Brave Or Desperate

[ image : smh ]

Becoming A Web Daddy

[ image : stupiddata ]

Usefulness & Value

I often preface my posts with an image which I garnish from the undending array of 2.5 CC at FlickrCC - just one of the best cool tools I know of. Very useful….

I link to the source and in doing so acknowledge the brilliance of the creator. I’m also showing I suppose some reverence for the time and space in which the object has transcended a limited range of visual brilliance, appreciation and allowing it to inform another way to lighten the lives of others.

That’s really what I’m after when I rant about access and useability for learners within or outside of the organisational or institutional firewall of protectionism. Concentrating on the guilt and bad feelings that come from being blocked access to new and emergent ways of working using networked communication technologies only seems to heighten my anxiety further. It’s debilitating and I’m actually beyond feeling this way so why do i contiue to engage in the debate ?

What not just give up and find ways to avoid confronting this challenge ?

I acknowledge that I feel angry and dismayed that no one in management is “getting it” but then upon reflection and consideration I realise that in fact they ( management ) in fact are getting it loud and clear …….and that carefully orchestrated planning and history have contributed to that decision making process. I also acknowledge that my expressions of dismay and helplessness are not helping to inform progressive thinking ……..rather drawing upon the vitriolic and senseless mindlessness that erupts from repeat unrequieted ( is that how you spell that word ?) access to that which makes it all easier.

Readers and my colleagues know that I often lapse into fits of sardonisim….. and feeling trapped in situations also leads me to kick-out at the constraint.

Nor am I one to sit in amongst the constraint and accept that this is the way it is and just accept it like a drone. What I’m doing is expressing how I’m FEELING…….I’m feeling trapped ( it’s a feeling and not a pretty one ) HOWEVER, in expressing it I’m seeking ways to move on and experience success, supported and encouraged, connected and really achieving creation. It’s perhaps the base human expression as Jo kay suggests that makes it possible to then contemplate the way to empower oneself which in turn empowers others by example.

The problem ( I’m now thinking…..ticking away here) is less in the fact that there is a reluctance in the education sectors to readily embrace new technologies and use them as part of the education experience, but more of a sociological value as to the affect such technologies have on the other aspects of being human and alive. Take for instance online learning for part-time educators in time poor cities with chronic shortages of beauty and health. Or, consider resource rich lock-step employees trapped in isolated communities where access and useability are seventh to the local football field. Which looks more like war and why ?

Where does openess help rather than induce introspection and anxiety of self value ? maybe pushing for an open view of what’s happening inside only add’s to the anxiety ? When does a wiki not become a wiki ? Just because it’s closed and dosent exist for public view ?

Technology I propose itself is not necessarily the challenge rather the myrid of challenges it poses for base human communication as we struggle to engage in meaningful and human-rich deep and slow experiences without interuptions. Maybe the ’social’ in social networking technology is in fact an enigma and that in fact we’d be better off analysing and informing the debates from a values assessment of technology mediated interaction without it’s “noise”.

That would then render this expression of mine …mute. Best I concentrate on what it enables rather than what it refutes. Find some connectedness amongst the humdrum and show connection in action in a world immersed in security conciousness.

Whilst I’m on the topic, policy ( broad sweep of hand ) seems to me to be a resultant rather than a guide in all of these discussions and helpless expressions. Process oriented action research that informs action ie. Graham Wegner seems more useful than philisophical nuances that inform policy which then governs the manner in which we re-value interaction and devolve responsibility from.

I commiserate with Kim Flintoff and find that he’s willing to openly ( humanely) express himself and suggest perhaps that he’s also not trapped by cynicsm rather seeking connectedness to remain sane and positive.

After much mirth last night Stephan Ridgway, Robyn Jay and Julie Collareda finally broke into fits of laughter at the novelty of re-positing the ridiculousness of where rhetoric is taking our organisations as a whole as they struggle to comprehend the whole change occuring from right underneath them. Not only are humans becoming more complex but the rapidity of the connections means nothing remains un-observed.

Our resolve - It’s our ability to harness survaillant as core capital rather than bork at it’s borgness.

Open up rooms in ourspace.

Turn the machine off occasionally.

Smile more readily.

Seems worthwhile to me. What do you think ?

Local Eyes

[ image : Localeyes Sydney ]

Every once in a while I get to the point where I just need to have a big cry and connect with being emotional…being human and letting go of the stress and pain of being alive and well in the beautiful world.

Tonight I opened an email from my friend Jennie Burrows who has two very special and dear children who have grown up entwined in each others lives like two peas in a pod. I want to acknowledge that Jennie has been a light in dark times for me when I was going through one of the most difficult points in my transition as I broke away from the lands of Western Australia, opening her home and heart to me along with a number of other noted friends I’m lucky to have.

I also want to acknowledge that I’ve witnessed an amazing transition in a small persons life as they grow and love their siblings and that little person is Persia who has just recently won the Local Eyes - http://www.localeyessydney.com.au/ - photographic competition at the grand old age of five years .

Persia has been a participant in the Pathways program and her portrait of herself and her brother Tyler has just moved me to tears and prompted me to write this blog post. Congratulations Persia ( and Tyler ) and it is testament of the amazing energy that Jenny has put into building love in a very diverse and beautiful family.

Read Write Blah.

. .

“……some who complain in the staffroom about not being able to turn off from school when they get home……..they just want their paycheck and to keep doing things the same way they been doing it for the last 10/20 years.”

Web 2.0 : Forward Motion

Image : QUT

Dr. Marcus Foth has contacted me this morning with an article published via the QUT news archive of PHd candidate Tanya Notley’s investigations into the impact of the digital divide and it’s relationship to social inclusion in Queensland.

This follows on from discussions I’ve been having with a number of others Australia wide ( and indeed in an international reference ) as to the importance of access for students to networked learning technologies and the resultant stullification of skills and knowledge as a result of blocking such opportunities ( platforms less specific) in education organisations.

I’m interested in finding the functional balance, exploring a balanced view between those that govern and indeed mandate exclusion from an IT support perspective, informing policy and empowering the organisational referent group which informs or enforces such policy….influencing as Robyn Jay coins.

I’m currently sitting ( typing this ) within one of the largest education organisations in Australia within which all social networking sites such a Bebo, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook and many many other sites are governed by such policy. Like Tanya Notley, I also support the idea that ” denying many students without home internet access use of these sites to learn and participate in an increasingly networked society ” is of disadvantage from a inclusion, ethical and social equality perspective.

It’s plainly eveident that even as an adult it frustrated the hell out of me last year trying to run a national program with registered training organisations from all walks of life from within and without.

The QUT article also contains statements from Tanya that I find compelling and reasonable;

“Firstly, I found that participating in online networks provided the research participants with a way to develop and sustain their personal social networks.

“This is important because research tells us that a strong, supportive and extensive social network improves people’s life opportunities……..Online networks provided these students with ways to participate in society that were social, cultural, civic, economic and educative. “

Far from supporting all social networking sites as the pancea for social ill-will, I’m interested in the nexus between where social media intersects with education organisation pedagogy and the resultant collusion to exclusion cycle that occurs as a result of trying to “control” such seemingly non-linear human communication.

I’m also cognisant that many activists ( some may consider me to be one of them ) seek to exclude the organisational safety, security and intellectual property protection discussion in favour of the anarchist rules modality however, as Kim Flintoff and I explored in SL it’s more about informing the digital education revolution than finding ways to undermine it’s very existence…..to find ways to see inclusion and for OER ( open education reform ) to blend it’s way with organisational pride.

Likewise Bill Wade and I also continue to seek ways forward that inform and include the use of social networking and open source technologies and perhaps even to inform where education and collaboration fit into the picture.

Tanya again points to a way forward that is less about fear mongering and more about finding a way in than a way out;

“Policies would be far more effective if they were focused on teaching young people about the risks and benefits of different online networks rather than on just banning and ignoring them.”

My interest is in the behaviours and socio-political constructs that have contributed to “banning and ignoring” in Australia less from a historical perspective and more from examining how these socio-global participatory platforms have positively put pressure on Australia’s agenda to conform, reform or indeed reject such ways of working in the 21st century.

I’m also interested in pursuing this topic and important aspect of education in a research capacity employing the very technologies I seek to speak of and where needed running the hurdle race to assist others in the process. I find it amazing that many of the research articles I read from an academic perspective contain links to individuals who dont use the technologies and yet speak so candidly of them….perhaps that’s a good thing

This blog serves as one node of the systemic reflective crossroad. I’m exploring the active side of the equation I hope and less rant will help my case markedly.

It’s not firewalls we are facing…..just humans frightened to broaden their own frame of reference.

Alls well…..

…….that ends well and by the sounds of it at least 8 out of 10 things were covered in the Learning In The 21st Century gig hosted by education.au in Adelaide today.

Many thanks to all who attended both physically, virtually or in spirit.

Mike Seyfrang has preliminary thoughts and I’m sure Michael Coghlan and Graham Wegner will add their piece later.

Graham passed on some links also - http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=1843

Framework - http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=51520

Al upton said hello via Skype.

I was driven to Dubbo NSW and sat with three groups of educators talking about networked learning and wikispaces. The knees gradually on the mend.

So is the head