[…] Renée, Eli, Colin, Chenée, Clare, Stuart, Daniel 1, Daniel 2, Philip, Helen M 1, Helen M 2, Helen W, Myles, Linzi, Dirk 1, Dirk 2, Cathy, Angela, […]

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2nT4oCC
via IFTTT

I’m listening to this now whilst making this reply.

Obviously there’s the title, however was there something about the song that particularly resonated with any of the readings or the course themes we’ve been discussing? A short bit of metadata would be good here – almost like liner notes in fact, explaining why this song made it onto the album.

I like it. Another one for me to download, for sure.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jXTP2d
via IFTTT

Hello Helen, a really nice (and nicely critical) weekly summary here.

‘As I’ve already mentioned, this process is an interesting one, with the blog allowing for a spiralling* return to ideas and concepts. I did, however, wonder about *your* experience as readers. Will you be willing to return to ‘old’ ground, will you see the additions? Are you a new reader anyway? Or am I simply throwing ideas out into the ether which will never be read…?’

I think I would see the blog as an ongoing conversation, not only between us but with the wider group at different times. Of course there’s always the danger that I won’t hear your reply with so much happening therefore if there’s something you’d particularly like me to comment on (which I haven’t) please do just let me know. There’s so much attention grabbing content across the lifestream blogs that it’s possible I might miss something so do just shout out to get my attention!

I’m unfamiliar with Bruner’s work therefore please do tell me more if the situation arises in your blog.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kmQjx5
via IFTTT

‘The rich, complex, creative bundle of emotions, ideas and responses that is the learner is channelled through a reductive algorithm and spewed out as a data set.’

I love this! We should return to this comment in block 3 when we move on to talk about algorithmic culture.

And it was good to ‘meet’ you too. For all the different ways we are able to interact in digital spaces, there’s still something special about a group of people speaking face-to-face in real time.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kNBeoR
via IFTTT

Helen, what a fantastic idea to turn your artefact into a commercial! I think it was very astute to play on people’s fear of being unwell in order to go for the hard sell. In the UK it is sometimes easy to forget that health care is big business and I suspect if you were to sell a product like this your biggest customers would not be people scared of being ill; the best customers would be the drug companies trying to keep any product affecting their profits off the market.

Amazon did something similar by buying out the company which developed the robotic technology for use in their warehouse and thereby taking the competitive edge in online shipping. http://ift.tt/2dutZOi

Thanks for providing this unique perspective.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kC1lgf
via IFTTT

Awesome. If you weren’t at all in ownership of any scruples you could put this up on Kickstarter and see how much money you could make !

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kC0IDs
via IFTTT

This is a really super and succinct summary Helen! It sounds like you’ve drawn together some really useful conclusions for block 1.

Good to hear that you are considering socio-material perspectives as a valuable ways of navigating the cybercultures themes. I certainly think that this kind of theoretical sensitivity can account for much more of the nuance in our relationships with technology, rather than relying on determinist positions, which feel much more like commitments that critical positions. I am reminded of one of your posts, however, that questioned ANTs normalising (perhaps colonial?) tendencies. There are definitely questions about who defines the important relations, however, that doesn’t negate its ability to surface issues of power and inequality. I’ll be interested to see if these perspectives carried forward for you into the ‘community’ theme.

Nevertheless, inequality, privilege, and cultural influence in the context of cybercultures are potentially productive (educational) themes to consider for your final assignment, should you wish to return to some of these ideas.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2lgkLXo
via IFTTT

Hi Helen

I like your thoughtful commercial very much and appreciate the unnerving and threatening undertones. It made me think immediately of canaries down mines and how the “employment” of them could literally be a matter of life and death. Betty appeared to be a luxury product for the affluent, but if turned mainstream – I’m so conditioned to want to say “she” – could signal just as much danger to humankind driven by similar commercial and political enslavery. How times haven’t changed after all!

Thanks for the shoutout to my poll which I had neglected after setting up, so it is me who thanks you for your commentary!

Cathy

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jSTJZM
via IFTTT

What a wonderful contrast of past and present Helen. A really thought provoking artefact and very visually stimulating.

It made me consider how educational institutions view students as data because so much of their funding is dependent on results. This aspect of education dehumanizes students which in a way (if I stretch Haraway’s metaphor even further) transforms them into cyborgs where their past, gender, race, or class are inconsequential.

What was also interesting, and since I don’t know what period the older images are from, is how little has changed in the way we perceive the physical space of classrooms, even in the digital age. I only comment on it as I used the same kind of space in my artefact.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2lf47Hq
via IFTTT

This is a great commentary and a stimulating visual artefact. Thank you, too, for the CC-O comment. I suspect your suspicions are right about consumerism, and I hope that comes up more as the course unfolds.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2leV89i
via IFTTT

Thanks for a succinct comment on the article (mine on my Lifestream was much more wordy…). And I like your connection with assemblages – that’s helpful in trying to understand that concept.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kJksXQ
via IFTTT

Hi James,

Thanks for mentioning Matthew’s blog post to me: it was fascinating to hear his ‘prediction’ about the impact which Bayne’s paper might have on responses to BETT!

Your observation about results is a pertinent one. As well as the notion of technology being touted as a means of ‘improving outcomes’ (what does that even mean?!), there has been a rise in the use of technology to report on outcomes. Huge stands devoted to ‘data dashboards’ were present at the show. The rich, complex, creative bundle of emotions, ideas and responses that is the learner is channelled through a reductive algorithm and spewed out as a data set.

Thanks for your ideas as to how I might move forward with this space. I’ve spent a chunk of today revisiting my previous posts and adding more ‘metadata’ around them. This returning, reflecting and augmenting is an interesting experience and marks a shift away from the linearity of the blog experience in IDEL: we’re weaving complex fabrics using threads from a range of media, sources and thoughts.

Good to ‘meet’ you in the Hangout btw! And hope you’re having a great weekend.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jQO2vs
via IFTTT

[…] based on the readings, our Hangout tutorial and the second Film Festival discussions. As I’ve already mentioned, this process is an interesting one, with the blog allowing for a spiralling* return to ideas and […]

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kbAozh
via IFTTT

[…] adding more metadata and reflections based on the readings, our Hangout tutorial and the second Film Festival discussions. As I’ve already mentioned, this process is an interesting one, with the blog allowing for a […]

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kbezj0
via IFTTT

Hey, Helen, I’ve never had a ‘ping back’ before. Thank you! I thought you were spam for a moment. All part of my learning curve, and glad you liked the ‘Gumdrop’ thoughts. Go well on your Lifestream! Matthew

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kGqMiY
via IFTTT

Hi James,

Thanks for mentioning Matthew’s blog post to me: it was fascinating to hear his ‘prediction’ about the impact which Bayne’s paper might have on responses to BETT!

Your observation about results is a pertinent one. As well as the notion of technology being touted as a means of ‘improving outcomes’ (what does that even mean?!), there has been a rise in the use of technology to report on outcomes. Huge stands devoted to ‘data dashboards’ were present at the show. The rich, complex, creative bundle of emotions, ideas and responses that is the learner is channelled through a reductive algorithm and spewed out as a data set.

Thanks for your ideas as to how I might move forward with this space. I’ve spent a chunk of today revisiting my previous posts and adding more ‘metadata’ around them. This returning, reflecting and augmenting is an interesting experience and marks a shift away from the linearity of the blog experience in IDEL: we’re weaving complex fabrics using threads from a range of media, sources and thoughts.

Good to ‘meet’ you in the Hangout btw! And hope you’re having a great weekend.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kdu50o
via IFTTT

Helen,

I love your reference to Wayne and his words resonates with my ongoing exploration of the body and technology. Although, I have struggled to answer your question as I seem to have taken an anthropocentric stance.

Linzi x

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jMkmuH
via IFTTT

This is a really fantastic weekly summary Helen!

Great to see you reflecting on your specific lifestream items, and drawing this together into themes.

Binaries, dualisms, and oppositions seem to found everywhere don’t they? Perhaps they are ways of ordering the world that we find useful, or even comforting. They rarely seem to account for the nuance and complexity of the world around us, I’d argue.

Interesting ideas here around the combativeness of posthumanism too. Braidotti’s The Posthuman (http://ift.tt/2kGHEUi), if you can get hold of it, might be a good read here, given that she describes critical posthumanism as the end of the opposition between humanism and anti-humanism. Nevertheless, I do see your point here, and the critical here may tend towards the confrontational. I wonder, though, if some of that is warranted, given the discrimination with which a ‘Eurocentric humanism’ has exported and privileged a particular model of human being, to the detriment of all others.

Looking forward to reading more of your blog.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kkOuS5
via IFTTT

Hello Helen.

By coincidence I just commented on Matthews’s blog (where he talks about the BETT show) speculating on whether any of the group who attended the event would have had their experience affected by reading Bayne’s article in advance: and here you are reflecting on the same experience!

‘This perception is a key reason why technology adoption fails: questions about how technology and practice are complexly intertwined and how technologies necessarily change, affect, and radically alter processes and behaviours are infrequently considered.’

This really struck a chord with me and I think emphasises how important it is that we think critically around the digital and education, rather than defaulting to ideas around technologies satisfying educational outcomes.

What your reflections here also remind me is that the relationship between education and technology is subject to a range of interests beyond developing understanding: profit, a culture of performativity and so on. Without having attended the BETT show, I wonder whether the framing of ‘technology as tools for achieving education goals’ reflects the interests or pressures of those attending: the need to show results.

Talking more generally about your weekly review, I’ll be interested to read more about your recipes next week – in fact I think your critical reflection on the BETT show merited a separate blog post in its own right. All the same interesting reading and I’m looking forward to dipping into your blog as the week unfolds.

James

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2k8BpZE
via IFTTT

Hi Helen, thanks for this scannable post which I found really interesting. I started a Word doc I called Wordulisms to do the same thing, but your point about really thinking about what you are learning as you are hand writing is very apposite. I’m going to try that and see if it helps to fix definitions in my brain better! Learning definitions of words is hard – I suppose they are out of context until you have to apply them. The old learning by doing!

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2kBhXnX
via IFTTT

Hi Chenée, that’s brilliant. Would it be helpful if I started it a little later? I saw your tweet. Just travelling home from BETT now…:-)

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jARatA
via IFTTT

Hi Helen, I’m up for it. I hope you don’t mind, I’m responding here to see if I’ve got the comments section of my blog up and running.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jIf9EE
via IFTTT

>I plan to try and figure out what’s happened and then blog about it!
I shall watch out for that then 🙂

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2ksPtzX
via IFTTT

Thanks Nigel! As I said above, it’s really reassuring to find many of us feeling the same way. I managed to automate the tweets following the instructions of Cathy Hills and it worked for the first few, but then it’s been duplicating the recent tweets so I think something’s gone wrong somewhere. I plan to try and figure out what’s happened and then blog about it!

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2ksp0ym
via IFTTT

Thanks, Philip – it’s always reassuring to know that there are a few of us in this boat. I like your spatial interpretation of using IFTTT – I wonder if it speaks to our using spaces to reveal different things about ourselves, and if bringing all of that together into one space disrupts the equilibrium we think we may have established…

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jQrA25
via IFTTT

That’s a really interesting point, Clare, and thanks for your comment. I wonder if technology, and the speed at which it enables us to operate, to publicly make decisions, criticise, judge others, etc., is generally at odds with empathy as an emotion. Are there other emotional reactions that technology might affect, either positively or negatively?

Jon Ronson wrote an excellent book on how social media has changed our experience of shame and our shaming of others, and I’ve heard a lot recently about virtue signalling and similar ideas. Hmmm… lots to think about!

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2j4444E
via IFTTT

Helen I’ve just been reflecting in my own lifestream on the similarities between how you’re feeling and my own thoughts.

I agree with Philips comments above that ‘it’ll turn out right in the end’, although what’s right for each of us might be different.

I couldn’t agree more on the aesthetics and I’ve made some comments in my blog about that being a peculiarly human trait.
Did you manage to automate the tweets in your lifestream to look the way they do or have you had to do some manual interventions?

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jQmNOd
via IFTTT

Hi Helen
You raise some interesting questions. Empathy as an assumed universal human trait is something that I have been questioning just about every day for the last year. With global events and increasing levels of trolling on social media empathy can appear to be on the decrease. How many humans would pass the Voight-Kampff test in 2017? The Women’s March events worldwide did restore some of my faith (ignoring the male-centric reactions of course) at least.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2j41USx
via IFTTT

Here’s hoping Philip!

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2ja4OQM
via IFTTT

I followed the instructions for the RSS feed…now let’s see if it works.

from Comments for Helen’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2j9GVsK
via IFTTT