Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism

Interesting article on Social Networking and connectivity... one to reflect on and come back to...

The New Atlantis - Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism - Christine Rosen: "Today, our self-portraits are democratic and digital; they are crafted from pixels rather than paints. On social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, our modern self-portraits feature background music, carefully manipulated photographs, stream-of-consciousness musings, and lists of our hobbies and friends. They are interactive, inviting viewers not merely to look at, but also to respond to, the life portrayed online. We create them to find friendship, love, and that ambiguous modern thing called connection. Like painters constantly retouching their work, we alter, update, and tweak our online self-portraits; but as digital objects they are far more ephemeral than oil on canvas. Vital statistics, glimpses of bare flesh, lists of favorite bands and favorite poems all clamor for our attention—and it is the timeless human desire for attention that emerges as the dominant theme of these vast virtual galleries.

Although social networking sites are in their infancy, we are seeing their impact culturally: in language (where to friend is now a verb), in politics (where it is de rigueur for presidential aspirants to catalogue their virtues on MySpace), and on college campuses (where not using Facebook can be a social handicap). But we are only beginning to come to grips with the consequences of our use of these sites"

ePortfolios and life being too short

Sooooo... I've just had a look at the OU's ePortfolio system 'MyStuff' (so tempted to write 'MySpace' there, but hit the backspace key in time...)

Pause whilst I am suitably underwhelmed

Another pause

Further pause for effect...

... and deep sigh.  Is that it?  Really?  On first look although it's an OU-provided facility it seems to float on its own in cyberspace.  Where are the automatic links to the courses already taken which could be filled in?  I've done a dozen or so OU courses over the years, am I really expected to fill in 19 or so boxes per course to make it useful??  "Thinking or cognitive skills", "Practical or professional skills" - these are supposedly taken direct from the standard set of learning outcomes issued with every course.  Why can't these appear automatically?  Does someone somewhere really think that people are going to use up their precious spare time filling in 100s of boxes to populate this with worthwhile information?

The other thing that's niggling me about it all is the over-friendliness of it.  Isn't that a daft thing to be irritated by?  Even so, references to 'buddies', 'MyStuff bites' and everything being 'stuff' just seems to annoy.  This is a system which is aimed at everyone from the OU's youngest students to ones who are well past retirement.  Why not go for an even informal tone throughout rather than some 'al-wight mate geezer-speak' which might serve to put people's backs up?  Even the name is reminscent of one of the web's biggest teen hang-outs - MySpace.  MyStuff seems to suffer from identity confusion and it's not well enough integrated into courses / the OU's systems to be a genuine learning and evolving tool.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of eportfolios.  I battled with them throughout H808 and finally, grudgingly, got to grips with it and found a benefit to it overall.  They have the potential to be a great tool for reflection, personal development, online resources storage etc... but MyStuff seems to aim for the fluffy end of things and it wouldn't surprise me if it ended up gathering dust.  I've filled in a couple of pages and filled up with apathy.  Hmmm...

Google docs in Plain English

Useful little video from CommonCraft which not only explains the whole Google docs process in a simple, visual style... but also further explains some of the benefits of using web 2.0 facilities for collaborative working.  Who wants to e-mail umpteen copies of the same thing to various recipients when Google docs (or other online office suites... or wikis etc) could do the job much better.  Yes, there are limits as to some of the technical features these things can offer, but if you want to work collaboratively, these services are a much better place to start than lonely Word documents.  Wonder what Microsoft will offer to compete on this score?? 

Anyway... here's the video.  Definitely one to stash as a good resource!

Click To Play

Education's Fear of Web 2.0?

Thought provoking article from Read/Write Web about the fear of Web 2.0 in business which links nicely to my last blog post about VLEs and 'tweakability'. It links to a research report produced by Forrester Research on 'Web 2.0 Social Computing Dresses Up For Business' and this is a useful summary of its content. There's a definite fear of letting go in a business context, but I'd also say it exists in education too. The thought of allowing people to mess about in order to explore the environment to find what works for them, rather than what the institution wants them to do means that things are unnecessarily limited and may be perceived as not being attractive for student use. Anyway... here's the link to the article and a snippet of what it contains...

Fear of Web 2.0: "Enterprises continue to adopt web technologies and 'web 2.0' trends, but there are two common threads to this adoption. One is that web technologies are step-by-step being adopted by enterprises, but they aren't yet ready to usurp many desktop software apps. The Google Apps vs Microsoft Office debate currently raging is proof of that. The second thread is that enterprises have a fear of web 2.0 tools being mis-used by their employees."

Tweakability and VLEs

I've just been playing about with Pageflakes and having also messed around with Google's version - iGoogle - I have to say that for me Pageflakes wins out.  Why?  It's simple but flexible.  Doesn't look ugly (yes, I know aesthetics shouldn't matter that much... but Google's version is seriously horrible looking, even after you've customised it a bit)... and isn't a basic page which hangs off a search engine a la iGoogle.  It made me think though about how petty some of my choices were for selecting a start page and then again about what I wanted on it and where.  What hope for institutions coming up with a VLE all students will like and adopt if they can't have some ownership over the petty things?  Tweaking a font here or there.  Taking things off that they don't want.  Adding in extra features if they're feeling a a bit adventurous.  Linking to resources outside the course or replacing standard features such as blogs or wikis with version they used beyond the course. 

Can VLEs cope with today's niche world?  I'm reminded of Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail' and wondering whether a trick isn't being missed here?  Can VLEs cope with all that people want of them or do they end up doing a lumpen 'Jack of all trades' version and making no-one really enthuse about them other than systems administrators?  If it's desirable for students to use resources beyond what they absolutely have to in order to pass their course, then doesn't someone somewhere have to let go a tiny bit and allow them to 'play' just a wee bit?  Look at things like MySpace and Facebook - currently under fire because employees waste too much time using them.  But... but... they *want* to waste time using them!  The precious spare time people have.  The time when they're under pressure at work.  They want to use these things.  Look at most student forums for OU courses and unless there's some sort of prescribed activity going on the only thing you're likely to see is tumbleweed.  Look at the blogs - dead.  Wikis - superficial engagement at best unless a project is underway.  How is it that the thing we can mess around with and feel like we control and own can't be replicated within education if the end result is that overall students feel more part of what they're learning and learn more as a result?  It doesn't have to be a waste of time if there's some sort of overall umbrella of learning.  Oh, I don't know.  There has to be some way to tap into the current social networking phenomenon and inject some of that independent desire to write, reflect, create and share into online education...

The backdoor way in...

Warnings over future supply of PhD graduates | Higher | EducationGuardian.co.uk: "Warnings over future supply of PhD graduates

British PhD graduates are more employable than those with first or masters degrees, but there is a danger the supply of doctoral students may dry up, a new study has warned."

Hooray... if there's a shortage... then perhaps they'll start looking at the dregs of the academic world to fill their places and the time will be right for me to strike!!!

Seriously though, when you look at the rewards (financially speaking) of having pursued a higher degree you have to question your sanity. At least in the UK you do. I often wonder what motivates people to go for a PhD when they haven't got funding and they'll end up selling an arm, a leg, half a kidney and their best china to pay for it. I know the drive to study is something that extends beyond the fiscal for many people... but it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that there are issues over finding students when it's simply not affordable in either the short or long term.

Lifelong learning? What's that??

Universities attack minister for cutting degree funding

... and so the issue of whether or not second degrees will have funding cut goes rumbling on...  from today's Education Guardian...

Universities attack minister for cutting degree funding

Read John Denham's letter to the funding council

Vice-chancellors today attacked the universities secretary, John Denham, over plans to cut funding for second degrees as he gave his first major speech to the higher education sector.But Mr Denham defended the cuts and hit back at the "social bias" of elite universities, which he said were failing to recruit students from across a broad spectrum.Last week, Mr Denham's Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced the withdrawal of funding for students who study for a second degree at the same level as their first, a move that enraged university heads, who see it as being "sprung" on them and in direct conflict with the government's own skills agenda.

Universities attack minister for cutting degree funding | Special Reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk

Students get OU satisfaction = tutors being binned anyway

... and yet... that support system which is praised... is going to be binned in favour of some sort of call centre system. "Bye, bye tutors. Thanks for putting us up there in the ratings, but we're so fantastic we never really needed you anyway..."

Students get OU satisfaction | Students | EducationGuardian.co.uk: "Students studying at the Open University are the most satisfied in the UK, according to the results of the national student survey released today. The results of the survey, which will be available on the new, revamped Unistats website, put the OU at the top of a league table of universities for overall student satisfaction for the third consecutive year. Close to 95% of the university's students said they were satisfied or very satisfied, which puts it one percentage point ahead of the institution ranked second - despite the fact teaching is delivered online and through distance-learning."

... a rating which should stick in the throat of all the OU's Associate Lecturers who've worked above and beyond what their unrealistic pay packet allows for... and who will be made redundant in their droves under the Student Support Review proposals.

The wait is over!

Am more gobsmacked than a gobsmacked thing... but...



Excuse the self-indulgent gloating... but my second degree is finished and I'm soooooooooo relieved it's untrue... and I also didn't even know you *could* get distinctions for this course so even more cloud 9-ish today!

Facebook up, MySpace down

From the Guardian...

Facebook up, MySpace down | Technology | Guardian Unlimited:

"Compete has just published some statistics comparing Facebook with MySpace, saying: 'Facebook has grown not only in member base, but also in member engagement, while MySpace has fallen dramatically on these same measures.' That's true, of course: the red numbers show MySpace is not doing as well as it was. However, it's also true that MySpace is still miles ahead in terms of visitors, page views, and average stay. MySpace's lead in terms of 'attention' is almost embarrassing: it scores 10.79% against Facebook's 1.67%. How long that will last is another matter. Social networking sites tend to rise and fall at some speed...."

... and what was it I was saying only yesterday about the 'Facebook distraction' news being non-news? The last line of the above quote says it all...