I have been wondering why the revolution in Syria started in Daraa... the southern-est city in Syria. Why not Hama, Homos, Damascus or any other town? Then it hit me: it is the closest city to Jordan... it has access to Wireless telecommunication from Jordan! in other words, access to the Internet from a non-Syrian source!
My next question: does this means the Daraa people had access to the FaceBook page, thus they knew about the revolution before the other cities? Or, does this mean that the revolution in other cities is way underway, but Daraa is the only city that can broadcast what happens because it has access to non-Syrian controlled internet?
I will keep watching for an answer!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wiki Controlling Insticts - part 1: Me and Wael Ghoneim
Summary: Revolutions is sweeping the Arab world. They are all tagged as the FaceBook revolutions. I agree. FaceBook was a key instrument that created the critical mass required to make the change. in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria. But not in Egypt. The Egyptian revolution is a Wikipedia Revolution on FaceBook. This is the first part of the story.
First, let me brag: I am proud that I have had direct contact with Wael Ghoneim, the leader of the young revolution.
Last year, I was part of Google's Health Speaks project that donates to charity based on translating Wikipedia Health articles from English to another language. I joined the Arabic project. Except for me, all the participants were Egyptians. I was amazed how chaotically organized they were. I say it is a positive note. You could not figure out who is who. People come and go. One person start an article yet someone else would finish it. In any academic book, this is chaotic. Yet, they were able to score the highest charity donation. Through chaos, they mobilized each other to successfully achieve their goal .Just like I imagine the bees work. A lot of chaotic incomprehensible buzz that results in the sweetest honey.
Later, during the revolution, I had a sense that the young faction leading the revolution were working in a similar spirit. I did not relate my sense to reality until Wael made his TED speech and mentioned "Like Wikipedia". It stroke me. Wikipedians have a different "mental paradigm" that make them so chaotic, yet so productive. That is when my thesis on "Wikipedian Controlling Instincts" came from! Later about this, for now, let me focus on my brag.
When the relationship between my sense and reality established, I jumped to my Gmail to see if Wael was involved in the Google Health Speaks projects. I did a quick search on the name, and found our 5 threads from Wael in my gmail archive. Unfortunately, I used to delete the old email, if I did not, I would have found more. But the important thing is that I had interactions with him... I had interactions with the Wael... it is a starnge feeling! Feel or pride... it is like saying I shock the hand of Martin Luther King... not once, but five times... even more!
Back to reality. My ego is full enough. When I made this discovery, I went back to the surviving Google Health Speak emails and went throught them. I was amazed to discover that most of the participants in the project were active in inducing and participating the revolution! Amazing. The spirit of working in a google-wikipedia environment is the same spirit that prevailed among the youth of the Egyptian revolution. Not necessarily the same spirit that has driven the other revolution. Somehow different. I will address my observations in another blog. For now, let me enjoy the feeling that I had an interaction with Wael Ghoneim and the other young Egyptian revolutionaries, through a connectivist-like approach.
I leave you with Wael's TED presentation:
First, let me brag: I am proud that I have had direct contact with Wael Ghoneim, the leader of the young revolution.Last year, I was part of Google's Health Speaks project that donates to charity based on translating Wikipedia Health articles from English to another language. I joined the Arabic project. Except for me, all the participants were Egyptians. I was amazed how chaotically organized they were. I say it is a positive note. You could not figure out who is who. People come and go. One person start an article yet someone else would finish it. In any academic book, this is chaotic. Yet, they were able to score the highest charity donation. Through chaos, they mobilized each other to successfully achieve their goal .Just like I imagine the bees work. A lot of chaotic incomprehensible buzz that results in the sweetest honey.
Later, during the revolution, I had a sense that the young faction leading the revolution were working in a similar spirit. I did not relate my sense to reality until Wael made his TED speech and mentioned "Like Wikipedia". It stroke me. Wikipedians have a different "mental paradigm" that make them so chaotic, yet so productive. That is when my thesis on "Wikipedian Controlling Instincts" came from! Later about this, for now, let me focus on my brag.
When the relationship between my sense and reality established, I jumped to my Gmail to see if Wael was involved in the Google Health Speaks projects. I did a quick search on the name, and found our 5 threads from Wael in my gmail archive. Unfortunately, I used to delete the old email, if I did not, I would have found more. But the important thing is that I had interactions with him... I had interactions with the Wael... it is a starnge feeling! Feel or pride... it is like saying I shock the hand of Martin Luther King... not once, but five times... even more!
Back to reality. My ego is full enough. When I made this discovery, I went back to the surviving Google Health Speak emails and went throught them. I was amazed to discover that most of the participants in the project were active in inducing and participating the revolution! Amazing. The spirit of working in a google-wikipedia environment is the same spirit that prevailed among the youth of the Egyptian revolution. Not necessarily the same spirit that has driven the other revolution. Somehow different. I will address my observations in another blog. For now, let me enjoy the feeling that I had an interaction with Wael Ghoneim and the other young Egyptian revolutionaries, through a connectivist-like approach.
I leave you with Wael's TED presentation:
Friday, March 18, 2011
Short Paper 2: Changing roles of educators
Do you agree their roles [educators] are changing? If so, what are appropriate responses?
Yes, obviously, the educators role is changing. I believe that modern educators should assume one of four roles in a given situation:
Educator as a teacher. That is an educator who directs the learner to learn what the teacher knows, in the precise way the teacher wants. For example: teachers at primary levels who teach basic skills like communication, arithmetic and the like; soldiers in the army the priest who teaches faith; the trainer who trains industrial operations and so on. I might disagree with this category, but the society and economy still needs them. In this category, the educator will assess competency in a specific area or skill. So, the assessment will be based on the level of mastery of the concept and the evaluation is norm based.
Educator as a facilitator: That is an educator who allows learners to grow intellectually based on the learners abilities and actualities. For example: teachers in art disciplines like architecture or design; teachers in elementary education who focus on students abilities and not weaknesses, personal development specialists, clinical psychiatrists, Doctors teaching medical students, etc. In this category, the educator will assess each learner individually without comparison to other learners. The norm evaluation does not apply here.
Educator as a "Connector": This is a new emerging role that shifting the basis of certainty is driving. This is an educator who facilitates expanding the "connectivity" of another person-- both "brain-wise" and social-wise. In contrast to the two previous categories, the general tendency in this pardigm is that the topic to be taught is irrelevant. The focus is on incremental knowledge acquired by the learner, no matter what the topic is. For example, a primary school teacher training students on acquiring knowledge when needed and as needed without memorizing it; a trainer who helps adult to break out from the traditional learning habits (i.e. learning happens in classroom or libraries) to become a learner through interacting with individuals or Internet entities through new habits of using technology. This new role necessitates the creation of new assessment models that assess the level of expansion in the person'e network. This is still in its infancy.
Educator as a phantom: This is a new concept that I find difficulty explaining. With the emergence of the concept that knowledge resides in human and in machines, I cannot imagine why we need educators. People and machines should be able to learn on their own. They do not need educators as long as they have developed themselves to be "connected". This is why I believe any learner who graduate from the third category (i.e. Educator as a "Connector") will not need any more educators to build new knowledge. Right?
Note: For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term "traditionalist" to refer to the learners influenced by the first two roles, and the "Connectivist" to refer to learners influenced by the last two roles. Whether a person can be both types is out of the scope of this post.
What are impediments to change?
In my opinion, change has happened already. Nothing can stop it. "Connectivists" are around us. They are effective in Wikipedia, working in the Open Source realm, and recently, they were revolting in Egypt. However, three factors are slowing the process of recognizing and accepting the change:
(1) Each compares each other using the wrong rules. Each type condemsn the other type based on their own value set. Traditionalists have many argument why connectivists will never prevail because they are not connectivists themselves and they do not have connectivist attitude nor competancies. Conversely, connectivists find traditionalists wastes so much time on learning information that is obsolete. It is like the traditions "The West is the West and the East is the East and they will never meet!".
(2) The strong drive of the people concerned to have a single unified system that works in all situation, where only one method should prevail. In other words, the need to have a system that fits to the accepted norm. I think following "Give God what is for God, and Caesar what is for Caesar" model is far more effective.
(3) The two type refuse to interact together. For example, a "Connectivist" will never participate in a course like MOOC (and if they do, they drop out quickly) because they find such a course too limiting. While a traditionalis will not get involved in an activity like Wikipedia because it defies their basic beliefs.
How can current trends be best utilized to serve in the traditional role of educator or designer?
For the traditional educator role, the best approach is to do nothing. The "Connectivist" group did not reach a critical mass to induce a global change (except in Egypt!). When their number is large enough, the change will be more prominent.
On the designer front, I think we need to evolve existing models, like Bloom's taxonomy, to include a "connectivist" level with a new set of action verbs that address the activities of "collaboration", "connectivism", "mining for information", "use of technology" and so on. I think this should be a Phd level research which is too much for this post.
Take this opportunity to enjoy a creative stroll in rethinking "what could be".
My "Would be" scenario is to ensure that educators at the pre-high school level to be a "teacher/connector" type who focus on teaching the basic communication and intellectual skills, at the same time, train the young children how to become connected. At high school, educators should be less teachers role and more connectors. After high school, learners choose can one of three paths:
(1) either join a "teaching college" where they are taught specific concept of their choice through pure teaching (like in Priesthood, Army or apprenticeship),
(2) Join univeristies where learner receive facilitation to grow personally and intellectually OR
(3) Choose to learn on their own through connective approaches based on the talents they have already mastered and developed. Usually these will be the one who will make te esay money. Watch "Social Media" movie.
References
Textbooks
- Anderson, Terry, (2011), "Three Generation of Distant Education", presentation website, last accessed on 10 March 2011.
- Araya, Daniel (E), Peters Michael (E), (2010), "Education in the Creative Economy: Knowledge and Learning in the Age of Innovation" Published by Peter Lang Pub, ISBN 9781433107443
- Tapscott, Don (2010), "Macroeconimics", Published by Penguin Group USA, ISBM 1591843561
- Tapscott, Don (2009), "Grown up Digitally" Published by McGraw Hill, ISBN: 978007150863
Websites
Movies
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Trip to China
we just finished a visit to China with dear friends. It was a great trip in many levels: culturally, spiritually, personally and intellectually. I will write few posts about my impressions in few coming posts. Below is a snapshot.
Traveling with the right people is enriching. Although I bullied my ideas on my friend, I ended with wealth of discovery. Thanks to his patience, tolerance and wisdom. He always has that enriching impractical on me.
My initial impressions about the Chinese experience is a wow on the cultural magnificence of the country. But boon on the economic development. I felt the Chinese government is moving quickly from the agrarian culture to the industrial age... And missing on the knowledge age. This will put her a century lagging the rest of the advanced countries. In addition, I have noticed a lot of Western impact, but no real genuine Chinese stamped advancement. I have a gut feeling that the conception about Chinese economic supremacy is a myth. All cars on the roads are modern but all of them are European or American, although built in China. Except for one Duck cuisine franchise, all other entrepreneurship is westerner concepts. I need to make some research to indicate if the west is the real winner in the Chinese economic invasion!
Shanghai is a bit another story. It needs more in-depth analysis. Visiting it's deep streets indicates it is another Dubai success story. Yet, all the magnificent buildings are foreign investment.
More to come later.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Traveling with the right people is enriching. Although I bullied my ideas on my friend, I ended with wealth of discovery. Thanks to his patience, tolerance and wisdom. He always has that enriching impractical on me.
My initial impressions about the Chinese experience is a wow on the cultural magnificence of the country. But boon on the economic development. I felt the Chinese government is moving quickly from the agrarian culture to the industrial age... And missing on the knowledge age. This will put her a century lagging the rest of the advanced countries. In addition, I have noticed a lot of Western impact, but no real genuine Chinese stamped advancement. I have a gut feeling that the conception about Chinese economic supremacy is a myth. All cars on the roads are modern but all of them are European or American, although built in China. Except for one Duck cuisine franchise, all other entrepreneurship is westerner concepts. I need to make some research to indicate if the west is the real winner in the Chinese economic invasion!
Shanghai is a bit another story. It needs more in-depth analysis. Visiting it's deep streets indicates it is another Dubai success story. Yet, all the magnificent buildings are foreign investment.
More to come later.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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