A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning's Vision. (2012)

The Future is........

The Future is........: What is learning in the future going to look like? How can we take advantage of and harness the power of the new technologies coming forward?

To Educate or Not?

Well week two of the e-learning and digital cultures MOOC on Coursera. Well if I am honest it is week 3 but I am behind in my work so just to catch up.

We have been asked to look at 5 videos this time under the theme of popular cultures

Well I started by writing a synopsis of each of the films and what I thought about them. the I started to read the ideas and interpretations and realised that this wasn't enough. So here's what I think.

Utopia vs Dystopia or To Educate or Not?

There is a very fine line between the benefits of technolog, safety, access to information, communications and the negative effects control, lack of freedom, no privacy.

Learning technologies are being hailed as the answer to student engagement with learning, well how about the tutors?  Prensky says "the single biggest problem facing education today is that  our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." (Prensky, 2001) So how do we as tutors, the digital immigrants, in this digital age communicate in this new language with the students, the digital natives? There is a discourse between tutors who engage with digital technologies and those who don't, also tutors as learners trying to play catch up with students. Digital natives multi-task as part of everyday life, how many tutors will not allow students to be on social media, text whilst within the traditional lesson? 

Some of the films this week showed the controlling effect that technology can have on society, how easy it is to be drawn into a world  and society which feels safe but actually has had freedom, in it's true sense, denied.  'Friends' report their every action and feeling in their status on Facebook, they check in using location indicators such as FourSquare, we record our every action and make it freely available on YouTube. How far are we away from that connected controlled dystopian world?

Another question which comes to mind ia about the basic right to education. I would like to know who says and why? Shouldn't education be a choice? Lots of people are happy with their lives as they are and who are we to show them that they should not be? Is education right for them? Would it make them less happy to know that there is something better (in our opinion)out there and that they should be striving for a better life? Who are we (the educators) to decide that people need or want to be educated?

On the other hand educating people that there is something better raises expectations and a drive to succeed and achieve higher and higher targets, which surely must improve lives..

So I ask to educate or not?

Utopia vs Dsytopia

Well,

Just to fill you in I have started a MOOC on a platform called Coursera, the course is called E-Learning and digital Cultures (#edcmooc) Actually I have started two MOOCS, the other one is on Equine Nutrition but I will blog about that at KB Equine Therapy

Block 1 asks us to look at Utopia and Dystopia. The subject matter was four short films:

Bendito Machine III

The characters in this film seem to be at the start of a technical revolution. A priest who uses another machine calls down an animated television set from heaven. This machine is worshiped by the whole community who soon make it part of their lives and in one sense seem to be addicted it.

At one point the technology seems to hypnotise everyone but the priest almost like a cult, until it fails and kills half the villagers. This dystopian film symbolises the throwaway world that we know live in, and the desire to have the latest and most up-to-date gadget regardless of the cost.

Inbox

A very interesting film. At first I thought that it was about the relationships and dis –relationships between man and woman and I failed to see how this film related to the course. As the film moves on, though, the main two characters communicate through an inbox (two magic gift bags bought from the same shop). The Utopian side of this film is shown, when the two characters met in the shop they woman clearly disliked the male, they build a relationship communicating through the inbox, which allows them to get to know each other without the pre-conceived impressions of each other in the physical presence. One of the bags is torn and then doesn’t work both people are disappointed. The dystopian element of this film becomes clear when the technology fails they have no way of contacting each other. It is just by chance that they meet after trying to take back the ‘faulty equipment’ to the same shop.

Thursday

Tensions between the natural world and ultimately mankind, as the designers and builders of technology, Who has agency?

The birds (symbolising nature) have power. It is they who cause the technology to fail by taking the wire to build their nests, it is they who have the freedom that mankind seems to have lost, mankind has become observers rather than physically interacting with nature. This is shown when the bird bumps flies into the window and is momentarily stunned, the man can only watch from inside without being able to help.

Technology though gives another dimension and power to mankind in that through the development of technology mankind can access space and see the world from a spaceship. This symbolises the way in which technology has allowed us to see and take part in nature in a way that would not normally be available.

Newmedia

This film shows the dystopian dark side of technology, in much the same way that Benito Machine III does. Both films portray how technology can control us either by a desire to have the latest technology, the addiction that we have to technology and the way in which we are kept prisoners through not being able to ‘live’ without technology. Newmedia portrays a rather ‘Big Brother is watching you’  (1984, George Orwell, http://www.george-orwell.org/1984), we do not see any humans or animals in this short film and therefore can only assume that technology keeps the human race under control, that status quo has been turned on its head

War of the Worlds the film of the story by HG Wells

This is one of my favourite films. It shows the dystopian side of technology. The Martian technology is so advanced that they travel to earth to conquer the humans, but succumb to a virus. There is a great divide between the ‘haves’ (the Martians) and the ‘have not’s’ (the Human race). There is an analogy between the youth of today and the older generation, the youth who rely on the technology to communicate, access the internet and the older generation who are only just starting to get to grips with the use of technology to communicate with far away relatives through online methods such as Skype.

 Just like the two races in the film, the youth and the older generation cannot speak to each other as they use different languages. Todays youth use text speak, no grammar, no punctuation and the older generation find it even more difficult to understand and communicate with the youngsters of today

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster

This is story I read when studying for GSCE in my youth. It affected me so much I can remember it. It is about two people who live in an underground world, in individual cells. Temperature, food, etc. are all controlled by a machine (which I imagine in the authors eyes was a computer). It is a society which pouts a great reliance on technology for everything that they do and need to live, this is the story of what happens when the machine stops (hence the title). I recommend it.

#edcmeooc