Tether or not?

Is mobile technology really an agent of 'academic freedom'?

That was the question which crossed my mind on reading Steve Wheeler's recent article entitled: 'At the end of our tether.'

Before continuing, I have to admit that I was an early adopter of smartphone usage in the classroom and have spent a long time discovering the diversity of potential affordances of these tools for language learning. They have become an integral part of how we work in our part of the world.

I don't envisage that changing...

However, there were certain things in Steve's article which made me think.

"We are living at a time in our history where the small device in the hand of the student is able to provide opportunities for any time, any place learning" S.Wheeler

since when, I thought to myself, has there not been opportunities for 'any time, any place learning'?

It is clearly not the presence of the 'small device' itself which necessarily leads to learning. Indeed, I spend a long time enabling students to discover the potential for learning which these devices offer.  

They do offer a number of useful applications for capturing and sharing sound, image, video, text, which can then be usefully shared with our communities via social networks...

We are indeed obliged in our societies to understand the possibilities that these devices offer and to become skilled in their uses.

Scrapbooking.

I still feel, (I must admit) more moved by a student-created scrap-book (admittedly with photos taken with a smartphone).

I still feel more moved by my scribbled drawings on paper than my filtered photos on Instagram.

I still feel that notebooks which are unlimited by the manipulation of bits are somehow precious.

What price Leonardo's scribbles anyone?

I still have scribbled relics of my 'Grand Tour'  interrail trip of Europe.

Wasn't that learning 'any time, any place'?

"Increasingly, people are learning informally through their mobile devices." S.Wheeler

Yes, this is undoubtedly true but don't their mobile devices restrict how and what they learn? 

What is 'informal learning'? Isn't it just learning?

A smartphone interface, its tactile surface (like a shop window is tactile) does that not limit learning?

A web tale...

“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly;
“’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.”
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”

Mary Howitt

A web full of information does that paradoxically not limit learning? 

Even if one develops advanced 'crap detection' one is still interacting with a select type of potential documents. 

What of aborigene people or others who will never interact via this 'World Wide Web'?  

Are they not learning 'any time, any place'? 

Actually, not, their learning is centred on their particular ecology of which they are a part.  

Are we not at risk of losing their learning?

Can we really be 'any place'? 

Might the 'World Wide Web' of information not actually take us away from learning what is most essential for our interaction with our local ecology?

Aren't we tethered via these 'mobile devices' to a particular world view?

Aren't we tethered via these 'mobile devices' to a particularly dominant cultural norm?

Aren't we tethered via these 'mobile devices' to commercial data mining of our existence?

Aren't we tethered via these 'mobile devices' to security service tracking of our movements?

To be or not to be?

Don't these mobile devices actually stop people learning?  

Those people who interrupt  Hamlet to take photos of Sherlock or Dr Who are they learning?

Haves and haves not?

Does our 'academic freedom' come at the cost of the slavery of others?  

What do we know of the ecological price of smartphone manufacture?  

Well to be frank, I didn't know much about the ecological price of a smartphone...

I went and looked for information (on the internet - to which we are 'all' tethered now) and found cases of worker exploitation and death in mines, factories, environmental devastation.  150 people die every year in Indonesia mining for raw materials:  http://fridaymagazine.ae/features/reportage/smart-phone-manufacturing-the-social-and-environmental-implications-1.1218884  , so not much academic freedom for them!

What do we know of the cultural impact of the mobile devices on the education of young people in developing countries?

Clearly, the impact is enormous for better and for worse, depending on how one looks at it. 

A Pew Report from March 2015 illustrates this cultural impact in 'developing countries' (I never understood that term). http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/03/19/internet-seen-as-positive-influence-on-education-but-negative-influence-on-morality-in-emerging-and-developing-nations/.  

Inconclusions...

Whether we are tethered or not, whether we are learning or not, whether we like it or not, we are obliged to ask ourselves and our students questions about what sort of 'academic freedom' is desirable.  

S.Wheeler is absolutely right to emphasise that we have no choice but to reflect on these tools:

"The significance of the mobile device cannot be underestimated. In the last decade personal, mobile technology has gained a dramatic purchase on western society. It has driven many social, economic, political and, yes - psychological changes. The relative benefits and limitations of these changes can be debated elsewhere, but fundamentally, educators need to recognise something significant." S.Wheeler

As we become ever more 'hyperconnected', I am far from certain that we are or we will be 'freer'...

Image credits

Tethered Horse by piddix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_rings_in_Portland,_Oregon#/media/File:Little_horse,_Portland,_Oregon.jpg

Leonardo da Vinci 'Foetus in the Womb' 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#/media/File:Da_Vinci_Studies_of_Embryos_Luc_Viatour.jpg

David Tennant as Hamlet by Lisby https://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3526232773

Baseball Fence by BSmedstad http://bsmedstad.deviantart.com/art/Baseball-Fence-125978992

In a tangle.

That's it, now I am completely lost.

I am not at all sure how to draw a/the line.





I am in a bit (?) of a tangle.

I am not at all sure whether drawing a line is appropriate.

I am only sure that drawing or should I say typing this is making me feel like it's a life-line.

Where there is life there is hope as they say.

Yes of that I am sure, I am typing this here...

I can see it.

I mean I could see it when I was typing.

Existential questions.

I am not even sure of myself!

Who am I?

Am I: English, French, a learner, a teacher, a researcher, a facilitator, an academic, a writer, a pundit, a critic?

I am not sure that one answer is ever adequate to such a question.

I shall settle for, in this present context:

Simon, @sensor63, Simon Ensor. Simon David Anthony Ensor. Learner.

What is this?

Is this:

a) careful reflection?
b) instinctive nonsense?
c) emotional?
d) rational?
e) a useful contribution?
f) useless noise?
g) respectful?
h) disrespectful?
i) offensive?
j) inoffensive?
k) etc
l) none of the above?
m) all of the above?
n) other.

Will this be:

a) read?
b) unread?
d) misunderstood?
e) understood?


Where am I?

I was reading Frances Bell's post 'Cool Webs for Rhizo 14'  and an ensuing discussion about the value of spaces which are 'Cool'.

For some people 'cool' is associated with a blog.

So is this blog space 'cool'?


If I then post it on Twitter or in a FB group does it remain cool?  

Is a back-channel (where I let fly my feelings) cool?

I am at a loss to understand this concept of a 'cool web'.

Frances explains in her comments:

"I am thinking of the cool web as a safer space where people with different assumptions/ languages/ cultures can try to engage in dialogue without too much pain."

I am not at all sure that this space on my blog is necessarily safe from pain. 

Is this an issue of a particular space or an issue of a particular relationship that I might have with someone?

Marianna Funes continues this discussion and chips in with:

"When I teach cross-cultural psychology in a business context we often focus on the need to attend to what is taken as self-evident and to presuppose that, even that which seems ‘outrageous’ to somebody in a culture they do not understand, has a basis that makes sense for the group of people adopting the given action."


I am getting the distinct impression that this is not about 'cool webs' but about 'cool people' who are able to question their assumptions, their own ways of being and of communicating.

So this is not a question of a particular space but of developing a trusting relationship?

On the whole I would say that Rhizo 14 has been a 'cool course' with 'cool people' .

(but maybe I am using a different meaning of cool here - sorry).

I would include Frances and others who comment on her blog as 'cool people'. 

(provisionally, until I decide they slip momentarily into another category; it rather depends on if/how they respond to this blog post).

Ultimately we will all be 'cool people'.

 (I digress and in my attempted humour I make an elementary mistake, I think even dead people are not at all necessarily cool. Indeed SOME very DEAD PEOPLE are definitely NOT and will NEVER BE COOL).

I apologise for the shrieking capitals here, but I rather like them, and this is my domain.

(no I know it is not a domain of my own cos I am lazily still on Blogger, sorry)

What is loud? What is silence?
I have been having a continuing discussion with Marianna (so silent that she may not be aware of it) about the question and value of silence. 

I am very much intrigued about this question. I always remember the power and importance of silence from my days as a counsellor, and as a salesperson and now as a teacher.

Silence has the potential for great power in a relationship.

Stony silence is in my experience undoubtedly NOT 'cool'.  

So being silent would not necessarily be a means to establish 'cool webs', it might have exactly the opposite effect.

If I participate actively in a space am I facilitating conversation or silencing others?

What is the appropriate volume of participation?

Must we take turns? 

If that is the case then we might have to wait a LONG time (and it wouldn't be really very rhizomatic IMHO).

If I leave silent participants be silent am I excluding them or am I being respectful?

I remember my father at the end of his life who would find the 'noise' of his grandchildren oppressive. I can fully understand that. His grandchildren were not being noisy (I can assure you I know the difference) they were excited to see him and wanted him to play with them.

When he was younger he would have loved the rough and tumble and the noise.

It was so frustrating for all of us when we were divided by volume.

I remember being sad at the volume of the television which stopped all conversation.

What was low volume for him was high volume for us.

I have been intrigued at conversations going on around this issue of 'noise' and 'silence' on the web.

I am not sure if I am in a 'cool web' or a 'hot web'.

Maybe I carry my own personal micro-climate with me, whereever I am?

I noted a twitter conversation the other day.

sometimes, the only response is silence #moocmooc #stillweb
— nickkearney (@nickkearney) March 4, 2015

I loved that tweet.

I even replied to it.

Then I thought better of it.

I deleted my reply.

I agreed with Nick Kearney, yes 'sometimes the only response is silence'.

Is his tweet an example of the 'cool web' the  #stillweb?

I suppose if he puts the hashtag #stillweb it must be.

If I put a grisly image on the hashtag #stillweb will it still be #stillweb? (probably not).

I am not sure about this 'cool web' business.

Maybe it is not about a space but a relationship?

Should I tweet him a link to this post?

Will he regard it as noise?

I am not sure.

Nothing is clear for me.

What is pain? 
Frances talks of pain in her comments to her post.
What is painful for me would certainly not be painful for others. 

I may have developed high resistance to pain.
She says: 
"We might cool down the conversation with explicit norms, clarifying our objectives and assumptions,offer facilitation and other support in an attempt to achieve real dialogue. Over time the constraints could be loosened."
I wonder who it is 'we'? I wonder what 'cooling down conversation' means? 
Will this blog post be cool and within explicit norms?
I am not sure. I shall ask Frances (that is a joke Frances).
Would an emotional blog post be cool and within explicit norms?
Who will decide on the emotional charge? 
I don't know.
Wouldn't a legalistic or scientific article be a cause of pain for someone?
I am in a (bit) of a tangle.

I suppose this is my attempt to ask respectfully the question.

I am sorry if I offend.

I shall be a little upset (emotional blackmail and silencing tactic?).

THE COMMUNITY

There has been much talk 'in' #rhizo14 of community, all over the spaces.

I suppose Dave Cormier should be happy about that.

He did entitle his course  'The community is the curriculum'.

I am having great problems with this idea of 'community'.

I am having so many problems with it that I shall have a short pause to muster strength.

Here is a  musical interlude offered by the great (my opinion) Serge Gainsbourg.

For those of you who can't be bothered to listen to Serge Gainsbourg, he sings in French and he asks a large number of times:

"Who is in? Who is out?".

So this is my question for THE COMMUNITY (you know who you are if you are reading this):

"Who is in? Who is out?" and when and where and who decides?

Frankly this is quite clear for me now.

There is not one community.
There are multiple communities.
These multiple communities are not fixed (much).

I am not sure that I feel that I  belong to any particular community.

I don't do belonging very well.

Of course this feeling doesn't mean that I don't belong to a or several community/ies.

I have clearly identifiable traits - I am a man for example. (of this I AM SURE).

I have behaviours which mark me as a community member, like speaking English with a more or less middle class pronunciation with twinges from the North West and some French derived borrowings.

I am a human tangle embodied.

Dave Cormier, I think that he agreed to the idea that there were a number of communities in #rhizo14 in an interview that I vaguely remember with Maha and Sarah.

However I still have a few questions:

How long do a bunch of people have to stay together to consider themselves a community?
How long do a bunch of people have to stay together for others to consider them a community?

I think that the "rhizo14" community has never ever been fixed if we consider that there might be one.  That being the case there can never be A CURRICULUM, but multiple, dynamic, oscillating and competing curricula.

So I suppose I could say that the varied and fluctuating communities in and around rhizo14 have varied and fluctuating curricula.

If we consider that the course was about Rhizomatic Learning, it would seem to me that this is as far as we can take it.

There can never be at any time A COMMUNITY or A CURRICULA.

Ethics.

If there is no 'cool web' or 'hot web' and no 'COMMUNITY' nor 'CURRICULUM' then that is chaotic, exciting and potentially full of risk and power struggles - a bit like life.

Keith Hamon has written a great (IMHO) post about complexity ethics. I shall put a link here:

Ethics for MOOCs: Assertive Humility.

I think we could change that title and just write:

Ethics for life (and a better world): Assertive Humility.

If there is no one 'COMMUNITY' then there can only ever be personal ethics and desires which will vary and fluctuate according to who, with whom and when and where people interact.

There are moments when I prefer (like now) a bit of peace to sit down and reflect.

There are moments when I am moved to formal academic research.

There are moments when I love larking around on FB telling Sarah Honeychurch she's a typical anarchist. She doesn't appear to take any offence. (I worry Sarah.)

There are moments when I find people in general and people in particular annoying, hypocritical, contradictory, bossy, noisy, disrespectful, snooty, superior, confusing,  boring, egocentric [add any negative adjective] and I include myself in those negative qualificatives applied to people.

I prefer to be inclusive.

Hope and forgiveness

There are two stories associated with rhizome and rhizo 14 which I would like to highlight.

There is a story of hope and there is a story of hopelessness.

There is a light side and there is a dark side.

On one side of the coin (the light side) there is the possibility that diversely humoured and skilled people can learn to live like the baboons in the video 'Understanding the Effects of Hierarchy in Society" that Howard Rheingold shared with me the other day.  With the Alpha males dead, they lose their desire for dominance and hierarchy and become increasingly forgiving and open.

There is the hope that we can learn to live with our differences, value our different perspectives, take a deep breath or two when we feel like we are being talked down to or ignored, or excluded, or... (add any negative feeling towards others) and try to work towards more open, perhaps less rigid societies which allow for diversity and mutual respect.

On the other side of the coin (the dark side) we can take from #rhizo 14, an impression of fixed positions, fixed labels, fixes spaces, hierarchies, stories of power struggle, memories of the inabilities of humans to use their imaginations to see the other peoples' point of view.

We can imagine rigid and unchanging community lines, a need for rigid policing of behaviour, a need for a quota of words written, a series of instructions as to acceptable forms of expression.

I doubt that anybody in #rhizo14 would really want that.

I hope that I am mistaken.

On the other hand there might be another group of extremists who might emerge and become dominant.

They might decide to follow the actions of Pol Pot and decide that all Alpha males, and in particular those who they consider to be senior academics should be sent to the killing fields, with the objective of achieving an earthly paradise and a 'less violent society'.

It worked for the baboons...

The rhizome, nature, and  humans in particular do have an ugly side.

I prefer to live in hope (perhaps stupidly).

Yes, I accept that Rhizo 14 is an experiment.

I often change my mind.

I am hopelessly and annoyingly inconsistent.

That in itself gives me some cause for hope.

I am in good company.

I am happy to be in a tangle.

Thank you for your part in my tangle.

No child left behind.

Will man's ingenuity know no limits? 

Thanks to centuries of scientific study, what people thought of 'education' in the dark ages, at the beginning of the 21st century, has now been wholly replaced with an infallible model.

Preamble.

In those early years of what was termed at the time the 'MOOC' (massive open online course), massive numbers of learners fell by the wayside. 

[Such wastage is, I know, hard to conceive in our modern times.]

These 'unlearners' appeared strangely unable or unwilling at the time to validate way-stage badges or to communicate in any recordable way in the carefully designed, artificially intelligent, dynamic, quasi-complex, learning ecologies of the time.

In modern environments, the role of well trained multi-tasking, multi-ethical, universally adaptable, omniscient, insomniac, expert learners, teachers, researchers, monitors, facilitators, foremen/women, sales representatives and their ilk has been recognised within THE COMMUNITY as being essential to the success of our 'No child left behind' educational nirvana.

Modern 'key nodes' have been trained or have developed independently (and been officially badged  and sanctioned by THE COMMUNITY) mega-sophisticated skills to identify different species of learner in the eco-system.

'Key nodes' are able to spot and enclose into comforting groups: 'sheep', 'lion', 'tiger', 'gannet', 'lurker', 'troll', X, Y, Z, type learners to avoid any risk of stressful tension between them.  

In the event of a sudden surge of learner candidates, a 'key node' need only click the virtual 'help' button to have an instant increase in numbers of 'key nodes' to meet statutory requirements of THE COMMUNITY ratios for 'key nodes' to 'unkey nodes'.

(Just imagine the difficulty for key nodes in the dark ages! I know it is difficult to imagine now!)

They are even able to detect increased blood pressure of 'unkey' nodes which might reduce life expectancy (of course all learners today have the right to live until the statutory age of 140 years old).  

'Key nodes' are even able to call upon back up 'key node' teachers/facilitators/monitors (et al) who will instantly adapt to a group's diverse expectations and provide them with ideal learning conditions.

They will, of course, exclude all potentially dangerous predators and parasites, ignorant cretins, trolls and the ilk (of course all learners have the right to live until the statutory age of 140 years old).

Case study.

As the 'key nodes' looked through their extraordinarily extensive and wholly ethical educational ecosystem manual, they felt that unusual feeling of 'uncertainty' which caused their pulse to rise almost perceptibly.

Brian, unusually for a 'key node', felt almost like emitting, what for him was most improbable, a potentially offensive (you never know how another 'organisim' might interpret spontaneous laughter) quasi-nervous giggle.  

"So, friends, we are facing a ghost in our machine."

The 'friends' nodded solemnly in agreement.

"We have noted on our sensors a number of....(at this moment Brian hesistated and clicked through the universal glossary for a word which had become archaic)...sorry bear with me now,....a number of...er....er.... lurkers."

"A number of whaaaat?"

The 'friends' gasped in unison.

"Er.... lurkers, that is what it says here," replied Brian, almost (though that would be an archaic interpretation) apologetically.

"We have a number of nodes who are apparently not responding."

"That is.....immpposssible."

(One or two of the 'friends' were able to find a word (an extraordinary feat in the circumstances).

"Yes, I am afraid so," Brian went on, "It is quite clear, there are nodes who appear to be connected to THE COMMUNITY, and they appear not to participate in any apparent or recognisable way."

The "key nodes" mumbled and murmured but were quite unable to find any words to express (what might have been interpreted at another epoque as signs of confusion)...themselves.

"So what has been tried so far?"

One of the less troubled 'key nodes' ventured.

"Well we have looked at the data from the 'reassuring prompt facilitation', 'the exciting bait attempts' 'the species specific feeding program', we even tried out the 'mid-term party mode' but there appears to be no reply. The nodes are not lighting up on any of our sensors. Nevertheless they are still signed up in the ecosystem."

The "key nodes" mumbled and murmured but were quite unable to find any words to express (what might have been interpreted at another epoque as signs of confusion)...themselves.

"Who is responsible for this....this....(at this moment Brian hesistated and clicked through the universal glossary for a word which had become archaic) ...oversight."

The "key nodes" mumbled and murmured but were quite unable to find any words to express (what might have been interpreted at another epoque as signs of confusion)...themselves.

"I fear," Brian, almost whispering now, went on, "We will have to review our manual of Universal Ethics and Conduct."

The "key nodes" gasped.

"Yes,' Brian, almost whispering now, went on, "Someone, er some people, er something, here is...responsible."

The "key nodes" mumbled and murmured but were quite unable to find any words to express (what might have been interpreted at another epoque as signs of confusion)...themselves.

"Yes," Brian said, "I said:  RESPONSIBLE."

Image credits:

Anders Sandberg

Glory, Glory Hallelujah.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/634506626/

Nagasaki mon amour.

"23rd October 1868. Shanghai. Had a discussion with a man about the religion of Jesus, his retort was we had bought opium. 

He was met by the reply that we bought the gospel to counteract it. It certainly taxes the missionaries' wisdom much to reply to such a charge."

I am a child of Empire, I am a child of evangelists. 

In 2010, after 142 years I heard my great grandfather's voice for the first time. He was 24 years old, he was on a ship bound for Nagasaki. He was to be the first Anglican missionary to Japan.

It had taken years of research to track down his ship's journal hidden in a database in a university library somewhere on the internet amongst an enormous archive of missionary society papers, unread except no doubt by specialist historians.

On receiving the facsimile of his journal, I was met with a shock, it was illegible. 

Of course, fountain pens were not to be patented until twenty years later, I was translating quill.

To leave to Japan, just after the defeat of the Samurai without speaking the language, to go to convert the Japanese to an alien religion while knowing that missionaries had only recently been massacred must have required unimaginable courage.

What movement was my ancestor participating in?
What can one say about connecting those (un)fortunate Japanese converts to our Empire faith?
Where did he imagine he was heading?

2008, my Facebook experiment had been a great success. 

A student wrote eloquently about his impressions of connected learning, here is a translation from the original French:

"Creating social networks in education could reveal to be a major development...As a student, I know one of the attractions of the university is the notion of Freedom, Free-will, Motivation, Equality.

Paradoxically the major problem is that of Free-will. I often hear students around me say 'What do we have to do?' 'We have to do...' I rarely hear students say, 'I want to do something.' I have the impression that we have less and less will to take our lives in our hands, we look rather for paths which are traced out for us. But I think this sort of site (Facebook) could help us by bringing together students around affinities, allowing us to connect with researchers in our fields, to work on common projects."

Over a period of six years, I have been working to enable this students' vision to come to fruition. I have been using Google's tools for over five years now. I am asking myself more and more questions as to the ethics of this.

Gradually, my work is having an effect on students, teachers, and researchers within my institution and others that we are connected to.

I started with missionary zeal.
I still believe that I must go in this direction.
I have over the years become much more critical.
I no longer have the same faith.

Into what Free world am I leading my students? 
For whom am I enabling them to be digitally literate?  How will their paths be traced on the internet for whose ends? What is my responsibility in opening my students to a world through the lens of a globalised world vaguely glimpsed on a screen, where culture is squashed into bits through a browser?

What of the dark areas on the heat map of connection? What do they tell us? Shall we talk of a digital divide of those unfortunates to who we must bring the light? Shall we see those who are not trackable via their wifi signals as poor savages?

It is too late now for me to head back, the connections have already been made, I am lost en route to this globally connected state, a connected educator. 

I shall however go forward with my questions.

I shall share those questions, those doubts with my fellow learners. 

I am not sure my friends that I will not lose my faith. 

My great-grandfather, sailed the trade routes, opened up a port of call for Christians, he is buried in Gibraltar, a monument to a lost or perhaps a remodelled Empire. 

His voice lives with me, and haunts my doubts. 

A few months ago, I posted a theme on Dave Cormier's rhizomatic learning course.  It was to be week 12 1/2 of 6. Here is some of the words I wrote:

We are pushing frontiers...

But are we misled, misguided?
What if we were simply well-meaning missionaries for a neo-liberal colonisation of education, the necessary social glue for the message of Massive (profit)?

George Siemens has blogged his views on neo-liberalism here. enter link description here

Richard Hall responds in his blog here. enter link description here

In Africa, the Colonists grabbed the land, the missionaries brought the bible. 

They learnt to pray with their eyes closed. 

China got Hong Kong back, their power stretches daily... 

Dearly beloved brethren and sisteren let us learn with our eyes wide open as to our possible destinations...