MoopingAroundWeb2.0

I guess I am beginning to get the hang of blogging, or rather writing a blog. There is a kind of cathartic effect I suppose - being able to just vomit your thoughts onto the web without (relatively) a care in the world.  I've been thinking of designing a personal blog along that goes deep into the issues of the books I read. I've been quite consistent in my reading habit since April and I'm really happy at the progress I've made. It's week 21 and I've read 25 books in total. But I am worried that I am not maximizing my learning. There is a saying among practitioners of Kaizen  and among ultralearning communities - "Knowledge is the art of knowing. Wisdom is the art of doing." Ultralearning practitioners would say "Theory and practice are equal, in theory. In practice, this is not so" - or something like that.  While I can't always practice what I read, I worry that just reading alone does nothing to ensure retention of that knowledge in m...

Just wanted to share an article in the Harvard Business Review co-wrote by one of my instructors - How to Cope with that "Always On" Feeling . When I returned to work after my undergraduate program one of the things that I was unprepared for was how ubiquitous social media and internet communication technology (ICTs) would be in my work-life. I was working 24/7. Over and above working 15hr work days, I still had colleagues texting me on weekends in preparation for meetings on Monday (I learned to shift such meetings to Wednesday subtly, to buy everyone who desired some form of boundary, some time).  I don't know about you but honestly, social media is draining and sometimes counterproductive. It's draining because we are forced out of etiquette to reply to everything - to respond, to provide input. It does not help that these applications are engineered in some way to facilitate this interruption. Notifications, chirpy ring tones, addictive mechanisms like 'likes...

Tried to get some early sleep - but it didn't work. Hahaha! So I decided to pen down some thoughts regarding higher education and digital technology in the wake of COVID.  Personally, I think that the COVID lockdown has given society a rude awakening. Rarely does the human race come to face with its own mortality in this day and age (though it is likely that COVID19's mortality rate is inflated, and is unlikely to reach the rates of the bubonic plague). For those born after 911 and the SARS pandemic, COVID probably approximated a societal crisis to our sensitivities. In the midst of the gloom and doom however (I have since stopped watching the news and feel much better), I think that there are a few important lessons that we can all take away - all linked to the notion of importance. It's a bit late so I might be rambling here.  1. First and foremost - Many things are good, but not many things are essential. Capitalism and economics, leveraging human ingenuity and hard work...

Finally at the end of week 2!  There was so much covered this week! Specifically, the hive mind, digital natives, produsage and youth, and finally the lives of the highly networked. I think my main takeaways for the week centered largely on two things that I will be looking into in the coming weeks. Firstly, the notion of facilitating collaboration and communication. What are the best practices involved in creating a platform for collaboration? What are the key attitudes and facets of culture to be implemented? In particular, would communities of practice be a natural outflow of attempting to create a professional produsage community in my organization? What are the physical elements that are required? Digital networks of a certain speed, certain applications and such?  Secondly, the notion of getting individuals to value the collaborative process and community. The more I read on the application of hive mind modalities to education and learning, the more I thought ab...

Hey everyone! Welcome to part two of this mini post series. I'll probably be talking more about modalities to develop produsage communities in posts in the coming weeks - it's really a huge topic to go into. I'll  be delving into the notion of communities of practice as well so stay tuned to that.  In this post however, I would like to look at one specific aspect of produsage communities - facilitating discussion and the exchange of ideas. Now noting that produsage communities necessarily require some form of communicative collaboration - users produce materials for desirable usage by other users - an avenue for discussion and learning would constitute one of the pillars of a functioning community.  How this discussion takes place is a function of the method of its facilitation. I discuss two such models. Firstly, there is a laissez faire model, akin to the old internet messaging forums like iirc. Characteristics of this model include little to no moderation of c...

For the first part of today's series of posts, I'd like to introduce to you a book that I've read written by Daniel Coyle (2018) called "The culture code". This week, we've been mostly reading about web 2.0 technologies that facilitate a user-centric environment where users are both the producers of knowledge and users of it (produsers). I however, have been attracted to the notion of community. For produsage to work, it is essential that a community in which collaboration and not self-aggrandizement is cultivated.  This lead me to the culture code's examination of key facets of successful groups. In one of the studies listed in the book, it noted that in a simple experiment where groups of business students and kindergartners (all groups were homogenous) were told to build the highest tower with twenty pieces of uncooked spaghetti, one yard of transparent tape, one yard of string and one standard-size marshmallow (to be put on top of the obelisk),...

The purpose of this blog is to explore the following: (1) Technology and theories related to Web 2.0 learning technologies; and, (2) get used to the idea of blogging and understanding how the medium works in business and as a hobby. Wish me luck!