We were missing a number of people tonight - hmmmm. Only a couple emailed me to let me know.
We started by talking about the following questions in groups of 3 - 4:
- coolest cultural differences you have encountered
- what part of your 'heritage' is being lost (that which helps define you as German, Ukrainian, Chinese, Eritrean, ..... - Canadian ?
- why does English have so many foreign words?
This was in preparation for the notion that the internet may be the device that assimilates us all into one culture, and we need to think about whether that is a good thing and how to respond.
We talked about some of the readings. In particular was the Graham article:
Graham - Anarchy and the Internet --- the serious issues
- anarchy as good and bad (govt. as good or bad)
- cultural compliance / assimilation (who are the Borg?)
- cross-border disruption (subversive in that it can ignore existing governments)
Could this be democracy across political borders??)
- is knowledge = power ??
Does access to knowledge = knowledge??
Some quotes:
The first [assumption] is that knowledge is power. It is only if this is true that widespread unrestricted access to knowledge constitutes popular empowerment, and correspondingly that the inability to restrict it counts as a diminution in the power of the state. The second assumption is that the ability to contribute to the world of the internet also constitutes a power, an influence on outcomes in that world.
There is however a further line of thought worth exploring. This rests upon the idea that what the internet encourages is not so much political as moral anarchy, and that moral anarchy is inherently destructive.
moral education is most obvious in the early years of a life, but it continues indefinitely, and at every stage its form is the same - the submission and tempering of natural preferences to socializing influences.
Surfers have the the opportunity to seek out kindred spirits and to pass over the sort of reforming and refining influences that operate in normal processes of learning. This is evidenced most strikingly perhaps in such things as child pornography networks where, I shall assert, evil preferences are unchecked because those things which would check them can be ignored by the surfer, and are then strengthened by meeting with confirming responses. The logical outcome of this is moral fragmentation rather than moral community. Such fragmentation is anarchic in the bad sense.
In conclusion:
DON'T PANIC - educate and socialize!!
We have the responsibility to act and to educate our students.
Lab time
We logged in to WebCT, created Google accounts so we can try some of the Web 2.0 stuff like docs, mail, blogs, RSS readers, calendars, etc. You do not have to use gmail (or any of the others in the long run) but we can try these things with only one password and user name
We also requested access to internetteaching.pbwiki.com which is the wiki we will use with this class to share information about the internet, pedagogy and teaching resources.
