Green4Generations

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Update: Green4Generations has its own website.

Saturday was the first Green4Generations festival and trade fair in Sackville, organised by Wanderlust outfitters. Many groups came out to show what can be done locally to reduce our environmental impact. The day ended with a presentation by Peter Corbyn of The Inconvenient Truth slideshow, which was worth seeing a second time for me. For a town of 5,000 people we have a lot going on, from a solar heating company to recycled art and a green builders cooperative.

One of the newest groups is our community supported agriculture (CSA) association which launched its first local vegetable service this Summer. The main driver behind this initiative, in addition to local demand, is a young family that has decided to create a better world by growing food in a sustainable way. Kent and Ruth run Nature’s Route Farm just outside of town and have been supplying weekly food baskets to 20 families. This is expected to grow to 60 families for next year, and the produce includes local vegetables as well as eggs. The Sackville CSA also sources organic flour from Speerville Mill and other seasonal delicacies.

To really combat global warming, we all have to get involved, politically and locally. Here is Kent at the Fair, and his reason for involvement is pretty obvious:

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Blogging in the Public Sector

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Several people have already mentioned the report by David Wyld on, The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0. This is a US-centric report that not only covers the public sector and elected officials but has a fairly comprehensive section on the history of blogging. For anyone not engaged and wanting to get up to speed, this report would be a good addition to the book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

It’s too bad that Wyld’s report is only available as a 7.2 MB PDF, but it’s suitable for those who prefer to read from paper (maybe on an airplane). From the report is a quick review on why you should blog (something that is still asked a lot):

Yet, the most important part of blogging may not be obvious to the blogger himself, as the very exercise of writing the blog raises one’s self-awareness. And by virtue of its being in the public sphere, “these fragments, pieced together over months, can provide an unexpectedly intimate view of what it is to be a particular individual in a particular place at a particular time” (Blood, 2000, n.p.). According to a recent survey of bloggers, approximately half of them view their blogging activity as a form of therapy (eMarketer, 2005b). Indeed, writing has been shown to be an extremely powerful activity; the more one writes, the better one thinks (Manjoo, 2002b). This can be an important method of self-development for everyone. For executives or public officials, this means they can use the blog as a means of self-analysis; at the same time, the organization’s stakeholders can gain a better awareness of the individual in the office. In the view of Dave Sifry, CEO of Technorati, a blog can be looked upon as “the record of the exhaust of a person’s attention stream over time.” He continued, “You actually feel like you know the person. You see their style, the words they use, their kids, whatever there is” (quoted in Penenberg, 2005, n.p.).

Netiquette 2.0

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I recently received another request for information about blogging. It could have been e-learning, Web 2.0 or some other area, but a freelance writer found me online and asked for my input for an upcoming article. For the past several years I have given free advice and comments to anyone who asks. Here are two examples:

  1. A few months back I received a well-worded request for an interview from Joe Horne, as part of a graduate class project of his. I consented to the interview, at a time of my choosing, and we had a great discussion. Joe followed-up with a handwritten thank you card. I must say that Joe’s extra effort was really appreciated.
  2. This week I answered a series of questions that had been e-mailed to me by a freelance writer for a business magazine, without any previous contact. There was an additional request that I respond within two days. I answered the questions almost immediately and sent off my response. So far, not even a thank-you in return.

After four years in the free information business I wonder if I should have a policy on being a source. I have no hesitation in helping any bloggers who also make their information available. I also don’t mind helping researchers and students who are disseminating their findings. However, I’m starting to feel used in providing free (and synthesized) information or advice to someone who is being paid to collect it.

This issue has reminded me of a story that I previously reported, in Good manners are still important. It was about an uninvited “professional” dropping in on some bloggers and expecting to be treated as an equal, or even a celebrity. This uninvited guest assumed, incorrectly, that the corporate hierarchy prevailed.

In a wirearchy, your position means much less than your value to the network. For instance, everything on this site is free and licensed for sharing and all of the content is searchable. This adds a certain amount of value to the overall network.

A few years back, Netiquette was about “NOT ALL CAPS” and enhancing communications. Netiquette 2.0 should focus on sharing and enhancing the network, not just drawing from it.

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Local Industry and Researchers Gather

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Last night was the monthly gathering of the Moncton area knowledge and IT industry, hosted by Mount Allison University’s research services. I really enjoyed Bruce Robertson’s presentation on his work with the semantic web, and more specifically the Historical Event Markup and Linking Project. It’s great to know a professor of Classics who also runs his own Linux server.

Another event of note that was announced last night is the free Ruby on Rails workshop to be held in Moncton on 10 Oct 2007, to be followed by a two-day training session. The host, Spheric, is a local company that has embraced open source development applications in order to better grow its business and offer enterprise-level software.

Web tools for critical thinking

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A few years back, Dave Pollard wrote a post on critical thinking and it’s one that I’ve referred to a few times since. I think that real critical thinking is a key survival skill in our global, digital surround.

What I think really needs to be taught is critical thinking as a defensive skill. We all think logically, but we can be fooled. Inadvertently or maliciously. If I were to design a Critical Thinking course it would quickly cover the basic cognitive skills, and provide some exercises for students to get these muscles working, and would then focus entirely on learning to challenge intellectual deception.

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Almost every interest group in the world is now on an information & marketing offensive. It’s what Seth Godin calls a Marketing War, and if every corporate, government and special interest group masters it, we had all better watch out. To fight this war, we now have a few new tools at our disposal to help us question assumptions, including our own.

Looking at several web tools from the perspective of critical thinking, and the processes described by Dave, shows something similar to a personal learning environment (PLE). You could call it a PLE with an attitude, or PKM, and educators can start with the book, “Teaching Defiance“.

PLE’s et al

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“But it’s alright now, I’ve learned my lesson well.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself” Ricky Nelson

I’ve been getting some questions about personal learning environments and of course hearing and reading lots about them in the past few months. If I thought about the PLE, it was a concept around the use of tools and processes to be a better learner. The PLE was akin to the process of personal knowledge management (PKM), in that it was a sense-making effort.

Some of the discussions around PLE’s seem to be going in the direction of PLE-as-platform, like a learning management system (LMS).  Having a “PLE in a box” might please everyone, but learners have to please themselves.

Tom Haskins has been adding excellent insight into this conversation, first with The LMS vs PLE Debate and then  Growing PLE’s from Seed and now PLE’s come in sizes :

When we think of Personal Learning Environments as things, we are on the same page as construction workers, factory stewards and warehouse operators. We are dealing with the components to assemble a PLE. We describe the PLE as “what we’ve got in it” like Web 2.0 tools and archives of our own creations.

When we think of PLE’s as processes, we’re on the same page as designers of architecture, software interfaces and customer experiences. We’re dealing with what components do, how they function, what purpose they serve, and which difference they make. These intangible qualities are more difficult to visualize.

It’s like electricity, which can be thought of as particles or as a current. PLE’s, in their current free-form, are what individuals are putting together because the tools are cheap and available. The processes are drawn from many fields – knowledge management, cognitive science, information architecture, etc. These processes, with newer tools every day, are fairly ill-defined.

Who knows where the PLE will go, but let’s give it a chance to grow first. Seeing how various artists use some kind of PLE would be fascinating and much more informative for our field than any standard PLE format selected by company ABC for all of its employees.

New Brunswick’s Education Plan

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Over 50 of us had dinner with the Minister of Education on Friday night. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and as many of you know, I’m highly critical of industrial education. After the speech, I didn’t have much to disagree with. If this government follows through on its vision and promises, then we may see some real changes that will help our children become active and contributing citizens.

Kelly Lamrock spoke about community schooling, local learning options, an innovation fund and co-op programs. He challenged local business and non-profit groups to get involved with their schools. I have accepted this challenge, and it helped that two school principals were sitting at my table. We will discuss how we can integrate the Atlantic Wildlife Institute into the curriculum and also how I can help teachers understand Web tools for learning. There is a real atmosphere of openness, that I have not sensed for the past decade.

From the government document, When Kids Come First:

In the world that awaits, one of the skills most in demand will be the ability to solve problems. Following instructions will be work done in low-wage economies, or by machines. The people who control their economic future will be the kids who went through school solving problems and challenging themselves, not just following instructions.

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And in that global world that awaits, our children will actually need a stronger sense of community than ever before. We’re not training — “we are teaching citizens, parents and leaders. That means we need to make our children feel anchored in a community where their actions touch the lives of others, where we give them a sense of our history, culture, languages and values — and a sense of belonging here at home.

I’m impressed with the government’s vision, knowing the challenges of changing a system that has been chugging along just fine for a century. I also know that all of us will have to get involved now, so that we don’t lose momentum. Many people will be threatened by changes to a more flexible and transparent learning environment, and at the first sign of difficulties reactionary forces will try to move back the clock. Carpe diem, New Brunswick.

Personal Environments

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[This is very much a work in progress]

David Dalgado has put up a graphic of his personal learning environment, using categories of Main Tool, Browser, LMS, News, Search, Communication, Knowledge base, Social Networks and Web Apps. When I examined my Web tools at the time, I came up with Main Professional Site, Information Management, Productivity Tools and Social Networks. This view was a bit different from my Personal Knowledge Management system, last year. This process consisted of Pulling, Sorting, Categorizing, Reflecting & Commenting, and Finding. In all of these cases, the individual decides what to connect to, choosing the intensity of the bonds with people or information.

Whichever view you consider, there are multiple aspects of personal learning and sense-making, enough to fill several books (or one big wiki). These new tools on the Web are making it easier to cobble together something that works for each of us. Jane Hart’s Top 100 list, shows the wide variety of tools available.

Connections, enabled by these tools, are starting to matter more in our work and our learning. We can connect with work, love, entertainment and meaning online. That’s why I’m to trying to find patterns in how these personal spaces have been created.

Mark Federman’s Valence Theory of Organization provides a most interesting lens to view our connections and I look forward to his future publications.

I identify several specific forms of valence relationships that are enacted by two or more people when they come together to do almost anything; these are economic, social-psychological, identity, knowledge, and ecological. An organization is thus defined as that complex, emergent entity which occurs when two or more people, or two or more organizations, or both, share multiple valences at various strengths, with various pervasiveness, among the component elements. Using this as a definition of organization has profoundly disruptive implications for every aspect of management, governance, and engagement that we have come to know over the last hundred or so years.

If individuals have stronger learning bonds outside school than inside, what happens to education? If there are stronger economic bonds through your network than your current job, what happens to the industrial workplace?

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As we are able to connect to anyone at any time, as well as have access to information as we need it, the organisation of the past century is starting to look like a hollow shell.

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Doing time in high school

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The Milgram Experiments demonstrated that normal people can easily do nasty things to other people if an expert tells them what to do. The Stanford Prison Experiment showed that normal people act like sadistic guards when placed in a “prison-like” environment. Today, in New Brunswick, we are making our schools more like prisons. Video surveillance cameras will be installed in all high schools in School District 2.

Of course, we have been assured that the cameras will only be used ethically and in the best interests of the students; but power corrupts. No public consultations preceded this decision. Video surveillance is one more control tool to be used “against” students, without their consent. Treat people like prisoners and sure as anything, they will start to act like prisoners.

Alternatives to technologies of control are available, cheaper and more ethical. First, build smaller schools, where everyone can feel at home. The maximum number of students per school should be 150 [Dunbar’s number]. Getting all teachers out of the staff room and into the halls, interacting with students, might put a more human face on the institution as well. Give students increasing amounts of control so that by Grade 12 they are able to make their own decisions about curriculum, homework, study time, etc. The more control you have, the less you feel like a prisoner, isn’t that correct, Employee #12 in Cubicle Zone D?

It seems as if our education system is trying as hard as possible to disempower and alienate an entire generation.

INATT

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Jay Cross is working on a research paper, which if it turns into a book, he will name it INATT (it’s not about the technology).

  • Blogging isn’t about the technology, it’s about easily publishing your thoughts and allowing others to join in and add to them.
  • Wikis aren’t about the technology, they’re an easy way for everyone to write, edit and comment on the same space and not worry about operating systems or word processor document formats.
  • RSS isn’t about the technology, it’s about having one place to watch the multi-person, multi-channel, multi-perspective Web universe.
  • Podcasts aren’t about the technology, they’re a way to share your voice and let others listen on their own terms and on their own time.
  • Multi-player roleplay games aren’t about the technology, they’re about immersing yourself in another world and learning things you might not in real life.

Many people cannot use these practical tools in school or at work. If it’s not about the technology, why are we letting IT departments decide what’s best for us?