July 4, 2012
Balance the Spontaneous and Strategic of Social Media: Newsjacking and Obamacare
Boris Mann,
Weblog, July 4, 2012.
Boris Mann, a Northern Voice original, looks at the new definition of web literacy. He described four levels:
- web media literacy
- web creator
- web and internet foundations
- self-hosting
I agree with the progression from consumption to creation and ownership. But maybe we need to be thinking beyond 'the web' and thinking in terms of digital media, games and simulations, communication and messaging, and different forms of content.
Declare Your Radicalness
Umair Haque,
Harvard Business Review, July 4, 2012.
I've never been hesitant to declare myself a radical - I once even gave a presentation asserting that fact. I am, like most, surrounded on all sides by those who would argue that a gradual and incremental approach is preferable. My own believe is that we will never get the change we want in education or elsewhere by tweaking what already exists. Change - like Johnny Rotten - will come from outside. Just one thing - radicals live on the edge. They don't get power. They don't get influence. They get change.
Africa's True Mobile Revolution Has Yet to Start
Bright B. Simons,
Harvbard Business Review, July 4, 2012.
I've been reading - usually from well-heeled sources like the World Bank or the Economist - that mobile phones will support the e-learning revolution in Africa. I've always had my doubts, and still do, though two things mitigate those doubts: first, the relative affordability of some of the newer tablet computers, and second, the fact that wireless infrastructure is less expensive to develop than wired. But business models, I fear, do not support widespread access on the world's least wealthy continent. Most of the push has come from the African telecoms themselves. We are told in this article that they are now ready for enterprise deployment. This article is all breathless about the possibilities (and eager to see the end of African socialism in the process). I'm less sanguine.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Wireless, Online Learning, Paradigm Shift, Africa]
The European Parliament Rejects ACTA: The Impossible Becomes Possible
Michael Geist,
Weblog, July 4, 2012.
I don't pretend to know the intricacies of European politics, but I have the sense that the Eurtopean Parliament is only half the battle, and that if the European Commission wants ACTA passed, it will find a way to do it, as part of a farm bill or something. Still, while "ACTA became the poster child for secretive, one-sided IP agreements that do not reflect the views and hopes of the broader public," Michael Geist says "This morning, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly against the agreement, effectively killing ACTA within the EU." If that is indeed the case, then well good.
The significance of plot without conflict
Unattributed,
still eating oranges, July 4, 2012.
I thought this item made a nice point. It questions the necessity of the element of conflict in dramatic narrative. Central to the western tradition, conflict is absent in other traditions, such as the plot structure known as kishÅtenketsu. "KishÅtenketsu contains four acts: introduction, development, twist and reconciliation." I like the concept, and think it stands well alongside the forms I grew up with and enjoy.
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