Day 24-Full Circle--The Choice is Ours #edcmooc

photo courtesy www.sallyhepler.com

The Introduction: Approaching Post-Humanism, by Neil Badmington, goes to great length to summarize the view of Descartes as the originator of the accepted definition of “what is human.” He states:

“There is…an absolute difference between the human and the inhuman: only the former has the capacity for rational thought. Reason belongs solely to the human and, as such, serves to unite the human race. ‘We’ may have different types of bodies, but because reason is a property of the mind (which, for Descartes, is distinguishable from the body), deep down ‘we’ are all the same.” (Badmington 4)

As we (humans) continue to evolve, as technology moves from healing to enhancing, we will be pressed with the task of deciding what future we want for the creatures of the Earth.  One possibility is expressed in the video True Skin. 

In this short film, man has “progressed” to a point where the norm is physical enhancements.  If a person is “entirely organic,” they are considered a lesser quality.  The poor and indigent are those who cannot afford enhancements.  This is demonstrated by the sign which reads, “SERIOUSLY --NOT HIRING NATURALS”  In this video, the narrator has stolen a brain implant which has made him the target of an all-out manhunt.  As the government agents are closing in on him, he reached for a fingerprint pad, when touched it will “backing up” his consciousness so that it can be downloaded into a future body.

This future society might appear utopian to some, but to me it is frankly dystopian.  Medical science has made amazing progress in area of prosthetics for the healing of injury and birth defects (utopian).  But should these services become available to the highest bidder, making them less or un-available to those who actually need them (dystopian)?  And what of the concept of “backing up” your memories so that you can “download” into another body? No thank you.  When I finish my term on this earth, I am perfectly ready to begin my journey into the next stage of existence.  Trapping a soul in an endless loop of earthly bodies would condemn them to an eternal hell of self-imposed “ground-hog days” without the opportunity to progress.

The face and future of posthumanism are, as N. Katherine Hayles recognises, uncertain: the prefix does not pre-fix. What matters, rather, is that thought keeps moving in the name of a beyond, in the shadow of the unknown, in the fault-lines of the ‘post-’. (Badmington 10)

It seems we have come full circle.  In a blog post of the week 1 readings (Day 2), I quoted the Polish-American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer who declared,

'We have to believe in free will. We've got no choice.'

As human kind moves forward into the new world which technology will make possible, only we can decide which way we will move forward. 

Day 21 - What is a Human? #edcmooc

As week 3 draws to a close, I realize we have only one week of content left and then a mad dash to finish up our artifacts and *poof* no more EDCmooc! I find it hard to remember LBM (life before MOOC).  But as that is still many a sleepless night away, I will defer further reflection on that topic.

This week we’ve been studying the question, "What makes a 'human'?"
We’ve looked at real vs. digital, alien intelligence vs. mere human "meat." 
We have even gone down the road of creation vs. evolution.  But I think the question is a much simpler than any of these.

Earlier this week while bouncing around through the resources made available on the Facebook and Google Circle pages associated with this course, I came to a mosaic of self portraits which appeared to be taken with cell phones.  These pictures, called "selfies," are taken of oneself, usually with a cell phone with the intent to post to a social media site. 

In my blog post for day 18 of this course, I shared a selfie taken by a two year old boy.  When you look at that picture (below), you can see the pure joy on the face of this little boy--joy over his mastery of his moms iPhone; joy over seeing his own face smiling back at himself.  This self awareness, this joy in our own accomplishments, this thirst for knowledge at the tender age of two,THIS…I think…is what makes us human.

 

Day 20 - Evolution/Creation Why Not Both? #edcmooc

I have found this week's topic the most interesting yet, and also the hardest to put my thoughts into words.  In Steve Fuller's lecture, Humanity 2.0, his "jumping off point" for his whole theory about the non-humanity of mankind is that we are really not that different from apes.  That in fact, there is an "overlap of species" on this planet which makes us not all that special. He attempts to use this argument to disprove the theory of creation altogether.

I must object. I would propose instead that the theory of evolution and creation do NOT need to be mutually exclusive.  I ask instead, would not a God who is intelligent enough to create the heavens and earth and all who dwell within, also be intelligent enough to make his creations capable of adapting to change when necessary?  

And are we not all made of the same star dust? Evolutionists believe this is because our ancestor climbed out of some primordial goo.  However, if an intelligent being created us with the same stardust, would we not all have similar components? (90-95% genetic material)

Reproduction of A Starry Night by Jessica Siemens

Do we say that all of Van Gogh's paintings are "the same" because he used similar paint to paint them?  I do not believe you can say a human is less of a human because some of God's other creatures have similar skill sets and are made from the same "star stuff."  While humans share the ability to communicate, build tools and live in communities with other species, humans have taken these abilities to an exponentially higher level than any of the other species currently inhabiting earth.

According to Rod Mickens at the American Museum of Modern History, in Manhattan, 

"All species on Earth, including humans, are unique. Yet our intelligence and creativity go well beyond those of any other animal. Humans have long communicated through language, created and appreciated art and music, and invented complex tools that have enabled our species to survive and thrive, though often at the expense of other species.

We owe our creative success to the human brain and its capacity to think symbolically. While some other species can solve problems and communicate with each other, only humans use symbols to re-create the world mentally and dream up endless new realities. Although humans have not lost their selfish motivations, symbolic thought has opened our minds to spirituality and a shared sense of empathy and morality."

As for me and my house, I'll go with that definition.

Day 18 - "I'll have the Veggie Burger, Please" #edcmooc

"They're Made Out of Meat," the fourth video in the Week 3 assortment is a perfectly horrific video.  With mere vocal inflection and basic dialog this short flick manages to dehumanize and even engender disgust for the human being.  Two men from outer space discuss earthlings as "meat" who are "born meat" and who "die meat" and make "meat sounds." 

While watching this video, it is difficult to remember all that is beautiful about the "meat" that makes up the human form--from a newborn, to a child on a school yard, to an expectant mother, to a bent old man.  Yes, they are made of meat, and bones and energy and a spiritual essence which sets us apart from any other species on earth. 

Two days ago I read the term "selfie" for the first time. According to the Urban Dictionary, a Selfie is: "A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort of social networking website."  Today a dear friend texted me this picture of her two year old son with only one word in the text-"selfie."  I Photoshopped texture and blur into the photo as she was reluctant to have her son's image bouncing freely around the web, but you can still see the pure joy in the face of this very young digital native who is pleased a punch with his newly acquired selfie skills.  In my mind, this makes him human, not meat.

Day 15 - Putting the Human in eLearning #edcMOOC

The first week 3 video, Toyota GT86, was about a new model of Toyota which literally breaks/drives out of the boring, emotionless, muted colored, digital world--through a glass enclosure dome to the vibrantly colored real world where everything is exciting and desirable.  

Compare this to eLearning. Do our students want a boring, emotionless, muted colored, text-based course or would they rather "break through" to a vibrantly colored learning environment which includes audio and video interactions with their teacher and classmates? In Steve Kolowich's article, The Human Element, he suggests that student retention and success rates can be improved by professors using video and audio of themselves to teach and interact with their online students.  The article goes on to say, 

"For Hersh, engagement goes hand-in-hand with audio-visual communication. The more that exchanges occurring within an online learning environment resemble those that occur in classrooms, he says, the more that students will feel connected to their professors and classmates, and the more likely they will be to stay in a program."

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/29/lms#ixzz2lXD92xoE 
Inside Higher Ed

My personal experience leads me to agree.  In my own online Business Management course, I simulate my face-to-face classroom in several ways, but my favorite example is to use VoiceThread (www.voicethread.com) in place of the text based discussion board several times during the semester.  I receive consistent student feedback which states that seeing and hearing their fellow students' comments makes it feel "more like a classroom," and they like it because it adds variety to their online experience.  

I believe as we increase human interaction in eLearning, we are better able to reach the human on the other end of the digital chalk board and bring color to their educational world.  

Day 14 - What Defines Your SIGHT? #edcmooc

As week 2 draws to a close I am a little surprised how far I have come on this adventure through the MOOC: eLearning and Digital Cultures.  At the end of last week, I thought I had a grasp on this whole MOOC thing.  And then this week I found several new resources that I hadn’t even noticed before.  I’ve also seen several people on the course who say that they are taking it for the second time around--I can see why.  

So, Week 2 in review-

New for me this week:

• I (learned how to and) created a Google map for everyone to add their name and location to.  If you haven't added yours yet, go to: http://bit.ly/1cQI5oy to add your marker!  It would be pretty exciting to see where everyone is from.  
• I signed up for tweetdeck so that I could participate in my first ever tweetchat.  
• Learned two new colloquialisms (through twitter, no less).  
• “Bob’s your uncle!”  
• “Put the butter on the spinach!”  

Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened to me this week was when my Tweet concerning the amazing "community" present in EDCmooc was read  by Dr. Sinclair during the Google Hangout. :)  Then when I tweeted my excitement over hearing my tweet read, she read that tweet as well.  Pretty heady stuff for a first-gen college grad who grew up on a little farm.  I have ancestors who came from Scotland and have always wanted to go there...today I did--digitally. .  I can't help but be struck by how much a Massive Open Online Course, with over 22,000 students can be affecting me so personally.

A shining jewel which surfaced in this weeks strolling through the MOOC was a reference to Amy Burvall's blog post entitled, Why We Need Digital Vikings, which can be found at: http://bit.ly/ULle31. This post was witty and creative in it's prescription on how-to explore the internet with the courage of a Viking. 

I have made a video with my reflections on week 2 and more of my thoughts on this week's videos and reading. I've been thinking a lot about the video Sight and other's reactions to it.  I find it most interesting that once the woman lost her agency and was controlled by the man, I assumed she was part of his imagination--not real--like the art on his blank apartment walls.  Yet others voiced a concern over a loss of agency. My "take away" from this is not a debate over who interpreted this video correctly, but rather that we students in EDCmooc come from many different age, education and cultural backgrounds from around the globe and of course we will interpret things differently.  This is an opportunity to benefit from others' Sight.  

  

Day 9 - From A Day of Glass to A School of Glass #edcmooc

A Day of Glass was utopian to the extreme.  From the glass walls that brighten to wake you up to the playful family relationships that thrive on the super-iPad electronic interactions to the doctors who can look inside your brain to find out what ails you, UTOPIA! But as an educator, the educational uses were even more over the top. From the bulletin boards which kept up to the minute announcements, the architectural glass walls with interactive lesson information, the smart boards with bio-metric response to the teacher's touch and the lesson on color, Awesome! And then the field trip to the Redwoods--I've been to those very redwoods and I've NEVER seen those dinosaurs! I'll bet if I had that glass, I'd see the dinos! And The Bridge was merely a continuation on a smaller scale of A Day of Glass.  Technology's only purpose in the future is to make mankind's life better...to improve education, right? Right?!

The entire time I watched these two videos, another movie kept playing in my mind. Ender's Game, based on the novel by Orson Scott Card, just hit US theaters November 1, 2013. Ender was set primarily in educational environments and most of these were constructed of architectural glass, glass counters with reactive bio-metric surfaces, remote controlled devices which reacted to mere muscle control rather than sticks or buttons--all that we have talked about.  Academic utopia, right? One would think. Except that in Ender's "utopia" the students were being educated to wage war. They were being trained to defend Earth against the enemy who almost wiped out humans 50 years ago, should they return.  
**SPOILER ALERT**  (The book has been around for 30 years so spoilers follow.  If you want to see the movie and haven't read the book, stop here!)

In Ender's utopian educational system where they need to train a 14 year old military force to lead the earth to victory against the alien/bug enemy, no technological advance is spared.  Ender moves up through the ranks with various plot twists and ends up as commander-in-chief-to-be, with only the final exam to go.  He has his team around him in the simulation room near to the enemy planet when he gives it his all and as he sacrifices his entire force, he annihilates the entire species and "wins the game."  Only he soon finds out that it was NOT a simulation, but he had actually committed genocide. The boy is devastated as he thought he was only playing a game.

The metaphors here are many. Ender is the savior of humanity.  He is a third child which is only allowed by special government permission to help save the Earth. Ender is different than other kids.  He is sensitive in ways that others are not. He understands his opponent and through understanding them, he is able to destroy them. It is very interesting the way the military is made up of the best and brightest youth who are sent into battle by the old(er) men who stand behind their safety glass and watch.  Sound familiar?  

Day 8- Google Map- Please Contribute! :) #edcmooc

Today I am learning how to make a Google Map which can be added to by 1,000 people. (I wonder...does that make it a wiki-map?)  When I asked for assistance, our very helpful TA, Ary Aranguiz gave me easy to follow, step-by-step instructions on how to create a map which we can all add our location to.  These directions AND the map link can be found pinned at the top of the Fb group page, #EDCMOOC. (Thank you, Ary!) 

Alternately, you can add your name and location and even a brief description of who you are to the map by following this link:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zFEZFh0TRnig.k2yoOgT9YNek 

As of this writing we have 21 points on our map. I have embedded it here so we watch it grow.  You can also click on the [Full Screen] brackets to go to the map.

Imagine what it will look like with 1,000 points!  Also, you might want to check back from time to time, as it seems that since some of us are new at this, data occasionally "goes missing."  For example, last night when I viewed the map, I saw many more descriptions than I see this morning. :/  I'm not sure what happened (reminds me of a few of my students' wiki experiences!) but once you enter your data, check back in a couple of days and if any of your data is missing, please re-enter it. :)

Here are a few tips: 

To add a description and/or a picture, click on your name in the list and then click the pencil (edit) and add your information. To add a picture, TA Chris Swift provided these directions:  Here's how I did it - search for something on Google images, find an image you like, right click on it, and choose "open link in new tab". Your picture will open all by itself in a new tab. Copy that link and paste it into the bit for weblink within your pin's description - as below

If you need to edit your name as well,

Choose the data table:

And it gives you an easy form in which to input (or re-input) your information!

You can also change the color of your marker if you'd like. Let's have fun with this! (Go team?) :)

Day 6 - Digital Culture (MACRO, NOT micro!!) #edcmooc

Last night I found the area of the discussion boards which contains the "Made By You" section and there I found the 60+ area.  Since I am not yet 60, I hesitated to click on the link, but having 30+ years of teaching under my belt I thought I might have something in common with these people so I clicked and was immediately glad that I did.  The first thing I saw was a post which voiced something that I have felt every since I started teaching online. It said, "Just turned 63 - it's difficult to believe. Am training in learning to teach online and completely resisting video. My self-image is still 33.....but then I look in the mirror..."

Personally, I have taught since I was 23 when my students seemed old to me...now they are younger than most of my children, and my self image is still in my mid-twenties. (I'm sure this has a place in our course under the umbrella of "digital culture!") But also in this 60+ discussion board was a video made by a classmate on her iPhone and it was so simply beautiful and un-self-conscious that I was inspired to "go for it" and make a video on MY iPhone.  

I want to address the point that when I signed up for this MOOC, I really expected something quite different.  The term "digital cultures," to me, had a more “micro” definition.  I thought we would be studying digital culture or even "community," as it applied to an online course or MOOC. Now, the MOOC we are currently taking has MUCH online community.  There’s a lot of interaction between the students, there's a lot of different ways that networking is occurring. There is a feeling here of connectedness--that’s more what I felt we would be studying--how it applies to a MOOC environment, but I was wrong.  This is a much more “macro” interpretation.  We are talking about digital culture as it applies to humanity as a whole.  Yet this too, is very interesting to me.  I have never really studied this academically. It’s been around me my whole life, of course, but I’ve never really looked at it from an academic perspective so I’m very excited by the contents of this course and after studying this academically, how I can apply this on a more “micro” level to my own online courses.

So here is my video summary of the first week of EDMOOC, wrinkles, under-eye bags, and 30+ years of student concerns (oh, and I don't sound like this in my head, either!!):

Day 4 - Mooc Management 101 #edcmooc

Yesterday I had an epiphany. After the first two days of feeling like I "had to" do a certain amount of reading, checking posts, writing blogs, Tweeting--it hit me. Why? Who said I had to?   

A few things happened yesterday in my journey through the mooc which changed my reality. First, I wanted to include Adventures in MoocLand, by Alan Cohen, an edcmooc classmate in my blog. Only I wanted to ask his permission first and it was midnight in California and 3 am on the east coast where I figured he was from.  Check out his amazing cartoon! (Alan is the guy with the light bulb over his head in the YouTube video from my last blog post!) :)

http://Pixton.com/ic:yhvimh4q

So I gave myself permission to NOT write a blog post every day of this mooc. Having freed myself from the task of writing a blog yesterday, I really started digging into the Twitter feed rather than merely scanning it.  Here is what I learned:

• Go Animate is an awesome resource which I now need to investigate further. While I found several wonderful examples in the Twitterfeed, this one tells why Fabover50 is taking this course:

#edcmooc by Fabover50 on GoAnimate

• There is an #edcmooc Diigo. (I had never heard of a Diigo before so, of course, I had to check it out!)  https://groups.diigo.com/group/e_learning-and-digital-cultures-2013 This site is chock-full of resources! I could spend days here...
• There are as many outside sources of articles and opinions as you have time to absorb.  Again, I found myself "wandering" from one to the next.  
• But the real catalyst of last night's epiphany was this Tweet:

By now was midnight in California. It had been a long day.  I had read and learned a LOT in the mooc after a long day of teaching and other work "stuff." And then I saw this Tweet. Immediately the teacher/facilitator/even MOM wanted to jump in and respond, but I figured I am only two days more experienced than this person! Yes, I've replaced the egg on my Twitter account and I'm beginning to feel like I have a handle on what will work for me in this mooc, but there are many more experienced moocers abroad... And I thought I saw that other guy, @hamacleod on the course somewhere so maybe he would help. :) Twenty minutes later NOBODY had yet replied.  So I Tweeted back (and the teacher in me didn't think the first tweet was instructional enough):

This is when I realized that I really was starting to get a grip on things! :) And then I found this comment on my first day's blog and I knew that I finally had the right idea. 

 Thanks, Dr. Macleod :)

Day 2 - The 'Technological Imperative' #edcmooc

Today as I prepared to "work on" the MOOC, I felt that I should read the materials for the first week. At the same time I felt drawn to explore the Fb page, Twitter feed, and read up on what exactly a Google Circle is!

Feeling as though I should "practice what I preach," I read the required material for week 1, taking notes of thoughts and excerpts which tugged at my brain...more on those later.

When I finally allowed myself to go and play on the Twitter feed and blog feed, I was surprised to find that several of MY favorite bits were already commented on.  I've decided that's to be expected with 17,000 students and I will focus my blog on what I find relevant, even if it is not original.

This video which I found on a Fb post made by fellow MOOCer, Ary Aranguiz, was very insightful and ties in well with the whole concept of digital culture.  How true that we are often the last to see the value of our own contributions.

From the week 1 reading, here are a few quotes which caught my eye:

"A serious concern of the critics of technological determinism is that a belief in the autonomy of technology may deter those who feel helpless from intervening in technological development. The stance of technological autonomy could then be seen as something of a self-fulfilling prophecy."

-Daniel Chandler

I have long believed in self-fulfilling prophecy--the reason to never use negative discipline; the reason prisons are an abysmal failure.  But perhaps also the reason we have faculty who teach online yet feel slaves to the LMS which they are mandated to use. Discontent from being handed an endless stream of new expectations leads to a lack of involvement which results in disenfranchisement.  LMS Autonomy.

"Critics such as Henry Thoreau (d. 1862) noted that improvements in our technical means are no guarantee of improved ends, and may lead to a mechanistic and fatalistic outlook. He declared in his book, Walden, that 'we do not ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us.'"

-Daniel Chandler

Was this not written about distance education?? And the last quote from Chandler's work speaks for itself:

The Polish-American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer declared that,

'We have to believe in free will. We've got no choice.' 

Day 1 - already behind?! #edcmooc

So today was the first official day of my first ever MOOC (massive open online course). I thought I was ahead of the game because yesterday I found the Fb page and how to access the course, resurrected my Twitter account to Tweet about its upcoming start AND was re tweeted!

Today on course, I read about how NOT to become overwhelmed and to pick and choose what materials and conversations I feel most comfortable interacting with.  Awesome.  No pressure.  I'm liking the way this course is set up for me to gather and glean the knowledge I find most applicable to my teaching and learning style.

And then I started reading Tweets which were referring to how wonderful this video or that article was FROM WEEK TWO !!!  So much for "No Pressure!"  But then I realized that of the 17,000 people who are taking this course, perhaps some of them didn't have the commitments which I had today.  For me, getting my Twitter account set with the same password on my phone AND iPad, watching four videos (which did not portray technology in a very favorable light), and downloading the PDFs for week 1, was a tremendous start for day 1.

Oh,  and I started my first blog. (Something this digital immigrant NEVER aspired to do)