For your information - from the University of Brighton - and just the sort of vdeo we'd like to see posted on YouTube - surely someone recorded it?
Google is white bread for the mind - inaugural lecture from Professor Tara Brabazon
Some provocations from a mediated age
Wikipedia and user-generated content are creating an age of banality and mediocrity by providing consensual information and stifling debate. Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google.
Tara Brabazon, Professor of Media Studies, will argue in a lecture on 16 January that universities must teach students to question, argue, debate and challenge, rather than accept the 'facts' from Wikipedia or the rankings of Google. more...
A "pioneering" new report from University College London commissioned by the British Library & the JISC comes to the surprising conclusion that perhaps the generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with Google (very young then...) are not quite as net-savvy as they think.
The press release:
Pioneering research shows ‘Google Generation’ is a myth
All age groups revealed to share so-called ‘Google Generation' traits
New study argues that libraries will have to adapt to the digital mindset
Young people seemingly lacking in information skills; strong message to the government and society at large
A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation' – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most web-literate. The first ever virtual longitudinal study carried out by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.
Who'd have thought? There's a lot of work in this one. Required reading for all our management and academic chums.
It's the birthday of Robert Burns so we'll rehash the previous year's posts, just like the ubiquitous Burns' suppers will rehash their maudlin (Mauchline?) take on the poet. However, there was a good piece by Andrew O'Hagen published in The Guardian Review of last Saturday which does at least try to get at the man rather than the brand.The People's Poet can be read here.
I still think that MacDiarmid got it right in A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle. 82 years later he's still getting it right. What? Try reading this.
And finally, the annual mention of Matthew Fitt's Kate O'Shanter's Tale. Hear it here.
I note (from the e-mails clogging up my desktop) that my CoLRIC cousins seem to be working themselves into a frenzy re YouTube & other social networking sites. Or at least about their respective college's policies on the use of such sites. I can't justify FaceBook & Bebo, etc. because I don't use them (Isn't a mailing list a form of social networking?) Convincing management that YouTube can be a valuable medium from our (educational) perspective & from a college (marketing=money) perspective should be fairly straight forward. After all if Ivy League universities use YouTube...
Open Culture posted yesterday on 10 universities with collections on YouTube. Tell your people to have a look. The 10 are:
Obsessive? Perhaps. Anyway isn't the culture of collaboration what the Internet / WWW was all about before, well, before it was hijacked by the proliferation of "corporate" websites trying to flog us stuff we don't know we want and certainly don't need. Incidentally, at the beginning these websites learned all their e-commerce tricks from pornography websites. As the man said, pornography who really cares?, propaganda all is phony. But we digress. As has been mentioned here before there's a lot of good, free educational material out there. The US-based (biased?) Education Portal has aggregated what they see as the best of this - Free Online Courses & Education. There are links to, amongst others, courses in business, Linux, Unix, computer networking, financial education, programming, marketing, etc., etc. Not all suitable for FE but worth a look, certainly for those students (& staff) who aspire to something Higher. The list of courses could easily be added to. We'll obsess about that later.
If you're fed up with Google Pages, blogs & haven't got a handle on Joomla! yet. Or, indeed, if those pesky techies won't give you the server space, this might be worth a try.They say:
Webnode brings you a brand new innovative way of creating and editing advanced websites by just using a web browser. The system is very easy to use and is fully interactive. Real-time fast editing as you see it in the browser. By using Drag-and-Drop from the toolbar you can add new content such as polls, forums, articles, catalogues, widgets such as PayPal and much more. Webnode contains more than 40 beautiful templates or you can make your own.
The SQA has launched a new service that allows you to download National Qualification (NQ) question papers from 2007's diet - completely free of charge.
2007 Adapted Question Papers in Digital Format for candidates with disabilities and/or additional support needs, are also available on the website: Digital Question Papers. Past papers & answers still available from Leckie & Leckie.
The good people at DailyBits (no, they're new to me too, new but noted) have a posted the following:
17 Sensational, Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels The web is home to a treasure-trove of free culture. Thousands of artists, writers, film-makers, poets and illustrators craft impressive creative works and share them freely online, in the interests of making their work accessible to as many people as possible. We thank them for that. In this post, I want to highlight a booming segment of the online free culture movement: graphic novels.
I suppose that on & off over the years I've been a student of the US political system. OK, pretty superficial stuff although Hunter S. Thompson's Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail is both serious & funny.
Which brings us to this. Can anyone really tell the difference between The Onion & WorldNetDaily? Or is it just the failing of my ailing critical facilities?
More freebies whilst we're here. Chris Salmon's usual piece on free mp3 dowloads which appears weekly in the Guardian has been expanded for the "post-Christmas" market. Find here 20 sites offering free & legal downloads. Pick of the bunch IMHO is Honey, Where You Been So Long, not only for the name but for the pre-war blues it offers. Sites celebrating the 80s & Swedish music (no offence but it's the Abbaphobia surfacing again) I can live without.
Well, here we go. Greetings from the PE for 2008. How long this (career?, blog?) will last until the RSI really kicks in, I don't know.
Anyway, a few from the BBC that you may have missed over the festive period.
The BBC iPlayer relaunched on Christmas Day in a new streaming incarnation so you don't have to download to watch again. Which is nice. Now works in Mac, Linux & Firefox as well. But don't forget to get your techies to allow that pesky stream to sneak its way through the proxy.
The BBC Learning Zone Broadband site "provides rich audio-visual material for use in primary and secondary schools and colleges. These short videos have been selected to match the curriculum; they can be used in many ways, from the stimulation and engagement of students to the delivery of very specific learning points." The clips can be embedded into teaching materials, VLEs blogs, websites, etc. Not an awful lot there yet but one to keep an eye on perhaps.
Certainly a wee bit cheaper than the BBC Motion Gallery with whom the JISC have reached an agreement. A trial of this would be useful but then we'd download all we needed and then disappear back into our cave (GlenStrathFarrar) of choice. Still £1200 p.a. seems very little when you realise that for commercial use these clips are £130 a pop.
Best bet for FE? Get an aerial, a USB digiTV stick, an ERA licence & a puckle server space. Build your own TV station & really p*ss those techies off!
Resolution for 2008? Persuade Google / Blogger that I am not a bloody 'bot.
For your information - from the University of Brighton - and just the sort of vdeo we'd like to see posted on YouTube - surely someone recorded it?
