viernes, 31 de octubre de 2008

Brandland


Hago extensiva la invitación a conocer el trabajo de nuestro colega Joan Jiménez. Un texto que vale la pena descargar, leer, comentar y discutir.


Cuando cierras el ordenador o el iphone y tu mente regresa a la realidad, nunca te has preguntado... ¿Dónde has estado?...

Muchos tenemos nuestra vida en internet. Nuestras fotos, nuestros contactos, nuestros amigos, nuestro dinero, nuestros recuerdos, nuestros entretenimientos favoritos, nuestro correo, nuestro trabajo...

Nuestras emociones caminan diariamente por millones de conexiones capilares que fabrican una nueva realidad a la que estamos conectados sin diferenciarla ya prácticamente de nuestra realidad física tradicional. Evolucionamos, sentimos y vivimos la red cada vez de una manera más intensa y con experiencias más completas que nos hacen participar de un nuevo mundo al alcance de un solo click.

En este entorno y con la irrupción imparable de los medios sociales como Facebook, Myspace, Youtube o Twitter, hablar de virtualidad o de que internet es un simple canal más de comunicación empieza a ser como mínimo cuestionable.

Podría decirse, aproximándose a la terminología física que, nos enfrentamos al descubrimiento de una verdadera "Quinta Dimensión" que no puede ser representada ni completamente explicada en su totalidad por la longitud, la anchura, la profundidad o el tiempo.

La inmersión que experimentamos en la red está al margen de la representación física bidimensional de la pantalla y va mucho más allá del simple aspecto tecnológico para llegar a una experiencia que trasciende a lo físico y se apoya en lo tecnológico y lo mental al tiempo.

Sin duda nos encontramos en los albores de una nueva realidad que nos recuerda curiosamente a algunos de los futuros posibles en "Matrix" o "Blade Runner"...

Bienvenidos a BRANDLAND, La fábula del nuevo mundo.

Información de contacto

Correo electrónico:
Oficina:
Lugar:
Barcelona, Spain

Información sobre la obra #0810121075494

Detalles del registro

Código 0810121075494
Título BRANDLAND
Fecha Registro 12-oct-2008 18:52:24 UTC
Sinopsis Cuando cierras el ordenador o el iphone y tu mente regresa a la realidad, nunca te has preguntado... ¿Dónde has estado?... Bienvenidos a BRANDLAND, La fábula del nuevo mundo.
Tipo Literaria: Otros

Derechos registrados

Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 2.5
Características de la licencia
Se puede copiar y distribuir Sí, con restricciones
Se puede hacer uso comercial No
Se pueden hacer trabajos derivados Sí
Se debe reconocer la autoría Sí
Histórico de Licencias
12/10/08 18:53 UTC
Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 2.5

Herramientas

martes, 14 de octubre de 2008

Publicidad y nuevos medios

Material estadístico de apoyo para el Curso de publicidad y nuevos medios impartido por el Mtro. Jorge Alberto Hidalgo Toledo en la Especialidad de Publicidad y Medios de la Universidad Intercontinental

Publicidad Y Nuevos Medios
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

sábado, 4 de octubre de 2008

Se podrá apreciar lo mejor de la publicidad

El Festival Iberoamericano de la Publicidad , FIAP 2008, se presentará en Salta en su 7� edición. En esta oportunidad y como en años anteriores, los salteños disfrutarán de las mejores campañas de televisión, gráfica y radio. Como así también, podrán conocer las nuevas tendencias y propuestas de los creativos de las agencias más reconocidas del mundo.
Disminuir texto Restaurar tamaño de texto Aumentar texto Escuchar noticia Enviar a un amigo Imprimir
Viernes, 03 de Octubre de 2008. 07:29hs.
El mismo se realizará en la Casa de la Cultura, que acompaña desde el inicio a esta singular muestra, del 6 al 11 de octubre.

Victoria Melo la representante del FIAP en Salta anunció que se suma a esta nueva edición Expotoons: el 1� Festival Internacional de Animación.

Victoria Melo, representante del FIAP en Salta, destacó la relevancia de este nuevo festival que nace en Buenos Aires y que tiene como objetivo difundir la animación como motor de crecimiento de la Industria Audiovisual y Cultural. Resaltó además "es importante una muestra de estas características se exhiba en nuestra ciudad, ya que el mismo difunde las producciones de animación que se realizaron de manera independiente y con intereses artísticos o experimentales en largometrajes, cortometrajes, series animadas, documentales, producciones publicitarias , video clips y sitios web".

La muestra gráfica estará en exposición en el hall de la Casa de la Cultura durante seis días. Mientras que la proyección de los cortos de TV y Radio se realizará en la Sala Juan Carlos Dávalos el jueves 9 de octubre en diferentes horarios: a las 10, 16, 19 y 21 horas. Con la presentación de su director Pedro Marcet. Y al término de cada proyección del FIAP las piezas de Expotoons. "Salta vivirá una semana con las nuevas tendencias audiovisuales y gráficas de dos festivales relevantes de la industria publicitaria y de la animación" acotó Victoria Melo .

Las entradas se venden anticipadas en boletería de la Casa de la Cultura, Caseros 460. Los precios: $15 y $10 para estudiantes. Informes al 0387-154535281.

Fuente: Diario El Tribuno

domingo, 21 de septiembre de 2008

Medios publicitarios se preparan para dar un “nocaut” durante la Explosión Creativa


Ángery Lozano / noticias@laverdad.com

El Centro de Convenciones Sambil de Maracaibo será el escenario en donde los "más duros" publicistas de Latinoamérica se congregarán para hacer posible una verdadera "Explosión Creativa". Catalogado como un show "sin precedente", en donde la originalidad, creatividad e innovación de ideas medirán sus fuerzas en una competencia que no permitirá "colgar los guantes", eslogan promocional del evento. El evento se consolida dentro del segmento publicitario y de mercadeo como el más importante de la industria.

Explosión Creativa es definido como una muestra especial que desde el 31 de octubre hasta el 1 de noviembre dará luces en la región de las mejores piezas audiovisuales, creadas por anunciantes, agencias, proveedores y medios de comunicación pertenecientes a la cúpula comercial publicitaria. Es así como estudiantes y profesionales relacionados con el medio podrán disfrutar de la proyección de comerciales, videos, campañas publicitarias y una serie de propuestas de canales de televisión que en conjunto con las conferencias de invitados de etiqueta nacional e internacional, lograrán en definitiva señalar las nuevas tendencias que se imponen en la temática de publicidad, marquetin y medio.

Durante esa edición se brindará al público una "extraordinaria exposición comercial" con 78 stands de dos mil metros de exposición. Carlos Sánchez, presidente de Global Evento, empresa responsable de la organización del show anual, expresó que Explosión Creativa llega como "un termómetro" que medirá la destacada creatividad del Zulia. La actividad persigue nutrir al gremio publicitario, a través de la interacción y fusión de ideas, es así como se fortalecen los nuevos conceptos y se brinda la proyección necesaria a las novedosas propuestas, y en especial se logra dar promoción a la capacidad creativa para ofrecer un evento creativo e innovador que contribuya al desarrollo de la industria publicitaria de la región. "La función del encuentro anual se configura como un ranquin de agencias publicitarias", sentenció Sánchez.

Los más "duros de Latinoamérica" tendrán la oportunidad de interactuar con el mercado marabino a través de creativos e ingeniosos stands que buscan promocionar y presentar lo mejor de sus productos. Según Francisco León, presidente de la Feap, la meta para este año apunta a un aproximado de 700 visitantes, destacó que durante la recién exposición en Caracas se logró un "rotundo éxito" comparado con la edición 2007, de esta manera alega que en el caso del Zulia las predicciones apuntan a superar todas las expectativas por tratarse de una región activista en la dinámica de propuestas novedosas.

León informó que se esperan la asistencia de siete ponentes, sin embargo, se espera la confirmación de otro posible expositor. El evento dará apertura a la feria de La Chinita.

miércoles, 2 de julio de 2008

Mi canal de web TV especializado en hipermedios

sábado, 28 de junio de 2008

lunes, 16 de junio de 2008

Developing 21st Century Skills


Dear Friends!

Myblog is not meant for entertainment, but it is informative, so if u are interested to learn some thing about science and technology, pls. go through this.

After a long gap I am coming to write blogs, and all these days I am busy with my classes as well as writing books on “values of teachers”.

Me working as Asst.Professor in Education and in computer science, wish to give a
valuable information about science and technology, which will be useful for students studying post-graduation, and research scholars, and here with I don’t want to give any unnecessary information and I don’t want to waste our valuable time by writing poems and poetry etc..

just go through all my blogs, consists of technical and informative issues, and if u have any doubt regarding any thing kindly ask me by posting a message, or to my Email, whenever it is needed.

I welcome u in this regard. The reason behind writing blogs on science and technology is, my only friend recently asked me to learn computer knowledge and I took that as easy, since I don’t have sufficient time to spend on that. And it is not easy to learn on chat. Now I think on that and I wish to make everyone to learn that knowledge...


Now Let us discuss about…..

Developing 21st Century Skills: (Among students)

As we are aware of that Globalization and advancements in technology are driving changes in the social, technological, economical, environmental and politial landscapes at a rate and magnitude that is too great, and too multiple to ignore.

Dear friends, as society changes, the skills that students need to be successful in life also change. Basic literacy of reading, writing and mathematics are no longer sufficient. Our students need to master those basic skills as well as read critically, write persuasively, think and reason logically, and solve complex problems. A successful student must also be adopting at managing information-finding, evaluating, and applying new content understanding with great flexibility.


They must be equipped with skills and perspectives designed to help them anticipate change and plan accordingly.


This will equip them to thrive in a world characterized by rapid continuous change. A simple question to ask is “how has the world of a child changed in the last 150 years?” and the answer is, “it is hard to imagine any way in which it hasn’t challenged!. But if u looks at school today versus 100 years ago, it is more similar than dissimilar.”



There is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students acquire in school and those required in today’s world and technology-infused workplaces. The technology that has become so pervasive in our daily lives is still outside our comfort zone in the school environment. The challenge is to overcome traditional ways, and change pedagogical practices in ways that reflect the changing social, political and economic landscape in which 21st century students will learn..


In order to thrive in a digital economy, students will need digital age proficiencies. It is important for the educational system to make parallel changes in order to fulfill its objectives, namely the preparation of students for the world beyond the classroom. Therefore, the educational system must understand and embrace the 21st century skills within the context of rigorous academic standards. Schools, just like businesses, industries and families, must adapt to these changes and “bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn”. Accelerating technological change, rapidly accumulating knowledge, increasing global competition and rising workforce capabilities around the world make 21st century skills essential.


The following is a list of 21st century skills, which allows students to prepare for careers, requiring them to acquire new knowledge, learn new technologies, rapidly process information, make decisions and communicate in a global and diverse society.
Information and communicatiion skills

In these there are four types of skills


1. Information and media literacy skills:- Analysing, accessing, managing,
integrating, evaluating and creating information in a variety of forms and
media. Understanding the role of media in society.



2. Communication skills: - understanding, managing and creating effective oral, written and multimedia communication in a variety of forms and contexts.



Thinking and problem-solving skills


In these there are three types of skills

1.
Critical thinking and systems thinking:-Exercising sound reasoning in understanding and making complex choices, understanding the interconnections among systems

2.
Problem identification, formulation and solution:-

Ability to frame, analyse and solve problems.

3.
Creativity and intellectual curiosity:- Developing, implementing and communicating
new ideas to others, staying open and responsive to new and diverse
perspectives.

Interpersonal and self – directional skills


In these there are four types of skills should be developed.

1. Interpersonal and collaborative skills:- Demonstrating teamwork and leadership; adapting to varied roles and responsibilities; working productively with others; exercising empathy; respecting diverse perspectives.


2. Self-direction:- Monitoring one’s own understanding and learning needs, locating appropriate resources, transferring learning from one domain to another.



3. Accountability and Adaptability:- Exercising personal responsibility and flexibility in personal workplace and community contexts; setting and meeting high standards and goals for oneself and others; tolerating ambiguity.



4. Social responsibility:-
Acting responsibility with the interests of the larger community in mind, demonstrating ethical behaviour in personal, work place and community contexts..


There is a need for students to develop learning skills that enable them to think critically, analyse information, communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve, and the realize the essential role that technology plays in realizing these learning skills in today’ knowledge-based society. Representative of the ICT literacy skills are the following six arenas critical to student’s success in the workplace..

Communicate Effectively:


Students must have a range of skills to express themselves not only through paper and
pencil, but also audio, video, animation, design software as well as a host of new environments..( Ex. Email, websites, message boards, blogs, streaming
media, etc..)

Analyse and interpret data:


Studentsmust have the ability to crunch, compare, and choose among the glut of data now available web-based and other electronic formats..

Understand computational modeling:


Students must possess an understanding of the power, limitations, and underlying assumptions of various data representation systems, such as computational models and simulations, which are increasingly driving a wide-range of disciplines.

Manage and priorities tasks:


Students must be able to manage the multi-tasking, selection, and prioritizing across
technology applications that allow them to move fluidly among teams, assignments and communities of practice..

Engage in problem solving:


Students must have an understanding of how to apply what they know and can do to new situations.

Ensure security and safety:


Students must know and use strategies to acknowledge, identity, and negotiate 21st
century risks.


Looking into the role and importance of 21st century skills in the present world, it becomes vital for colleges of education to incorporate 21stst century skills in their curriculum so that future teachers are equipped with skills and strategies to promote 21st century skills among students

jueves, 12 de junio de 2008

Thomas Friedman: MIT Milestone Celebration | Keynote Address



Thomas Friedman, columnist at The New York Times.

More about this event: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/about/m...

License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms
More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu

Thomas Friedman: La tierra es plana

Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat and columnist at The New York Times, discusses the year in foreign policy.

lunes, 9 de junio de 2008

Les comparto mi proyecto de Web TV

jueves, 5 de junio de 2008

How to do everything with Google Tools

Cross Talk, Julio 2007

New Media for the Mortgage industry

The Net Generation

Growing Your Next Generation of Patrons

This is the slideshow for the Growing Your Next Generation of Patrons presentation, by Lexie Robinson and Beth Locy of the Madison Public Library. Presented at the Alabama Library Association Conference, April 18, 2007.

Generation Y vs baby boomer in the workplace

How generational differences can be a used to work successfuly together.

ExerLearning - What's Generation FIT

Empowering tomorrow's fitness leaders today requires a deep understanding of digital culture, the power of video games and varied expertise of our youth. Generation FIT and ExerLearning can harness the energy and expertise of youth as a solution to fitness and wellness challenges their generation is facing.

jueves, 22 de mayo de 2008

I am the media

his is a presentation I gave Nov 29 at the Marketing3 conference at Media Plaza in the Netherlands. A big thank you to Lynette Webb who's visual posts and pictures have provided inspiration for quite a few of the slides.

Google Generation

Next Generation Social Marketing

Using social media to promote health and social issues. From Nedra Weinreich's Social Marketing University. http://www.social-marketing.com/blog/


The Point-and-Click Generation Goes to the Library: How Academic Libraries Adapt to Changing Expectations


The Point-and-Click Generation Goes to the Library: How Academic Libraries Adapt to Changing Expectations

Barbara Fister
Linfield College
McMinnville, Oregon
June 3, 2004


Abstract: Umberto Eco once described two kinds of libraries: one designed to hide books and discourage readers, and another that makes discovery an adventure. Current perceptions of academic libraries and of student research habits seem to mirror this dichotomy. Though a controversial article in The Chronicle of Higher Education suggested many academic libraries were "deserted," building projects have not declined, and on many campuses, the library has gained new prominence as a site for learning. While some studies suggest undergraduates use the Web for most of their research, others report traditional print materials and face-to-face reference help remain important. What are we to make of these conflicting views? Drawing from interviews with students, national surveys on how students use libraries and the Internet, and on what we know about the challenges of undergraduate research, we'll explore the place of the library in higher education and what the library as a place means to our students.

In a speech given at the opening of a library in Milan back in 1981, Umberto Eco started out by asking the simple question: what are libraries for? Though he posed that question before the Internet had altered the information landscape, it's a question we ask ourselves often, sometimes defensively. The identity of the library - and what it's good for - is changing as electronic sharing of texts changes the ways people seek and use information. Yet in the past four or five years we've seen signs that the library has an enduring purpose and presence as a physical place. Today what I'd like to do is examine what we know about our students' perceptions of research and try to see these places as much as possible from their perspective - and to think about ways academic libraries are making themselves more accessible to their target audience.

We all have feelings about libraries – one hopes mostly positive ones. In Umberto Eco's discussion of what libraries are for, he contrasted two kinds of libraries—one is a "huge nightmare" with many rules including these:

  • The catalog must be as difficult to use as possible.
  • The stacks are closed and books must be requested by filling out forms which will have spaces too small for the information required.
  • Interlibrary loan should take months.
  • Hours of opening should be restricted to the hours that most of the public are at work.
  • Refreshments are forbidden
  • To the extent possible there will be no toilets
  • Ideally, no reader should be allowed inside the library.

Though this may to reduce complaints about libraries to the absurd, I see hints of my own library in this nightmare. Our students, for example, find the catalog difficult to use and wish we were open when they're wide awake - at three a.m. On the other hand, we long ago conceded on the refreshment issue, and we have no shortage of toilets.

To this nightmare library, Eco contrasts a better version, one that provides a universe on a human scale, a library where the reader can wander at will through the stacks, where there are comfortable armchairs, espresso is served, and accidental discoveries are encouraged. "This sort of library is made for me. I can pass a whole joyful day there . . . This way, a library is an adventure" (59).

A few years ago there was a controversial feature in The Chronicle of Higher Education with a vivid graphic of students fading away in the stacks. The headline was alarmist: "The Deserted Library." Many of us looked around and said "not my library." But there's no arguing that more information provided by libraries - or simply available on the Internet - is available from outside the library's walls and many of the questions that used to be asked at reference desks are answerable online.

Interestingly, since the article was published, book circulation is on the rise in all types of libraries and library construction and renovation has not declined. To introduce an online colloquy on the deserted library issue the reporter, Scott Carlson, posed these questions, ones still worth asking ourselves:

  • What effect has the Internet had on the way students learn?
  • What role can faculty play in helping to bring students to the library?
  • In the information age, what is the role of the college library, traditionally the intellectual and social heart of campus?

The year after that Chronicle story ran, several large-scale studies were published that attempted to answer that first question: what effect has the Internet had on students. One for OCLC was conducted by Harris Interactive; over 1,000 students were surveyed. Another by the Pew Internet and American Life Project was conduced by a University of Chicago team; over 2,000 students were surveyed, others observed at ten Chicago institutions using ethnographic methods. Finally, a study conducted by Outsell for the Digital Library Federation and the Council on Library and Information Resources surveyed over 3,000 students and faculty.

These studies suggest that though we all hear claims that students only use the Web, the research does not bear this out. Among the somewhat surprising findings of these studies are these points:

  • 89% of students report using print resources for at least some of their research (OCLC)
  • Accuracy of information is important to students (OCLC)
  • 73% of students report using Internet more than the library to find information; 9% use library more (Pew)
  • Students prefer face-to-face interaction with librarians and faculty when they need help (OCLC and Pew)
  • 80% of students and faculty say the Internet has changed the way they use libraries (Outsell) - but -
  • Two-thirds of students and faculty say they have not decreased their use of libraries (Outsell)

Findings from smaller-scale studies fill in some of the details and offer a more intimate glimpse into student perspectives. Barbara Valentine's work with undergraduates, teasing out their values through focus groups, told us there is a utilitarian aspect to research - students will look for the most efficient route to completing research tasks. In some sense this is not news to any of us - but what is new is the reasoning behind it. It reveals something we need to bear in mind: the messages we send through assignments will be closely read. What we don't require will naturally get less effort than that which we explicitly do. It's unreasonable to expect students to do work simply because, in some vaguely articulated way, "it's good for you" - or for them to infer without direction what is good for them.

Philip Davis and others at Cornell examined research paper bibliographies from 1995 to 2001 and found - surprise, surprise - that students couldn't be counted on to cite scholarly sources unless they were told they had to. Not only do you have to say "you must use quality sources," you need to explain what that means.

Vicki Burton and Scott Chadwick surveyed students in a quantitative study to find out how they chose sources. They learned that the traditional research paper assignment is still ubiquitous, that most students use both print and Internet sources, and - in their research population of over 500 students - that the percentage of students who only use library sources is the same as those who only use the Internet (quite a different result than the Pew study). Students with training in evaluating Web sites are less likely to use them as sources than those without training. And finally, they found that though student do evaluate their sources, they don't invest as much commitment to those choices as do experts - that, rather than a courtship between writers and their sources, it's more of a one-night-stand - which, given Valentine's findings, is not really surprising.

A dozen years ago I interviewed a small number of students about their research processes. I wasn't satisfied that the process librarians typically described - moving from general to specific, from encyclopedias to books to articles and so forth - had anything to do with reality, and I was curious how writing and library research intersected. The students I interviewed told me that finding a focus is a time-consuming and tricky part of the process, that finding tools aren't always the best route to good sources, that browsing and tracing cited works play an important and often overlooked role, and that the entire process of research and writing is recursive and interconnected, not distinct and separate stages. I recently used the same script of questions and interviewed another group of students to see if the process has fundamentally changed since the Web and the multitude of online subscription sources have come on the scene. Though I haven't finished coding these interviews, I'm struck by how little the process they describe has changed, even though the tools have. Students often expressed strong preference for books and journal articles over Web sources, though for some projects the web provided just what they needed. They sometimes used the Web in the initial stage of topic formulation and then abandoned it. They typically used browsing and tracing citations with more confidence than database searching. And they printed out every source they used - or used book darts or sticky notes to keep track of parts of books. They needed hardcopy to jot on, mark up, tag, and physically sort into categories in order to use their sources. They used quite elaborate coding techniques to keep track of what was important. And, consistent with Davis's findings, they were very much guided by their professors' prompts.

In short, these smaller-scale studies suggest that faculty, indeed, are key to drawing students into the library because students do research in response to faculty cues. It may be the case that faculty in the disciplines need to rethink their assumptions, given students now arrive at college far more familiar with searching the Web than with searching libraries, and given the greater diversity of materials available will have to be more explicit about what constitutes a good source. But I'm not sure that faculty have to bend over backwards to persuade students to use the library instead of the Web. What they need to do is something that has always been needed - to help students read all texts more critically and to understand the purpose and the process of research as a form of discovery. We observe students struggling to find and use information; faculty often only have the results to work with. If we combine forces we should be able to come to a better understanding of what's really going on.

Now that third question that Scott Carlson posed: "In the information age, what is the role of the college library, traditionally the intellectual and social heart of campus?"

To tackle that one, let's return for a moment to Eco's library - not the nightmare, but the one that is an adventure. Like Eco, our students want to have refreshments as they use the library, they want to be comfortable, they want to be able to browse freely (both online and in real space), something particularly important to undergraduates because they can't seek information they don't know exists and don't know enough about their topic to give it a name. Browsing gives them a chance to scope out the possibilities, to dabble, to explore, to make unexpected discoveries.

Libraries as places speak to those who use them. Their architecture is calculated to express something to the reader about their relationship to the library and what it contains. In the great nineteenth century libraries, the message was "come inside if you want to be improved." They were public, they were democratic, but they were also monumental, civic statements about an ideal of learning. They dwarf the reader and evoke greatness by using architectural motifs from a classical era or reminiscent of a cathedral.

The New York Public Library's Fifth Avenue building is a civic monument framed by rather arrogant-looking lions, but they have become domesticated over time, and the imposing steps leading up to the front door are a favorite picnic spot for those who work in Midtown Manhattan.

The Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington uses a different language - an ecclesiastical one. The library suggests readers are part of a Western tradition, and the reading room looks like the nave of a Gothic cathedral, telling the reader that they are engaged in something spiritual and significant.

The new Seattle Public Library is a daringly different building that nevertheless is designed to send a message. In this design, the books shelved as a single sequence, a unified spiral of knowledge; the reference and public computing areas are the "mixing chamber" - where interdisciplinary knowledge can come together and librarians can collaborate with researchers.

Chicago opted for another approach when they opened the Harold Washington Library Center in 1991, the largest public library in the world. This traditional, massive building evokes nineteenth century libraries and was chosen, according to one of the committee members reviewing proposals, because it was the only design submitted that looked like a library.

One way libraries have adapted to change is to include more technology. This is in part because so much of the library is only available now through computers, but is also a recognition that libraries are places where working on computers makes sense. It's part of the library's tradition to be a place where people spend time together even if they're working alone on various projects. In fact, modern "information commons" sometimes look very much like traditional reading rooms - long ranges of desktops, designed for individual study in a common room.

The technology that some believed would replace libraries has simply moved into the library. (The fact that Marquette University, when it built a new library, intentionally left the books in another building is an interesting riff on this idea; technology presumably supports learning; books are simply inventory.) In a recent Library Journal feature, "Library 2.0," Andrew Albanese commented on the popularity of information commons in academic libraries. "Thanks to new, technology-driven models, more and more campus libraries offer a mix of traditional resources, technology, instruction, and collaborative and social space. They serve an ever-expanding role in supporting an institution's curriculum."

Though this is true - on our campus computer labs in other buildings have been closed due to lack of traffic; students want to do their computing in the library - I'm not sure it's still "technology driven" I'd rather reconceptualize this "commons" as Scott Bennett does in a recent CLIR report - as a "learning commons." Even before computers, the library was the intellectual common ground of the institution, where the knowledge of all disciplines meets and mingles, ownership dissolves, boundaries fall away - and learning has always been what libraries are for.

Fundamentally, learning isn't about use of tools, it's a social experience. We should make it easier for our students to conceptualize research as a social act, not simply manipulating inert bits of information and documenting where those bits came from. It's important when we draw them into research that we don't send the wrong message - e.g. that research is transcription - because they will take the message to heart.

The concept of an information commons is centered on tools and specialists; the learning commons concept is focused on social needs and is student-centered. One library director Bennett interviewed said about his library: "It's the most democratic building on campus, and if it's grand and awe inspiring and at the same time warm, comfortable, and inviting, it makes a tremendous statement about how the college feels about learning and teaching." This reminds me again of Eco's library-as-adventure. It's the universe, but on a human scale.

Certainly Linfield College has drawn on this social perspective in their new library. There are long tables for quiet study, places for group work, and comfortable seating - even a fireplace! Clearly, though technology is present, at Linfield the library is about learning.

What we want to do with our libraries is make students comfortable with this strange, hybrid print and digital world of ours by incorporating some of the traditional messages of past libraries - the ones Barnes and Nobles has used to such great effect in their bookstores - with the technology our students need, We want to do it in a way that says to students: this is a place you want to be. This is yours. You have citizenship in the realm of knowledge.

A couple of weeks ago when I was working at night in the library and the place was buzzing with students talking, studying, playing games, playing with databases, eating, yawning, writing, reading, and doing many of these things more or less simultaneously, I was thinking about how odd it is that research papers, which are very hard to write well, remain the most commonly-assigned writing genre in colleges. And how seriously, even grimly, they go about it. Research is not play, it's hard work. And moreover, it's work that has rules that, if you break them, you'll find yourself in deep trouble. Though students often get excited about what they're learning through the process, when it comes to writing it up they tend to shut down, lose some of that enthusiasm, think in fact enthusiasm is out of place and inappropriate. This seems all wrong, since research is really a kind of formalized fooling around. At its best and most creative, it's playful.

In the print version of the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "play" occupies over ten pages of definitions and examples. The meanings of the word include "freedom or room for movement," "to ridicule or mock," "to set in opposition," and "mimetic representation of some action." To play is to exercise freedom, to perform, to engage in games.

Thinking about that, I started to read what anthropologists say about play and found one of Gregory Bateson's Metalogues - short imaginary dialogues that explore some cultural subject. One, "On Games and Being Serious," is a dialogue between a father and daughter.

"Daddy, are these conversations serious?"

"Certainly they are."

"They're not a sort of game you play with me?"

"God forbid . . . but they are a sort of game we play together" (14)

Here I thought of how like helping students learn to do research this is - a joint effort between two people who aren't exactly equal but who are both involved, both learning. They play the game together. It's serious, but not entirely.

Later in the Metalogue the daughter says "People who cheat just don't know how to play" (14). This struck me as a really good way of looking at student problems with writing research papers. Plagiarizing students often simply do not understand the rules (which are complex). They think research is all about getting other people to say what you want to say and making sure you give them credit. Though they may be pretty good at "playing the game" as they understand it, they're not having much fun. They're too busy trying to follow the rules. Bateson's metalogue goes on with the daughter saying,

"Wouldn't it be a good thing if we had a few more rules and obeyed them more carefully? Then we might not get into these dreadful muddles."

"Yes. But wait. You mean that I get us into these muddles because I cheat against rules we don't have. Or put it this way. That we might have rules which would stop us getting into these muddles - as long as we obey them."

"Yes, Daddy. That's what the rules of the game are for."

"Yes, but do you want to turn these conversations into that sort of a game? I'd rather play canasta" (18).

Learning to do research is more than learning a set of rules or mastering technologies. It's learning to play with ideas with some degree of freedom. It's pushing an idea beyond the known into the unknown. It's risk-taking, not rule-following. And it is fundamentally social, open-ended, exploratory. As another cultural anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, has said, the function of play is interpretive.

This need for social space, for places where people can interact with ideas, has architectural implications. A new building has just opened on the MIT campus. It's not a library, it will house computer science and artificial intelligence labs, the information systems program, and the philosophy and linguistics departments, but it made me think about library spaces which are also a kind of lab and classroom. The architect, Frank Gehry, said to a New York Times reporter it "looks like a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate."

This building is designed to be playful and to encourage flexible use of common space for collaboration and social interaction in order to foster new ideas. The new design incorporates lots of common space and transparency among offices to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration.

It is in part a response to a student life report that MIT had too few places to interact and that computer clusters were being used social spaces. Interestingly, technology per se is little in evidence. There are no massive computer labs - everything is wireless and according to one architectural advisor, "the better technology becomes, the less obtrusive it is.It's built "around people, instead of around technology" (Chronicle, A30). The interior spaces are designed to enable unexpected views and to bring people together.

The place for this kind of playful interaction is the library, where technology and texts can be turned loose with students in ways that encourage them to interact not just with each other but with ideas. Philosopher Michael Oakshott described knowledge this way:

"...we are the inheritors, neither of an inquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body of information, but of a conversation, begun in the primeval forests and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries. It is a conversation that goes on in public and within each of ourselves . . . And it is this conversation which, in the end, gives place and character to every human activity and utterance" (490-91)

Libraries are great places to learn how to participate in that conversation.


Bibliography

What effect has the Internet had on the way students learn?

Burton, Vicki T., and Scott A. Chadwick. "Investigating the Practices of Student Researchers: Patterns of Use and Criteria for Use of Internet and Library Sources." Computers and Composition 17(2000): 309-328.

Davis, Philip. "Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: Guiding Student Scholarship in a Networked Age." portal: Libraries and the Academy 3.1 (2003): 41-51.

Fister, Barbara. "The Research Processes of Undergraduate Students." Journal of Academic Librarianship 18.3 (1992): 163-169.

Friedlander, Amy. Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment: Introduction to a Data Set Assembled by the Digital Library Federation and Outsell, Inc. Washington, DC: Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources, 2002.

Jones, Steve. The Internet Goes to College: How Students are Living in the Future with Today's Technology. Washington DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2002.

OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students: How Academic Librarians Can Influence Students' Web-Based Information Choices. Dublin, OH: OCLC, 2002.

Tenopir, Carol. Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: An Overview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies. Washington DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2003.

Valentine, Barbara. "The Legitimate Effort in Research Papers: Student Commitment Versus Faculty Perceptions." Journal of Academic Librarianship 27.2 (2001): 107-115.

---"Undergraduate Research Behavior: Using Focus Groups to Generate Theory." Journal of Academic Librarianship 19.5 (1993): 300-304.


What role can faculty play in helping to bring students to the library?

Bateson, Gregory. Steps Toward an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago, 2000.

Bruffee, Kenneth. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1993.

Geertz, Clifford. "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight." The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic, 1973: 412-53.

Oakshott, Michael. "The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind." Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. New and expanded edition. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1991: 488-541.


In the information age, what is the role of the college library, traditionally the intellectual and social heart of campus?

Albanese, Andrew. "Campus Library 2.0." Library Journal April 15, 2004.

Beimiller, Lawrence. "MIT Splices Whimsy Into Its Architectural DNA: Sprouting Cubes and Cones, Frank O. Gehry's New Building Melds Student Life and Learning." Chronicle of Higher Education May 7, 2004.

Bennett, Scott. Libraries Designed for Learning. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2003.

Carlson, Scott. The Deserted Library: As Students Work Online, Reading Rooms Empty Out - Leading some Campuses to Add Starbucks." Chronicle of Higher Education November 16, 2001.

Denn, Rebecca. "Libraries Dust Off Stuffy Image: New Showcase Blends Hi-Tech with Service." Seattle Post-Intelligencer May 20 2004.

Eco, Umberto. "De Bibliotheca." Bostonia Spring1993: 57-60.

Foote, Steven M. "Changes in Library Design: An Architect's Perspective." portal: Libraries and the Academy 4.1 (2004): 41-59.

Given, Lisa M., and Gloria J. Leckie. "'Sweeping' the Library: Mapping the Social Activity Space of the Public Library." Library and Information Science Research 25(2003): 365-385.

Muschamp, Herbert. "The Library that Puts on Fishnets and Hits the Disco." New York Times May 16 2004.

Rimer, Sara. "Putting A Smile On Sober Science." New York Times May 12 2004, , sec. E: 1.

Ross, Catherine S. Reading in a Digital Age n.d.

Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning., 1993.

The click-click generation

The click-click generation

Written by Muneerah B., on Tuesday, 7 November 2006




 On an average day, you are likely to find yourself in front of your laptop or PC, plugged into your i-Pods or Creative Zen, occasionally glancing over and picking up your cell phone for text messages and such. This may be a picture of daily occurrence for you but it still makes a handful of people go, “I never got to do things like that when I was your age!” Sure you’ve heard it all before, how lucky you are to be growing in this era and all that but to understand exactly what they’re ranting about, here are some of the things ‘they’ never got to do even as recently as the past five to ten years.

For starters, we love the cell phone. No questions about that. But other than the idea of a mobile telephone, Short Message Service is the greatest thing it came along with! It totally changes the way we arrange our plans with others. Before this godsend of an invention, you agree on a time and place to meet before you leave your home, and you had to turn up on time. People generally made a lot more effort to be punctual for their appointments. You don’t need technology to know that having to wait cluelessly is not fun. Now, all you have to do is send a text message to explain whatever reasons (read: excuses) you have for running late. You don’t even have to listen to your friend’s reaction (which will add on to your guilt) on the other line!

 There was a time when ‘hip’ kids were identified by say, those who know and maybe know the lyrics to the latest songs on radio. The radio unfortunately has lost its hip factor with the arrival of the internet. (And it has nothing to do with the fact that lyrics are Google-able.) You don’t have to wait for the stations to pick up a song to know about and listen to and Fegie’s or Beyonce’s new single. Heck, you can even choose not to listen to ‘that kind of music’. The concept of discovering music online has allow music fans to be more exposed to genres and artistes they won’t normally get to listen on regular radio stations, they don’t dictate the music and bands you listen to anymore. That’s why you have Saosin and Copeland on your playlist, right?

Of course we can’t speak about the ‘wonders of the internet’ without mentioning how blogging (along with Friendster and MySpace) has unleashed the narcissist in us. But if any good is to come out of that, it actually provides instant updates about the people we care about. Or those we’re just… curious about. We may be too busy to meet up with selected friends (or people we can’t possibly meet without a plane ride) but reading their blogs or a peak their profile pages can keep you up-to-date with what’s been going on with their lives. And when you do get to meet up or bump into them, there’s no need for the routine “So what have you been up to?” to catch up. Instead you can dive straight into “Hey I heard you are [insert info you read on his/ her blog]?”



The Net Generation

The Net Generation

The New Teen Culture

internetAre you 22 or younger? Have you ever had to help your parents with the computer? Then you belong to the Net Generation. How is technology changing the lives of people your age around the globe?

America currently contains about 88 million members of the Net Generation. These "N-Geners" are kids who have been manipulating mouses since an early age. While past generations made do with the telephone and television, today's generation has access to those devices and super-realistic video games, the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, online communities, and videos and music that can be downloaded over a computer.

Thanks to e-mail, many kids communicate daily with pen pals around the globe. Some can download their homework if they miss a day of school. Others have even built their own Web sites. While it's easy to take these activities for granted, this high level of interactivity is shaping the Net Generation's culture, values, and world outlook.

After studying young people for his book, Growing Up Digital, author Don Tapscott says the following descriptions apply to most N-Geners.

  • Look at the checklist below. Make an "x" in the space below each category if a description fits you and your friends. Which adjectives would you add?

generation

Characteristic Checklist

curious
independent
contrarian
intelligent
adaptable
confident
focused
globally conscious











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Going Global

While many young Americans and Europeans are used to living in a high-tech world, their peers in developing countries are not. According to the World Bank, about 40% of the world's population have never made a phone call, and 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day. For these people, modern technology means very little.

  • Six billion people live worldwide. According to the statistic provided by the World Bank, how many of them have never made a phone call? What do you think are the consequences?

Despite the statistics, many companies interested in broadening business markets are working to connect developing countries to the Internet. Other organizations want children and adults in developing countries to have access to the information and resources available on the Web, especially sites that have scientific and educational value.

Currently, an American company called Africa ONE is building a $1.9 billion cable network to connect all 54 nations within the African continent to the Information Highway. About 19,883 miles (32,000 km) of fiber-optic cable will circle the continent beneath the ocean's surface. Laying of the undersea cable will begin in 2001, and the network should be ready for service by 2002.

Similar connective efforts are taking place in South America. Two companies, Telefónica de España of Spain and Global Crossing of the United States, are competing to ring the continent with undersea fiber-optic cable by next March or April.

  • Submarine cable capacity between the United States and Latin America will increase from 275.6 gigabits per second this year to 1,595.6 gigabits per second next year. Gigabits refers to the amount of data that can be transferred over the cables. Estimate how many times greater the connectivity between the United States and Latin America will be by next year. Why might better connectivity between the continents benefit you?

Pros & Cons of Connectivity

Some critics are concerned that children of developing countries will be adversely affected by the technology invasion set to happen within their borders over the next several years. Much of the material on the Internet is oriented toward the Western values of North America and Europe. This can present a lopsided view of the world, one in which the values and traditions of other cultures become invisible.

Critics worry that as children from South America, Africa, and Asia get massive exposure to Western ideas and values, rifts may develop between them and their parents.

Despite the potential problems, some people take a middle ground, saying that the globalization that would be powered by the Internet is not the same thing as Americanization.

  • Read "One World: It's A State of Mind," an essay written by Andrew Lam, an American journalist born and raised in South Vietnam. He argues that while it is easy for Americans to recognize how their culture affects the world (by noting the success of McDonald's and mega-malls around the globe), we often don't realize how the world changes us.

  • Think of several ways that other countries have affected your life. For example, what foods or music do you enjoy that originated in different countries? What sports do you play that originated in other lands?

Of course there are many benefits of developing countries being linked to the larger world. Scientists and doctors from around the world meet online in "virtual laboratories," to quickly spread medical and scientific news and research.

But the benefits extend beyond the medical. Many developing countries are also marked by political unrest. Oftentimes, a government will try to censor the press so that no news can filter to its citizens and the world at large. Such is the case in Sierra Leone, an African nation undergoing a civil war. Citizens there have been "going to great means to get to the Internet," says Brian Herlihy of Africa ONE. "It's the best way to spread news."

  • Read Riverdeep's Teaching the News article, "Diamonds Are a Guerrilla's Best Friend," to learn more about the situation in Sierra Leone. Why could the spread of news help citizens there?

  • Overall, do you think better Internet connectivity will help or harm people your age in different countries? Why?

  • Imagine yourself in college. What skills have you gained by using the Web that you think might be valuable in higher education?






Learn More

  • Read the Riverdeep Today article, "Impolite Society," which examines how technological advances lead to rudeness.


More Links

  • Meet friends worldwide with ePALS.


Related Resources



Educating the Net Generation: www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf

About the Net Generation

Also known as the Digital Generation, Milenials, or Generation Y, "this generation is the first to grow up with computers at home, music downloads, instant messaging and cellular phones." Students in this generation frequently use Internet technology for Education (Information, Research), Communication, Entertainment, and Self-expression (Wikipedia). According to DoIT's 2002 student computing survey, computer ownership was at 91% (DoIT Student Computing Survey ).

In addition to being computer-users and frequently "on the Net, "many students of the Net Generation are using a variety of Internet technologies on a daily basis that many of their instructors have never used. This website is designed to introduce instructors to these technologies and to help inspire professors and TAs to incorporate these technologies into their academic courses. This page also offers some information about how exposure to the Internet has impacted the Net Generation as learners.

"Today's youth are different from any generation before them. They are exposed to digital technology in virtually all facets of their day-to-day existence, and it is not difficult to see that this is having a profound impact on their personalities, including their attitudes and approach to learning."

Tapscott, Don. (2005) The Net Generation and the School. Milken Family Foundation.

Characteristics of The Net Generation:

  • They are able to multitask / multiprocess: Net-geners can do several things at once.
  • They "have little tolerance for delays." They expect webpages to load quickly, responses to e-mail immediately, etc. (Skiba)
  • They tend to be more comfortable constructing their knowledge than being instructed.
  • They prefer to be interactive: "They want to be users--not just viewers or listeners." (Tapscott, 1998, p.3)

Please see the Resources page for a list of resources on The Net Generation.

LTDE Support

This site will provide you with an introduction to a number of the Internet technologies that are familiar to many students these days. If you would like additional support incorporating any of these technologies into your UW Madison academic course, please contact Learning Technology & Distance Education (LTDE). We offer individual consultations and walk-in help.