The last mile...making it real

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the Asheville "Town Meeting" about our effort to win the Google fiber initiative. My goal was two-fold. First, selfishly I hoped to actually meet many of the people involved in the initiative face to face for the first time, as I have been part of the google group, facebook group, followed the twitter feed, and more. Second, I am so excited about the process, regardless of whether we get it, this is an amazing participatory drive in our community, and yes I would love to get 1 gigabit fiber in Asheville. About 300 hundred people gathered at the civic center banquet room to discuss how Asheville positions ourselves to get Google here. So, our mayor, a great lady named Terry Bellamy, kicks off the meeting and says "Google needs us", they need our creativity, and our initiative, to show this fiber roll out could work. Well, she thinks big, what can I say. I have to agree that our little hamlet is full of creative types, and not short on initiative, mainly due to the people attracted here by the natural beauty, arts scene, and maybe our 13 micro breweries. There is a local t-shirt that reads "If you are too weird for Asheville, you are too weird", gotta think Google would like that one.
We hear from a panel of local experts, including Hunter Goosman of ERC Broadband. Hunter discusses the "last mile principle". The "last mile" or "last kilometre" is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. The last mile is the most cost prohibitive, sometimes costing more than hundreds of miles of fiber run point to point, due to labor and logistics.
Anyway, my first goal was a great success. I met Jose Ibarra of Applied Solutions Group, or H0zae, as he goes on twitter. H0zae is the key driving force behind the Google Avl initiative. I also meet Gary of gsocialmedia.com, possibly the most prolific tweeter on the planet, certainly in the AVL. I talked to many old friends, and got to finally meet some of the social media gurus of my community. I will be meeting with Jose soon to discuss an education strategy for Google AVL.
I thought the last mile was appropriate for this "tie the worlds" part of web 2.0. Getting together online with these guys is so easy, but actually meeting, and beginning to work together on an exciting project is less so, but once done, it really starts to bring it all home.
I will be blogging more about Google AVL soon......

An expanding universe?

A Private Universe is a video documentary of Harvard grads, alumni, and faculty being largely unable to detail what causes the seasons of the year or the phases of the moon. Their views were sometimes based on the correct fundamental idea, but were an incorrect understanding of the facts. Why had they never solidified their understanding of these basic principles of astronomy and geography? Had they carried these incorrect concepts since grade school, or somewhere along the line unlearned what they previously understood. I was left asking of the Harvard grads, did they used to know, had they never learned, or had they learned these principles incorrectly.
In his speech at TEDxNYED on Saturday, George Siemens, author of Knowing Knowledge which is a study of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed, argued that what we see in A Private Universe is an issue of "conceptual failure". Siemens argues that "the inability on the part of individuals to share and shape their understanding of a subject through discourse with others causes erroneous or errant concepts that could be eliminated through social interaction."

Siemens contends "the scientific method offers a response to faulty connections, offering a long history of creating a transparent structure whereby connections are validated and evaluated." Traditionally, educators have lead students to meaningful and useful information via the curriculum (scientific method), and helped them build understanding through socialization (the classroom).

Web 2.0 and New Media change the equation. Rather than the educator creating a linear series of lessons within a tightly structured curriculum, learners build knowledge and understanding as part of what Siemens calls "peer participative pedagogical practice". Students make sense of content via social and technological connections. The educator still has an instructive role, but now the responsibility moves directly to the learner in terms of how they interact with the information and their peers.

Siemens argues that social media rebuild a sort of lost "small group" socialization that existed prior to modern production and transportation networks. Prior to mass movement via mechanized transportation networks, and mass production of goods and food, core knowledge was validated in a small group within a family, a village, a farming community, a church, where people discussed these matters, and provided peer instruction. In a mechanized world these validation tools break down, and things like the cause of the seasons lose relevance and importance.

In a new world of social media, sites like Delcious, Facebook, Ning, and products like blogs, podcasts, and now Twitter represent an increased exchange of information and a possible reconstruction of social systems. The new media tools allow socialization that sort of recreates traditional small groups and communities. These technologies offer a link to our social, networked, small-group past. Siemens thinks these tools represent a recreation of "a past centered on the social sharing of information and making sense of the world together."

The promise of this idea in the abstract is limitless. Our ability to network, recreate shared sense of community, not based on geography, but on ideas and values, is exciting and potentially powerful. The visualization tools are well beyond the power of television because they are not unidirectional, the viewer can now react, and interact in a way traditional video lacked. The capability to share text, audio, and images, holds incredible potential. Thus the sharing of ideas and knowledge and information could grow in an almost limitless manner.

Yes, but were these small networks of our agrarian past always accurate in the information they shared and validated? Didn't isolation lead to bigotry and racism? Didn't some of us hold on to outdated, unscientific ideas for hundreds of years based on religious tradition and fear? I am shocked when I hear my 10 and 11 year old students tell me that President Obama is going to take away their guns. How do they know, their parents read it on the internet. In how many blogs could I go to read that global warming is a myth? Can misinformation be spread just as fast or faster using new media? Can wrong ideas become ingrained by a sense of shared community in a new media environment. Instead of a private universe, could it just turn in to a shrinking universe?

In a modern new media world, does it really matter if you know what causes the seasons? As long as you know they are coming and can adjust, isn't that all that matters. Does it matter if you accept an idea that is incorrect without questioning the validity of the idea?

This is a fundamental challenge to those of us who want to see new media tools reach their great educational potential. To overcome the pitfalls of small ideas, and fulfill the potential of new media tools with a great cacophony of big shared ideas. To make a social media landscape that inspires a great pursuit of knowledge and information, that leads the way to true reconnection of community around the shared goal of the common good.

Map image from Wikicommons:
Planisphaerium Coeleste, by G. C. Eimmart (first published in 1705, copy probably by Matthäus Seutter, c. 1730); 56.5 x 49 cm
Date Augsburg, c. 1730
Source http://www.jpmaps.co.uk/map/id.32893
Author
Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638(1638)–1705(1705)

Map is part of the public domain

TEDxNYED

TEDxNYED was an all-day conference examining the role of new media and technology in shaping the future of education, the conference took place in New York City on Saturday, March 6, 2010. Presenters, including Lawrence Lessig, Michael Wesch, David Wiley, Jeff Jarvis, Gina Bianchini, Amy Bruckman and many more were invited to share their insights and inspire conversations about the future of education. I stumbled upon this conference due to a tweet I saw, and I watched and listened to a number of these presenters. As an educator, I was so impressed by the overall message of the presenters. New media and technology have created a fundmental change in the way education will happen at every level, and as educators we need to understand our students and the relationship they have with new media and technology.

Newbie event at ISTE Island

So I teleported over to ISTE island for the newcomers social. Feeling pretty confident after my evening session a few weeks ago with DI and many of my classmates. The social was set up around a campfire, quite a few people chatting. ISTE member Maggie Larimore was the hostess of the event, or seemed to be leading the chat session. My daughter wandered in with her homework (my wife was at book club), so she was immediately very interested. I tried to show her around and proceeded to walk through the campfire, sit down backwards, and generally bumble around for a while. Maggie was very helpful. I was able to get a marshmallow on a stick, and even accomplished getting a cup of tea. After a while I wandered around ISTE island, a very helpful place. A lot of nice beginner signs and notecards. I saw the snowmen! My daughter wanted a backpack, so we got one, and a giant pencil. I was really impressed with the ISTE resource center, very nice. I am looking forward to going back and exploring some more. I want to learn more about the podcast center. My daughter (8 years old) was hooked. She wants to go back and shop for some better clothes for my avatar. We ran in to another avatar in the resource center who was my twin (clone?), which convinced my daughter I need a new look. I have to admit, I really like the experience and the landscape, I am not very interested in spending time on appearance, etc. so getting her involved may be the push I need. I have the sense that this is not a "kids" environment, but I am intrigued with the educational potential and want to see how she does.