Science fiction: Prediction or building blocks for the future?

Posted on September 7, 2011 by admin

Being an avid fan of science fiction literature (or “speculative fiction” as it’s sometimes called) and having a particular interest in the ways that “sci-fi” literature influences our visions and constructions of the future, John Schwartz’s article in this weekend’s New York Times, “Novelists predict future with eerie accuracy”, was an obvious must-read. Schwartz writes about, and interviews, a few sci-fi authors whose stories, or at least elements of them, seem to have described later events. However, Schwartz’s preoccupation with the apparent prescience of sci-fi authors obscures the real significance of sci-fi writers’ contributions to making sense of current events and shaping the future. Luckily, Schwartz’s interviewees manage to set the record straight even though he still seems to have missed the point. I think few, if any, sci-fi writers have any ambition of predicting the future, or even, in those rare instances where they seem to “get it right”, believe that they have done so. Continue reading →

Posted in Leapfrogging development, Technology foresight | 4 Comments

Study finds bias against creativity

Posted on August 26, 2011 by admin

Well, this doesn’t bode well..

There is little doubt that increasingly rapid technological and social change is increasing pressure to come up with creative solutions to the issues we face. But, a group of researchers are reporting that they have identified a somewhat surprising hurdle: that people are generally biased against creative ideas even when they claim to be open to them. The researchers conducted an experiment where they manipulated feelings of uncertainty to measure subjects’ attitudes toward creative vs. purely practical ideas. They found that the subjects were biased against creative ideas, and furthermore, that their bias often impaired their ability to identify creative ideas as such.

There’s one thing that I find somewhat questionable in this research. I’m not entirely convinced that the researchers measured subjects’ attitudes toward creativity rather than their general apprehension about uncertainty. The two don’t necessarily go hand in hand. We can have a very creative idea that is put forth in a manner that minimizes uncertainty. However, often when we are in a creative phase of problem solving, we put off addressing the uncertainty factors so as not to be bogged down by them.

Nevertheless, the results reported in the paper do make an interesting point – that selling a creative idea can be more work than we might expect.

Posted in Knowledge development, Leapfrogging development, Technology foresight | 2 Comments

Creating old meaning: When new concepts are repurposed to mask an absence of change.

Posted on August 25, 2011 by admin

Michael Fullan (see The New Meaning of Educational Change) argues that the key to educational change is the creation of new, shared meaning to define novel contexts that help us address issues of concern. Through the decades we’ve seen a range of constructed meanings that have changed significantly how we view education, for ex. “student-centered learning”, and especially in Europe, “lifelong learning”. However, as novel concepts are picked up there is the potential that they will be repurposed to maintain the status quo, i.e. using new meaning to refer to old stuff. I call this tendency, “creating old meaning”. Here are some examples of how old meaning is created in relation to educational technology:

Teachers’ powerpoints = “technology integration”
Glorified computer labs = “classroom of the future”
PDF copies of printed materials = “e-books”
Youtube videos = “interactive content”

By creating old meaning using new concepts, educators and policymakers are able to present a semblance of progress where there is, in fact, none, or at best, very little.

My point is this, when actual change occurs it probably isn’t possible, or at least shouldn’t be possible, to describe what has changed using old concepts. Thus, new concepts emerge by necessity. However, the opposite doesn’t hold true, i.e. that new concepts can be, and commonly are, repurposed to describe things that haven’t changed, thereby giving them an air of newness. Insofar as educational change is a preferred goal, policymakers, educators, researchers and stakeholders have ample reason to be weary of those instances where the “new” is little more than a re-creation of the old.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | 1 Comment

Bits and pieces from around the web

Posted on August 24, 2011 by admin

Here’s a quick summary of interesting things that I’ve been posting on my facebook page recently that are no less relevant to this blog.

Here’s an interesting article looking at the Summerhill School through the experiences of former students. The Summerhill School was opened 90 years ago by A. S. Neill and is still operating today. The school is based on the notion that learners do best when they are in control of their learning. This is widely recognized today and many educators try to find ways to integrate that thinking in their classrooms. The Summerhill School, however, uses this thinking as their point of departure and is still regarded as very innovative in that regard.

I have often complained that people writing about the Finnish approach to education, in particular US authors, fail to identify the real significance of what sets Finnish education apart from education in other countries. This is primarily because of the apparent tendency of these authors to adopt a defensive, and often apologetic, stance regarding education in their own countries. For example, US authors have often dismissed the notion that the US can gain something from studying Finnish education because in the US they have to deal with such significant diversity as opposed to the largely homogenous Finns. Here is a remarkably objective article on Finnish education that especially highlights the fact that Finns do, indeed, have to deal with considerable diversity in some schools and regions. What the article fails to mention, and I have often emphasized, is that despite these instances of schools and regions that differ from the norm in Finland, the most remarkable aspect of Finland’s outcomes on international student assessments is that there is almost no variation between schools and regions.

It’s been almost ten years since Marc Prensky coined the term “digital natives” to describe modern youth who have grown up not knowing a society without the Internet and other information and communication technologies that affect societies today. Prensky contrasted this generation with the “digital immigrants” who have had to adapt to a world that is very different than the one they grew up with, including most adult teachers. The suggestion is that our youth are being taught by people who are not nearly as technologically savvy as their students. While this is an undeniably astute observation by Prensky, the problem is that he didn’t really offer up much empirical evidence to support his categorization. More recent research suggests that the so-called “digital natives” display far less technological prowess than Prensky suggests (see for ex. Bennet, Maton & Kervin, 2008). Here is a link to new research that suggests that digital natives lack rudimentary Internet-based information seeking skills, which raises anew questions about how tech-savvy they really are.

References:
Bennett, S., Maton, K. & Kervin, L. (2008). The “digital natives” debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Internet, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | Leave a comment

Norwegian professor says that teachers must be on Facebook to understand students

Posted on August 22, 2011 by admin

Legislators in Missouri, USA, recently passed a law that forbids teachers from socializing with students using social web sites. Meanwhile, Arne Krokan, a Norwegian professor specializing in technology and society, claims that teachers must be on Facebook if they are to truly understand the culture and social reality of the students that they work with. Recently, a course was held for 300 Norwegian teachers about social networking. It turned out that half of the participating teachers did not even have a Facebook account. I’m sure Missouri legislators would have been very happy with that. In Norway it was considered a disappointing reality in need of immediate attention. I’m inclined to agree with the Norwegians.

Read more here (link goes to tolerable Google translation).

A policy similar to the new legislation in Missouri has been under consideration in Virginia since last year.

The Missouri Teachers’ Association has filed a lawsuit challenging the Missouri legislation.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Technology foresight | 1 Comment

My response to Clay Shirky regarding his claims about news as a public good

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Tryggvi Thayer

Clay Shirky recently published an article on his blog about the impact of information technology on news publishing. As is often the case with Shirky’s writings, it’s been causing considerable waves on the Internet. Basically, Shirky’s point is that there is a need for competing methods of publishing and disseminating news to allow for best practices to emerge under new circumstances. He defines news as a “public good”, both “colloquially and economically”, and suggests, on this basis, that subsidies are needed to support news services. Shirky’s reason for addressing the issue is that he’s preparing to teach in a journalism department, but I think it’s a very important issue that affects more than just the news industry (and that may be why the article is getting so much attention). As information technology becomes more accessible and integrated into individuals’ daily lives, issues regarding information publishing become a concern for everyone. This is not least the case in education where there is a trend toward encouraging students to be active online as information creators and disseminaters.

My intention here is to point out two weaknesses or oversights in Shirky’s article. The first is relatively minor and concerns how news publishers are supported by public funds, i.e. I believe that news publishers receive far more subsidies than Shirky suggests. The second has to do with Shirky’s definition of the economic concept of a “public good” and how that affects the news industry. In the latter case my criticism is this; Shirky’s definition of the economic concept of a “public good” is unclear. A proper understanding of what a public good is and how public goods affect markets reveals that there are examples of news organizations that demonstrate that private organizations can successfully provide a public good without subsidies or public involvement. Continue reading →

Posted in ICTs, Information Society, Internet | Tagged , , | 3 Comments