The Problem with Literature Reviews
George Siemens, elearnspace, May 2, 2011.

I have clashes with journal editors over the subject of literature reviews (which, for the most part, I do not provide, and eschew as irrelevant). Siemens writes (and I agree) "A literature review is a paint-by-numbers scheme that tells us what has been done and gives us a sense of which little areas our research can fill in. In times of change, we need a blank canvas to guide our thinking, not a largely-filled in 'normal science' view of the world."

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The Lecture as a Trans-Medial Pedagogical Form
Norm Friesen, E Learning Practices, May 2, 2011.

Norm Friesen and I are (it seems) of one mind when it comes to the role of the lecture. See slide 25 of this presentation (the first presentation outside philosophy I have seen to invoke Johann Gottlieb Fichte (a founder of German idealism that I think today's environmentalists would really appreciate; it is the phlosophy of Fichte that ties this post together with the next, also from Friesen)): "lecturing is not about information transmission. (It is) about personal, emotional connection, bringing the subject alive for the audience, showing it is alive in the lecturer via a fresh talk."

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The Lecture as a Trans-Medial Pedagogical Form
Norm Friesen, E Learning Practices, May 2, 2011.

Norm Friesen and I are (it seems) of one mind when it comes to the role of the lecture. See slide 25 of this presentation (the first presentation outside philosophy I have seen to invoke Johann Gottlieb Fichte (a founder of German idealism that I think today's environmentalists would really appreciate; it is the phlosophy of Fichte that ties this post together with the next, also from Friesen)): "lecturing is not about information transmission. (It is) about personal, emotional connection, bringing the subject alive for the audience, showing it is alive in the lecturer via a fresh talk."

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We are not our Brains: Alva Noe & Brain-based Education
Norm Friesen, E Learning Practices, May 2, 2011.

Norm Friesen presents a lecture by Alva Nae to the effect that "we are not our brains". And hence, "there are significant limitations to 'brain-based education:'"
- "Brains are not the same thing as persons. We are also our bodies, our actions, and our relations to others; and none of these are reducible to our brains or others' brains."
- "how valuable is it to learn that kindergarten-aged brains are stimulated in valuable ways from a bright, colourful environment, or that patterns in brain activity change as people gradually learn to do something new?"
- "It is much more productive to consider education a socio-cultural endeavour than an exercise in biological or neurological engineering...."
- "Basing" education and instructional strategies on the brain take us back to Cartesian dualisms and the problems associated with them."
These four criticisms are all variations on the same theme: persons are not brains, and education is (of/about/for) persons, not brains.

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Moving beyond self-directed learning: Network-directed learning
Geroge Siemens, elearnspace, May 2, 2011.

I've already started what will be several days of interesting discussions with George Siemens and others in the ed tech community in Edmonton. In this post Siemens reflects on directionality in connectivist courses (Terry Anderson today also asked, "what is instructional design in connectivist courses?") and specifically the need for "more than self-directed learning." I have long commented that working in a network does not mean working on your own, even if at the same time it does not mean working under the direction of an instructor or working collaboratively. Siemens writes, "learners need to be network-directed, not self-directed learners... network-directed learning is not a 'crowd sourcing' concept. Crowd sourcing involves people creating things together. Networks involve connected specialization – namely we are intelligent on our own and we amplify that intelligence when we connect to others."

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Has your understanding of WE changed since the rise of the internet?
Ulrike Reinhardt, We Magazine, May 2, 2011.

We magazine interviews fifteen well known internet pundits - names like Joi Ito, Clay Shirky, John Hagel, Don Tapscott, George Siemens, Brad Anderson, Lawrence Lessig and more - about how their understanding of "we" has changed since the rise of the internet.

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The Rise of Warnings to New Editors on English Wikipedia
Maryana, Wikimedia Blog, May 2, 2011.

I have long complained about the rise of a Wikipedia editor class that contributes not by adding value but by denigrating the content provided by genuine contributors. Now there is empirical evidence to support my contention in the form of a tabulation of negative and/or dismissive comments made by Wikipedia editors to new or infrequent contributors. I think it's long past time the influence of these editors was lessened. People need the right to be able to make less0than-perfect contributions without being slapped down; the whole idea is that contributions build on each other, and do not spring out of writers' entries full born like Pallas Athena.

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