his other publications before getting to e-Nough! This wonderful Prensky never came close to providing hope that the experts are little more than ‘ex’ ‘spurts’.

Did anyone else come away from that mans contribution slightly in awe?

UTS has consistantly encouraged us to get used to the idea that we will constantly be on shifting ground as far as teaching goes and to get used to it. I was hoping for another perspective that gives a little stability to this field, well Prensky didn’t.

The article was downloadable and now sits on the hard drive waiting for me to get the courage up to read it more thoroughly.

Christopher Haron wrote that he would be happier with some type of backup, so would we all. The best is to maintain copies of the text with Title and catagory details.

So do I do it? Nah!

Not so much that I trust technology but rather that I do not really care too much for this medium at the moment.

Course management systems (CMS) Education of modern civilization has culminated in a capability to send exploratory satellites into the far reaches of the solar system. Until in recent years it was all face-to face, teacher and student/s in one location. With present technology an internet chat room with video would resemble a classroom face-to-face lesson, but however the logistics for the hardware (and support) at the teachers end would be interesting. According to Bernadette Robinson there existed in 2001 some 4000 publications about innovation, (initiating a Google search on ‘e-learning innovation’ yields about 16,000,000). She notes that there has been considerable difficulty attached to implementing Open and Distance Leaning (ODL) due to a lack of understanding of the financial commitment required for ODL, attempts to introduce ODL as a separate addition to the whole organisation and expecting minimal change to the whole organisation when interfacing with ODL, the lack of skill development among staff to cope with the additional workload (another budgetary issue), and lack of effective project planning resulting in inappropriate technologies driven by the bottom line of funding opportunities and ease of availability. Common with most human endeavours is the reluctance of the majority to leave the security of known and trusted methodologies to embrace the tech-fad-du-jour (Paychex advice: If you don’t need to, don’t overcomplicate the information) . Good design of the student’s learning experience rather than technology has been the determining factor for successful project outcomes. I suspect that this is similar to a conventional class, where good design of a particular course will have an equally successful outcome. Those actively involved in distance education from this class are quite strong in their view that face-to-face does not have to be present in order for learning to occur and they are correct, for the visually impaired; face-to-face is pretty much auditory and tactile. .

Author                        Edublog address
Abbas, Naim                        http://naim66.edublogs.org
Aspinwall, Jane                        http://jaspinwall.edublogs.org
Birchall, John                        http://johnbirchall.edublogs.org
Campbell, Sharon                        http://chook63.edublogs.org
Carroll, Anthony                        http://anth.edublogs.org
Denison, Peter                          http://pmd76m.edublogs.org
Doyle, Karen                        http://karenmdoyle.edublogs.org
Dredge, Stephen                          http://judge.edublogs.org
Dyer, Michael                        http://mdyer7.edublogs.org
Ejerholm, Charlie                        http://ceeit.edublogs.org/

Evans, Beth                          http://bethalexandra.edublogs.org
Forshill, Jenny                        http://www.comeasyouare.edublogs.org
Generoso, Bernard                        http://bernieg.edublogs.org
Halliday, Andrew                        http://andrewhalliday.edublogs.org
Hampson, Stephen                          http://hampson5.edublogs.org
Haron, Christopher                          http://chrish123456.edublogs.org
Haung, Edward Muluk                        http://mere.edublogs.org
James, Christopher                        http://taupey1edublogsorg.edublogs.org
Kemp, Peter                        http://pkemp7.edublogs.org
Longman, Kingsley                        http://klongman.edublogs.org

Looney, Stewart                        http://stewies.edublogs.org
Luscombe, David                        http://dluscombe.edublogs.org
Luscombe, David                        http://rower471.edublogs.org
Makinson, John                        http://tigertiger.edublogs.org
Marte, Rene                        http://rm10269532.edublogs.org
McGregor, Paul                        http://paulmac2158.edublogs.org
Messazos-Stylianides, Helen                        http://lookfantastic.edublogs.org
Moore, David                        http://dmoore49.edublogs.org
O’Byrne, John                        http://johnob.edublogs.org
O’Connor, Steve                        http://steve1.edublogs.org
Phipps, Graeme                        http://zoograeme.edublogs.org
Rodney’s blog                        http://rodj.edublogs.org
Ryan, Vaughan                        http://vryan69.edublogs.org
Schell, John                        http://jds265.edublogs.org
Sharkey, Vanessa                        http://vanessas.edublogs.org
Shaw, Nicholas                        http://nicholasshaw.edublogs.org
Singh, Sunita                        http://suniks.edublogs.org

Smit, Daniel                          http://dsmit.edublogs.org
Smit, Daniel                         http://dsmit1.edublogs.org
Smith, Andrew Ian                        http://aiggsmith.edublogs.org
Steeden, Mark Antony                        http://marksteeden.edublogs.org
Ugarte, Ian                        http://kabubi.edublogs.org/
Vincent, Paul                          http://paulv.edublogs.org
Webster, Julie                        http://kevinwebster.edublogs.org
Whitebread, Deborah                        http://debwhitebread.edublogs.org
Willis, Brian                        http://brianwillis.edublogs.org
 

I was starting to panic yesterday when I couldn’t log on