A Network Theory of Power
Manuel Castells, International Journal of Communication, July 22, 2011.

The diagram above is my representation of the thesis proposed by Manuel Castells in his paper A Network Theory of Power. There's a whole special section in the current issue of the International Journal of Communication (open access, yay!) on Multidimensional Networks.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Access]

Find-ability Meets Share-ability: Social Content Optimization
David Armano, Logic + Emotion, July 22, 2011.

Just what the world needs: Social Content Optimization, a companion to search-engine optimization (SEO). "In our model," writes David Armano, "we first perform that initial search and social conversation audit to see what people are asking for or discussing but then compare the results to a company’s public digital assets such as videos, images and documents to see if they are properly aligned with the vernacular people use for search and easily shared between people socially." Social Content Optimization, in other words, is a way to match product and service advertising to what people are talking about. Which would be OK, but my fear is that just as SEO operators have polluted search results, SCO operators will pollute conversations.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Video, Marketing]

Aaron Swartz Indictment Leading People To... Upload JSTOR Research To File Sharing Sites
Mike Masnick, Techdirt, July 22, 2011.

The fallout has not settled from the indictment of Aaron Swartz for copying gigabytes of JSTOR academic papers to his own hard drive. As Techdirt reports here, others have been prompted by the action to upload large masses to JSTOR papers to file sharing sites. " Indeed, Adam points us to the news that a guy by the name of Greg Maxwell just released 33GB of JSTOR scientific papers via The Pirate Bay because of the indictment against Aaron." Mike Masnick writes, "In this case, believe it or not, it's all public domain research, which JSTOR is trying to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to access." People are not happy right now.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Research, File Sharing, Academia]

Choice, duh!
Gary Stager, Stager-to-Go, July 22, 2011.

Oh, hey, a conference that tried something other than stand-and-lecture. The 'Constructing Modern Knowledge' conference described here by Gary Stager reminds me of the educamps Diego Leal hosted in Colombia. "Supported by an amazing faculty, CMK 2011 participants engaged in dozens of hands-on/minds-on projects and expanded their vision of how computers can transform learning. (Specific examples will be shared at constructingmodernknowledge.com in the coming days.)" What made it work? No deep educational secret, but something quite basic. "Learners at CMK 2011 had complete freedom to choose, what, how and when they would learn. Participants selected projects in a coercive-free environment unimpeded by curriculum." We need more conferences like that.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Project Based Learning]

Validate someone today!
Vicki A. Davis, Cool Cat Tecaher Blog, July 22, 2011.

Really fun video I would never have watched if I hadn't been working on producing a radio show for zero listeners. Here's Vicki A, Davis: "Take the time to watch this video and remember the importance of your words and facial expressions. This video often comes through my Twitter feed and Google alerts because the young lady in the film's name is 'Vicki Davis' (just like mine.) Think of the nobility of encouragement and smiling and the tragedy when someone takes it away. My friends, one reason I love blogging is that you do make me smile. Interestingly, this video came through my Google circle." This video made me smile, and made me feel validated.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Twitter, Video, Web Logs, Google]

Time to Move to Competency-Based Continuing Professional Development
Tracy Immel, Educational Technology Debate, July 22, 2011.

This is what the politicians and managers all want these days, at least to my experience: competency-based continuing professional development. "A competency is a demonstrated ability to perform a particular job or task. A competency includes skills, but also behaviors and the ability to apply those skills in order to perform a job or task." It's learning with an immediate practical application on the job. And learning as measured against set and widely recognized standards. As an example, "in 2008 UNESCO, in partnership with Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, and ISTE, formalized the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT) with an aim to measure the ICT proficiency of teachers against a common international standard." I have my doubts, but there's no denying the competency juggernaut sweeping through learning and collaborative technology.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Microsoft, Cisco, Portals, UNESCO, Experience]

It’s not chronic poverty that hurts education — it’s the large percentage with any poverty
Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, July 22, 2011.

Yes, another post linking poverty and poor educational outcomes. "Way too many students face some poverty. And that’s enough to inhibit their development. Poverty is by far the most significant factor influencing students’ educational development. The pervasiveness of poverty, not its chronic nature, is a significant problem for our society." With all the eagerness of politicians to devise plans to evaluate teachers against educational outcomes, one wonders why there are no plans to evaluate politicians according to how well they reduce poverty.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Linking and Deep Linking]