Brown and Duguid draw a difference between possessing knowledge and utilizing knowledge. I think higher education does a great job in merging knowledge with practical skills by combining classroom learning with internships. I know I was a big fan of internships when I was in college (some good, some bad!). Getting hands-on experience outside the classroom allowed me to be social, network with established professionals, meet other interns, and concentrate on acquiring the skills I would need to survive post-graduation.
B&D argue education in the future will need to be flexible and receptive to forward-thinking. Technology has changed the college game plan a bit, as B&D point out, by allowing a wider array of people to attend college. The web has broken down the traditional boundaries such as time and distance. Of course, with all this new access to information we as users are tasked with paying more attention to authority and sources (B&D use the pursuit of non-accredited online schools/degrees as a cautionary example).
B&D suggest education in the future will be a lot more social in response to the ever-growing list of social software available and a generation of young people who don’t know life without Microsoft. Programs may focus more on group work and students may find themselves undertaking projects with students thousands of miles away. Students will also need to have opportunities to be more engaged in their communities and find out how they can share their knowledge with others.
The world will never stop changing…technology comes and goes, new companies are born, the population changes, culture shifts…much of education is a delicate balancing act between tradition and vision.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Magnolia: It’s not you, it’s me
I think delicious and magnolia are very similar. At first I almost struggled to be able to compare the two, but there are just enough differences for one to come out on top. Call me biased because I fell in love with delicious first, or maybe it’s pure personal preference, but for me delicious is the clear winner.
I will say that one thing I like about both sites is the ability to import links from other services – I would be very upset to have to bookmark all my sites again on magnolia should delicious and I ever break up. Another thing I like about both sites is that it puts an icon on the toolbar (at least in mozilla) to make it easy to add links and to sign on to their site.
I’m a simple girl. To me delicious is much more streamlined and concise. It offers just enough of what I want and not a lot of what I don’t want. Magnolia is cute but busy (gee I find myself saying a lot of sites are “busy” these days…but I just can’t spend time making yet another profile…magnolia: it’s not you, it is me…)
One thing I do like about magnolia is that when you add a link, a little picture of the website appears next to the link. I thought that was a nice touch ;-) Especially for someone like me who bookmarks a link, then doesn’t access it for three months and eventually forgets what it is and what I liked about it in the first place.
On another note, my employer’s IT dept, who constantly stays on top of these cool sites bless their little hearts, has already blocked access to both delicious and magnolia.
I will say that one thing I like about both sites is the ability to import links from other services – I would be very upset to have to bookmark all my sites again on magnolia should delicious and I ever break up. Another thing I like about both sites is that it puts an icon on the toolbar (at least in mozilla) to make it easy to add links and to sign on to their site.
I’m a simple girl. To me delicious is much more streamlined and concise. It offers just enough of what I want and not a lot of what I don’t want. Magnolia is cute but busy (gee I find myself saying a lot of sites are “busy” these days…but I just can’t spend time making yet another profile…magnolia: it’s not you, it is me…)
One thing I do like about magnolia is that when you add a link, a little picture of the website appears next to the link. I thought that was a nice touch ;-) Especially for someone like me who bookmarks a link, then doesn’t access it for three months and eventually forgets what it is and what I liked about it in the first place.
On another note, my employer’s IT dept, who constantly stays on top of these cool sites bless their little hearts, has already blocked access to both delicious and magnolia.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Can you Digg it?
Digg appealed to me because it highlights a wide variety of things you can find on the web – strange news articles, weird videos, unique blogs, funny stories…just about anything you can link to.
At first glance, the appearance of Digg reminded me of You Tube and, to me, the site functions like You Tube. Digg can be searched by entering text in the search box or browsed by category. Think Digg is cool? Here’s how to contribute: Any ordinary web surfer can join Digg to become a user. Users submit links – other users vote on those links - the higher rated links rise to the top of the list (meaning people dig it). The front page showcases and advertises the highest rated links. Once you’re a user, Digg can be customized to enhance the user experience by creating a user profile, changing the look of the homepage or picking which category(ies) of links appear upon sign on. Users can comment on links – other users can then rate those comments. Users can also network with other users to see what links their friends dig.
Digg is a highly social, user-friendly experience where popularity is key. Personally, Digg is a bit too much for me. I may skim over it occasionally for entertainment, but I just can’t picture myself having the time or energy to review and rate an endless supply of links and comments. For those who are into social bookmarking, Digg is a fun way to explore sites you may never have found on your own and share them with your friends – and it’s probably way better than an email inbox full of forwards.
At first glance, the appearance of Digg reminded me of You Tube and, to me, the site functions like You Tube. Digg can be searched by entering text in the search box or browsed by category. Think Digg is cool? Here’s how to contribute: Any ordinary web surfer can join Digg to become a user. Users submit links – other users vote on those links - the higher rated links rise to the top of the list (meaning people dig it). The front page showcases and advertises the highest rated links. Once you’re a user, Digg can be customized to enhance the user experience by creating a user profile, changing the look of the homepage or picking which category(ies) of links appear upon sign on. Users can comment on links – other users can then rate those comments. Users can also network with other users to see what links their friends dig.
Digg is a highly social, user-friendly experience where popularity is key. Personally, Digg is a bit too much for me. I may skim over it occasionally for entertainment, but I just can’t picture myself having the time or energy to review and rate an endless supply of links and comments. For those who are into social bookmarking, Digg is a fun way to explore sites you may never have found on your own and share them with your friends – and it’s probably way better than an email inbox full of forwards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
