This was an attempt to SMS text and an image to my blog from a mobile phone. None of the text made it into the blog – lost somewhere along the way. The image clearly worked and I have managed to blog both an image and text from a phone, via flickr, using the phone email option rather than SMS. There appears to be an issue with how flickr interprets the SMS message.

New Zealand is undergoing review of its curriculum for its schools using a methodology of co-construction which seeks to gain as broad a consensus across stakeholder groups as possible. One interesting document that has come out of this is Key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum

The purpose of this document is to “ offer teachers and learners a critical lens through which to view and think about the curriculum in its widest sense.” Reading through it I was mindful of how well it meshes with what we are trying to do at Ultraversity in moving away from a purely skills and knowledge focus and recognising that it is our ability to live and work in communities that are important to having ‘successful’ lives at work and play. The lenses identified are listed below as are the associated reflective questions that the learner can ask of themselves.

Relating to Other

Think I have sussed it this time. There are two separate email addresses, one that just posts images in flicker and the other that
forerds them onto your blog.

I am trying to set up Flickr to receive emailed images/text and then send it on through to my MT blog as a post. I want to do this for four reasons:
1. the ability to easily blog email correspondence by simply adding another email address
2. to be able to send photographs taken on a phone camera to my blog
3. Possibly spedd up the whole blogging process by not using web forms
4. maintan a local copy of my blogs

None of this high stakes in the world of interoperability I understand, but it might be a solution for some problems that are of particular significance to me.

Note: My first attempt only made it to flickr and I then had to manually help it on ist way by selecting the blog this image button in flickr.

A learning object from the BBC that will have possibilities for those interested in the English language and how both the spoken and written word vary (some issues for Safari and Firefox browsers at the moment!). Two simple drop down menus allow is to plot themes on a map of the UK such as ‘how you feel’ or what they wear against concepts that are articulated by different phrases and words to a greater or lesser extent around the UK. Probably you have to take a look to get it:^)

The shame is that after going to all of the trouble to create this interactive learning object, the BBC didn’t go the extra mile and make it a tool that is available for us to use for our own purposes. We can contribute to the database, as well as interrogate it to find patterns and also access background information. How cool it would be that if we could set up our own variables and populate the database ourselves and then build our own maps. For example, ornithologists could use it to plot the prevalence of certain birds at different seasons of the year. Even better if this were open source software, as there would be the potential for it to have international appeal simply by hacking the code that generates the plots on the map.

Hopefully the BBC will start thinking about the re-purposing of the learning objects that they produce.

This would be a challenging film for some mainly because of the script and possibly because of the use of marionettes reminiscent of Thunderbirds, although more sophisticated in their facial expressions.

I chose to view the film as a critical commentary on ‘Team America’. However, with scenes like Michael Moore as a suicide bomber blowing himself up in the secret hideaway of Kim Jong-il beneath the sculpture of presidents heads on Mount Rushmore, it isn’t one to view if you are feeling politically correct or sensitive of recent events in London.

I attended a workshop on Communities of Practice (CoP) run by Etienne Wenger the other day. This was a stunningly good workshop, enabling me to re-visit the ideas behind CoP. The theory is located in a subjective dimension and is characterized by a belief that reality is a product of the individual’s social experiences in the world. I have briefly summarized my interpretation of some of the key concepts, the detailed underpinning theory can be found through Etienne’s publications.

Fundamentally we are social beings
CoP theory sees us all as fundamentally social beings and as such the interpretations that we make of the world are mediated through our social experiences in it. This is the case when we both interpret in groups or interpret in moments of quite reflection like now when I type or you read this blog entry. The social aspect of interpretation and meaning making cannot be disentangled.

Boundaries of practices
One of the most powerful interactions in creating new knowledge are those that occur at the boundaries of practices. This can be thought of as a creative tension between individuals who bring the experience of different sets of practices into a shared domain. However, if there is a too high degree of dissonance between practices then the forces attracting them together may not be strong enough to force them to interact with each other.

In naturally forming communities, the practices are constantly being developed by existing members and learned by newcomers who have chosen to accept the apprentice role. In communities that are developed ‘artificially’, the motivations on individuals both externally applied and intrinsically felt will determine the degree to which interaction occurs.

We can view this as a complex ‘dance’ between community, domain, and practice. Each of these facets can be thought of as a magnet attached to an individual that may either attract/repel them into/from social interactions. We may be drawn towards the core of the community or may drift to the extremity where old timers lurk and newcomers first make their acquaintance with the community through engaging in conversations that share the practices of the community but also create new meaning as a different set of experiences are added to the mix.

Breadth vs. depth
Should we become experts in multiple domains or is it enough to be just ‘boundary walkers’ on the periphery of communities? Etien’s view was that everyone should experience being an expert at least once. His definition was along the lines of being able to have a ‘peer’ discussion with a recognised expert in a domain, be that a baker, nuclear physicist, or a racing car driver! It is important that we understand what it is to be ‘expert’ so that when we negotiate the boundaries of other communities we understand what it is to be confident in a domain and its associated practices.

Reification
The process of reification is both one of the most powerful aspects of a communities meaning making, and also one of the most dangerous processes for the corruption of knowledge. Reification is the taking of a practice and its associated ideas and attaching them to a word or phrase that through a process of negotiation by the community. This then carries with it meaning beyond that which the simple word or words convey. For example, the term key grip in the film industry is someone who we see rolling across the credits at the end of movies. To even begin to understand what this person does I had to visit a website as I am not a part of the film community, let alone the community of grips! However, even though I now have some understanding of what the term means I don’t really have a clue as to what this person does in their practice and probably never will unless I join the film making community. This is where the danger lies as words and phrases are used out of context of the community that negotiated their meaning and this can be left behind as the reifications travel from community to community continually subject to a new negotiation of meaning. Yet without this process of reification it is impossible for communities to effectively discuss their practice as reifications are an invaluable shortcut to the collective community history and previous negotiations of meaning that they represent.

Trajectory managers
I asked Etienne about the tension between an individual’s motivation to do something and their being told to do something as one might experience in a school setting in terms of empowerment of individuals to make choices. The answer that came back was framed around the notion of a ‘trajectory manager’ who is someone tasked to help individuals make decisions by helping them to understand the consequences of their choices. This is more than a facilitator of learning in that there is a notion of the need for outside intervention to enable us to grasp the information we require to make informed decisions. Empowerment is more than the ability to chose course x rather than y, but requires us to understand the implications of choices through social interaction with our trajectory manager.