Daughter2.0 (What good are libraries?)

Was reading a post today by George Siemans at elearnspace regarding the future of libraries.

....this presentation doesn't say anything new for those familiar with the changes in technology and the context of knowledge. It does, however, present those changes from the perspective of libraries. In the process it provides some interesting statistics and observations (89% of college students begin their research with a search engine vs 2% in libraries,......

elearnspace

Thanks George...Interesting but not surprising.

Being a rather cool and damp Sunday afternoon here, I have my 10 yr old daughter beside me, spread out on the carpet, tapping away on our our old Toshiba laptop and buying some clothes for her penguin at clubpenguin.

"Hey Daughter!" I ask. "If you needed to know something that you didn't already know, where would you go to find out?"

Without pause or hesitation she turned her head and looked at me (one hand still on the keyboard) and replied "Google! Why?"

"Oh just interested" I answer."What is the library useful for?"

"What? The club penguin library?"

"No the town library."

"Nothing!"

"What do you use the library for in club penguin? "

"Well you can read other members' writing, and you can play mancala against other players."

So through the eyes of a ten yr old Aussie girl, our town library is irrelevant, yet an online multi player library contains stories, games and fellowship.

I'd imagine that the cleverer libraries in our culture would have to look at fostering a sense of online community as an addition to their local community if they were to survive.

On a side note: I read out to my wife the figures on how only 2% of college students use libraries to begin research. She had just interrupted her guitar rendition of Cavatina in order to make us all a pot of tea. (Don't you just love cool damp Sundays?)

Her response? "Do people still use libraries?"

Encyclopedia of Life

A remarkable concept! More here
I found it on George Siemans' blog, but references are popping up everywhere.

Many of you may have to watch this from outside of your corporate network because its hosted on youtube.

As an aside, I saved a neat video from youtube the other day and went to upload it to teacher tube, but then read the terms and conditions of teachertube. No advertising. A shame really (though understandable) because a lot of really creative and pertinent work is in the form of corporate advertising.

Has anyone found a workaround?

What makes administrators effective technology leaders?

Interesting post and discussion starter on dangerously irrelevant.

Can a techie be an educator? Can an educator be a techie? Some interesting points made on Georges blog. My opinion is that the rare beast (geek/network guy/educator) is indeed doing the rounds, (look at the edubloggers) but is generally a rare and endangered species.

The best outcomes that I've seen occuring in schools come from a genuine collaboration between educators and tech support. Genuine collaboration arises when both parties see the others point of view and are able to work towards a common aim.

So what are the aims of schooling?

The network guy will tell you that a school's aim is to provide reliable IT infrastructure. The educator will tell you that its' aim is to create self realizing adults able to make valued contributions to the global community. The administrator will feel that a dynamic and responsive structure will serve the staff and school community best. (My ideas, you could add many more).

It's only when the educator can see the network guy's point of view (and vice versa) that things can (and do) move ahead.

The alternative is the "digital taliban" scenario I outlined in a previous post.

Many Eyes

Below is a tag cloud of the recent speech Australia Rising, by Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
The cloud was created by a neat little program called "many eyes" which is a data manipulation/representation program. Well worth checking it. What a great way to compare the main ideas of 2 separate pieces of writing. It's searchable as well.


I discovered this wonderful tool on George Siemens' Connectivism blog

Grunt Cognition

"Functional visualizations are more than innovative statistical analyses and computational algorithms. They must make sense to the user and require a visual language system that uses colour, shape, line, hierarchy and composition to communicate clearly and appropriately, much like the alphabetic and character-based languages used worldwide between humans." Matt Woolman

Connectivism, what is it?

Kind of makes me wonder why I haven't come across this before. On first reading it makes so much sense. I'd like to see some critiques of the theory. I'm sure the digital Taliban would have many. Here is George Siemen's paper explaining connectivism. George has a blog here

elearnspace. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application. When knowledge, however, is needed, but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses.

Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.