[DDN] Black history: best taught in February or all year long?
The idea that students are enriched by learning about the heritage and role of African-Americans is widely accepted among most US educators. What's now debated is whether such lessons should be confined, some say segregated, to one month or, instead, be incorporated into class work all year long. Earmarking a single month to recognize black achievement, this camp argues, is not enough in a society built on the contributions of many racial and ethnic groups. The notion of a dedicated time for black history instruction dates from 1926, when educator Carter Godwin Woodson created Negro History Week in a bid to promote a better understanding of the contributions of blacks. In 1976, Congress changed the week into a full month.( see whole article) from the February 01, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0201/p12s01-legn.html By E. Jeanne Harnois | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Conferencing Discussion
All, Perhaps I should clarify my stance. I am an advocate of virtual conferencing, especially as it applies to the Digital Divide - because of the opportunity it offers those who cannot afford to travel from different parts of the world as well as the environmental benefits inherent in such an approach. Anyone with access to the internet can participate, especially in free conferences like the one I am currently promoting (see my last post). I would never suggest all conferences take this approach- as I stated before there is inherent value in face-to-face contact. These types of conferences represent terrific potential, however, in their own right - coupled with efforts to make internet access universally accessible such efforts help educate and connect the world. My apologies If I misrepresented earlier! Best Regards, Sudhir - Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki
To Steve Eskow Good summary of my view! Perhaps one point where I do not follow is that our tutoring is not Intelligent, in the sense of artificial intelligence. All the decisions are made by the designers, not by AI strategies within the programs. Eventually the approaches of artificial intelligence will probably be useful for large numbers of students, but not now. It is critical, I believe, that the student interaction must be frequent. Based on our studies the times between meaningful student actions should not generally exceed twenty seconds. Typically this is a free-form answer to a question from the computer, so the form is Socratic. The reason for the tutorial approach is to allow the learning units to adapt to each student. I see this lack of treating each learner as a unique individual, with different learning problems and interests, is the major reason why current approaches so often fail for many students, in both the developed and developing parts of the world. So this approach is the basis for solving the global problem of education for all, the billions you mention. We have developed at Irvine, a full system for producing such adaptive tutorial modules. I want to begin with a major experiment for young children. I suggest three areas, reading and writing for the first three years, mathematics for the first three years, and science for one year. Some of this work would be done in multiple languages. If the experiment is successful, I think we can attain 'education for all' in twenty years. This, and related matters, are described in the book I am writing at present, as I have mentioned before on this list. Alfred -Original Message- From: Steve Eskow [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 8:42 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki To Alfred Bork: Alfred, since it is your practice not to go into detail on your views and proposals for solving the global education crisis but to send those interested to your books, there is often misunderstanding of what you are criticizing and what you are proposing. I'd like to try summarizing your position in stark black and white terms, risking misrepresenting the position but trusting that you will then correct my errors and add the necessary shadings and nuances. First: you have been since the 1970's a leader in the movement to use the computer and allied intellectual technologies such as artificial intelligence to create what have been called intelligent tutoring systems. Such tutoring systems have the student interact solely with the computer and the software that guides the process of individualized student learning. You argue that if the system has been well designed no intervention by a live teacher is required for good learning. An important plank in your current position is that the size of the current global education need--billions needing instruction--means that no system of learning that requires live instruction--whether face to face or at a distance--can begin to make appreciable inroads. Thus you reject or criticize most distance learning schemes, built as they are around live teachers who teach 30 or 300 or 3000 students, as being irrelevant, distractions from real solutions to the problem of global ignorance. The Wiki movement, therefore, you would tend to see as part of the pseudosolution. Recently you have incorporated into your thinking the belief that the newer voice-based technologies would allow illiterate students to converse with intelligent software in their native language, and be guided by that software to knowledge and skill. You believe, therefore, that attention ought to be given to raising the comparatively few millions of dollars that would be needed to create such intelligent instructional programs, test and improve them, and put them to w ork solving the world's educational problems. Alfred, am I at all close? Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: Alfred Bork [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 1:32 PM Subject: RE: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki Yes, Siobhan, I have looked at the wiki. My comment about personal experiences was not referring to the content of the wiki, but rather to the idea that it was going to help solve the major problem of adult literacy. What is missing is any use of interaction and personalization, critical ingredients for learning. Librarians sometime think that one need only display the knowledge, but for most people this is not sufficient for learning. I would be happy to send to readers my proposal on literacy. It is intended for young children, but the ideas could often extend to adults. Learning would be highly adaptive to the individual learner. Alfred
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005
A piece of theory might be useful in thinking about conferences online. The time-space geographers and sociologists are teaching us that space and spatial configurations aren't merely containers that hold the events that go on within them, but are constitutive: that is, they shape, or constitute, those activities. So: if a conference is going to take place in a building that has a lecture hall and classrooms and seminar rooms, those spaces, and the need to have all activities take place in real time, help to shape the structure of what we call a conference. We've learned, I think, from our experience with distance learning that when you move instruction from the bounded spaces of a campus to the new environment of cyberspace, the tendency is to replicate in the new environment what has always been done in the bounded spaces. So: we do online instruction in much the same way we do it on campus in classrooms, and we are given software that insures that we do the new work in the old ways. And so many institutions and their faculty new to distance learning look for ways to move all of the same real-time apparatus of instruction as it exists on campus intact and unchanged as it migrates online. It would seem that we want to do the same with conferences. For example: if the exigencies of time and space constraints of :real means that we have to crowd all of the speakers and all of the discussion into one day, or three days, why that's what we're going to do with online conferences: jam the experts into the old program formats. I'm aware that there are other besides me who find virtual conferences virtually unsatisfactory, and tend to avoid them--mostly because they use formats designed for face-to-face conferences which don't work as well online. The listserv is a mode of dialog that fits the genius of the online environment, and thus there are thousands of them, and they will continue to flourish and multiply. If we want to make good use of experts around the world meeting together and sharing their expertise widely we might do better to search for forms of such collaboration that are suited to this medium, and the search for such forms might be hastened if we didn't try to mimic the face-to-face conference. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: Tom Abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group [EMAIL PROTECTED]; John Hibbs [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 8:56 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3,2005 John has hit the nail on the head. First, for a global flow conference its decidedly being seen through US eyes. Secondly, the home base for the conference organizers is the Yale Law School which further narrows the scope of the conference and finally, as John has so perceptively picked up on, its a conference where most of the materials could just as easily be put up as a web cast or even as web pages with comment software to allow exchanges between all. And, in that respect it is anachronistic. Additionally, in most of these cases, panelist have expenses covered making the movement of bodies to the conference a decidedly costly event when most could be conferenced. This conference provides a brilliant opportunity to better understand where the golobal flow of information is, today. thoughts? tom abeles John Hibbs wrote: With all due respect, Eddan, why do I have to travel to Yale to participate in the conference? Arguably, Web based conferences are better than physical ones. And a whole lot cheaper. Nope, we can't duplicate the warm and fuzzy the comes from shoulder to shoulder linkages at physical conferences. But everything else can be done exceptionally well, especially for attendees of a kind that are likely to attend the Global Flow of Information Conference. NOTE: Several times we have tried to hold combination conferences - where there are virtual and physical attendees. I am not sure these work well enough to justify the work and handicaps. However, I deeply believe in the idea that one-to-many lectures and power point presentations (in all their glory) should be put up on the web in advance of the physical convention. Attendees can do themselves a real service by viewing these presentations in advance, leaving more time for QAthe best part of all lectures, in my opinion. At 7:08 AM -0500 2/3/05, Eddan Katz wrote: The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to announce that registration is now open for The Global Flow of Information Conference 2005, which will take place on April 1-3, 2005, at the Yale Law School. http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/GlobalFlow/registration.htm ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to
RE: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Eskow Sent: 03 February 2005 16:42 To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] FW: [NIFL-HEALTH:4627] Adult Literacy education Wiki ... I'd like to try summarizing your position in stark black and white terms, risking misrepresenting the position but trusting that you will then correct my errors and add the necessary shadings and nuances. ... Thanks for taking the time to try and clarify Alfreds position. This is very useful in putting the views expressed into context (I trust Alfred will correct any errors). Ross -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.5 - Release Date: 03/02/2005 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005
Steve Eskow wrote: The listserv is a mode of dialog that fits the genius of the online environment, and thus there are thousands of them, and they will continue to flourish and multiply. Listservs are self limiting because in propagation, they split the attention of people. If all listservs are equal - and they are not, because our judgement brings weight which makes them unequal - and a person subscribes to one listserv, then they spend their time 'there'. Introduce another listserv, the attention would be split 2 ways. 3 listservs, 3 ways. And so on. As someone subscribed to about 1000 RSS feeds, Google alerts and about 100 email lists, I find listservs to be very limited in that I only focus on a few. One of these lists is the DDN list (obviously). But when I spend time on the DDN, I'm not spending it on the WSIS Civil Society lists, or the Latin American ICT lists, or what have you. Infoglut. I am now up to about 4000 emails a day, with about 400 SPAM messages that sneak through filters and Mozilla. Content Management Systems and Wikis are actually superior to listservs in many regards. The allow online discussion, people can participate as needed, they are indexable by search engines (nowadays many listservs are, so it's hardly an advantage), threads can fall under multiple contexts without being replicated in cyberspace... you don't have to tell people when you are out of the office every message, you can use HTML or an equivalent if you so desire, and it's possible to even setup posting by email for those who wait for the bleeding edge to coagulate. Listservs are best for immediate discussion. But they really suck for a lot of other things when compared to the newer online tools available. I'm actually trimming out listservs now, not because they lack value but because I have to prioritize my time. The new DigitalDivide website is a definite step in the right direction. It's bridging a cultural divide between email, RSS and content management systems in a good way. There's a few things I have ideas on, like creating a 'Digital Divide weblog' off of the list which handles each new topic as an entry, and anything with 'Re:' in it as a response to the entry. Why is that important? One of the main problem of listservs is that people have to know about them. Another aspect is that someone who is busy may not participate on the list, but they might post a comment to a weblog entry. Accessibility. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net Criticize by creating. Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Wikinews irc chat (fwd)
Hi everyone. For those of you who are interested in wikis, I thought you'd want to know about this event tomorrow. -ac Original Message Subject: Wikinews irc chat Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 05:45:44 -0800 From: Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales [EMAIL PROTECTED] I think this is going to be really really cool and I hope you'll all come. http://blog.jimmywales.com/index.php/archives/2005/02/04/wikinews-chat/ Wikinews is our collaborative writing project to report the news on a wide variety of subjects using a wiki. On Saturday, February 5, 2005, 22:00 UTC (timezone conversion), we are having an open IRC chat on how Wikinews can interact with weblogs. If you'd like to know more about how Wikinews works, how you can use Wikinews stories in your blog, and how you can contribute, this is an event you should attend. The chat will take place on irc.freenode.net in the #wikinews channel. Agenda and more information on how to connect: m:Wikinews_Chat . --Jimbo -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Africa ICT4D youth Network formed in Accra
At the WSIS Africa Regional Conference.(Jan 28th-Feb 4th) The WSIS Youth Caucus meeting had in attendance over 150 young people from different parts of Africa. Countries represented include Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Egypt and Niger. Issues discussed at the youth caucus meeting include those related to ICT4D youth initiatives, ICT and poverty reduction, ICT and HIV/AIDS and others as listed in the millennium development goals of the United Nations. There was an all stakeholder meeting after the discussions which followed a series of presentation from young leaders around Africa. The outcome of which produced the Africa ICT4D youth Network. This network is meant to facilitate and harmonize different youth efforts around Africa. The Vision of the network is to build a networked generation of youths that will use the ICTs for personal development and Africa's Active participation in the Information Society. Edward Popoola Nigeria's Information Technology Youth Ambassador 080 2828 0448 www.edwardpopoola.com Team Leader/Founder clickITnigeriaInform, Educate, Empower. www.clickITnigeria.org Whether we like it or not, the future of Nigeria is entrusted in our hands.Lets join hands to build the New Nigeria. - Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Conferencing Discussion
I think that F2F and Virtual Conferences should be part of an on-going process of learning, evaluation, planning, etc. aimed at addressing issues important to the people who come to the F2F or Virtual Conference. I've been hosting F2F Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conferences for 12 years as part of an effort to connect leaders of tutor/mentor programs with each other, and with information they can use to build and sustain constantly improving programs. Each time we gather (May and November) is also an opportunity to create greater public awareness of the value of these programs and the need for a consistent flow of volunteers, dollars, tech support, etc. In 2004 I began to add an eConference component. At www.alado.net/econference you can see some of the workshops that were presented. However, this is just the start. Here's three web sites that I've joined recently which illustrate my goal: www.digitaldivide.net, www.socialedge.org and www.incsub.org . Each is a portal where people can meet and share ideas with others. Each is linked from various section on my own web site so visitors to my sites can find these discussion portals. My goal is to host a portal with the best ideas from each of these, supported by the maps, charts and tutor/mentor knowledge we share on our existing web sites (www.tutormentorconnection.org and www.tutormentorexchange.net), and supported by meeting management tools that enable people to move the conversation from a chat to a brainstorming section and to shared commitment to specific actions. Once we have such a portal our F2F and Virtual Conferences will just be times along a 52 week sequence of actions where some of us meet, network, energize, share ideas, etc. The real work is what happens in the time between when we meet for a conference or any other type of meeting. I think we can support that type of work with the portal. In addition, once we have a portal working the way we envision it, we can make it available to others who are also hosting the same conversation, on university campuses, in faith communities, in business and professional groups, in other cities, etc. This would mean that any time of any day during a calendar year someone might be providing leadership to get people to think of ways they can help constantly improving tutor/mentor programs be available and what are the ways groups can achieve this goal when individuals cannot. The result would be a growing number of people who meet and share experiences and knowledge in a shared effort to make more and better mentoring-to-career programs available in all poverty neighborhoods where they are needed. While I apply this thinking in one social service sector, I feel it can be duplicated in any stream of service. As a small non profit I don't have the staff or dollars to build these tools into my organization as fast as I'd like. Thus, I reach out to volunteers who are already connected to innercity kids and who want to do more to help the kids they mentor move through school and into jobs. With the Internet, and virtual conferencing, etc. the volunteers who help can live in any part of the world. Thus, my vision of F2F and Virtual Conferencing is to a) learn from the best work being done and constantly find ways to incorporate this into my work; b) focus on the process, not the individual meeting. I focus on the reasons people gather together in the first place, the large numbers of people who need to be personally involved in the goals of the group, and the long term repetition of actions needed to solve any problem. Daniel F. Bassill President Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection 800 W. Huron Chicago, Il. 60622 PS: next F2F conference is May 12 and 13. See www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Re: Mahatma Gandhi in an Italian Communications Company ad
Oliver Moran wrote: Taran and Ed, My issue is not that the video is commerical or fanciful. Rather, in the context of the 'digital divide', my point is that videos like this represent an unrealistic vision of the value of ICT for social change. Visions are essential to the future and there is nothing inherently wrong with unrealistic visions, however, so many visions of ICT represent fanciful drawings of economic and social relations that the boundry between our ability to imagine what practical roles ICT can play in societal change and what are fanciful and unrealistic notions is unknown - where dream ends and ambition begins is collapsed and unknowable under a deluge of fancy. This is what is dangerous about videos like this and what makes practical and useful applications of ICT for change - whatever change - more difficult. That one video is fanciful is no great issue, but en masse only the fanciful is encouraged. Forgive me, but I must regretfully tell you that many past 'unrealistic visions' are realities. And I'll also add that it's very likely that there will always be a Digital Divide, simply because some people end up with more and some people end up with less. Decreasing the Digital Divide, though, is certainly possible. I don't see what was portrayed in the advertisement as unrealistic - I see it as what could be with the *present* technology and yet is not available because of all sorts of things. That gets us into a WSIS discussion, perhaps even a focal WGIG discussion. But all these acronyms serve as different blind stabs at a solution that many of us see, but cannot enact in a world rooted so deeply in traditions of geopolitical economics. An advertisement that portrays a cutting through those traditions to the very core - THAT is worthwhile. An interesting sidenote that is somewhat interesting to consider: When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, the Japanese did not know. They heard rumours which were unconfirmed. They found out from the announcement of the United States... how perfectly odd. Imagine someone in another country telling you that part of your country, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist... What telephone company would allow Ghandi, a critic of modernity and industrialism - Taran, I really don't know if he would keep a blog! Neither do I. But he never had the option... - speak genuinly about global imbalances in perception of power and knowlege through practices of technological hegemony, as Ghandi 'speaks' about in this advertisment? But then the message of the iis not to question global imbalances, it is to encourage it, however you interpret it - as a commercial, as a vision of ICT, as a vision of the 'digital divide', as a vision for change, as a vision of the future. Well, let's take the advertisement in context. This Italian company was communicating a vision. I was challenged in finding the differences between that vision and the vision of the people who are involved in trying to decrease the Digital Divide. What I found was most powerful about the ad was that a message from one of the great people in history reached across the globe. I suppose after dealing electronically with the late tsunami disaster, that hits a really powerful note within me. I do not claim objectivity here; I claim humanity in an unashamed and unabashed manner. Objectivity in all it's splendour can be true torture; it's a shame that regardless of how hard we try, we are never 100% objective. Any one thing can be described any number of ways - this is why bookstores are littered with novels with the same plots with the character's names changed to protect our psyche from realizing that we have read it before. And yet, of all these stories, certain tellings stand out - not because they are objective! They stand out and are read because they are *interesting*. And that is what attends the masses, not the 'rational objective' perspectives obtained from a limited and exclusive group of people. Our society is based on oral tradition; written tradition came along and then video; now we have electronic tradition. I wonder if in 50 years someone will find my USB key and be able to use it. Presenting every new thing as a sapling that only needs encouragement to blosom and sprout change for the better - as Taran did in his alegorical reply to my post on that matter - is to treat all things equally and thus anihilate the portential of everything. The way we imagine technology needs to be grounded in realistic, socially-grounded terms and we imagine realistic, socially-grounded needs, less as technological deficits on the part of those who are exploited and impoverished. Advertisments such as these do not help matters and they abound. Actually, I think you missed the point of the alegorical reply. Some things fail, some things do not fail - how that annihalates the potential of everything escapes me, as I am certain that the point I was making was
Re: [DDN] Conferencing Discussion
There are some wonderful strengths in virtual conferences that are rarely duplicated in physical ones - although there is no reason they should not be. I will list these as they come to mind: a) narrowly defined list serv where each participant is strongly encouraged to subscribe - and maintain after the conference; b) blog site(s) for the same purposes, with a particular emphasis on sharing web sites and other blogs (RSS anyone?) c) circulation of email and profiles of all attendants who will allow same; d) web archive for all written materials and slide visuals; e) stand alone audio recordings that can be made by telephone and linked to the blog and/or slides and/or speaker's web site. More difficult than any of the above -as these entail only attention to detail and the minimum in technology skills - is the attempt to change the culture of real time presentations from a one to many format to many to many format. (Virtual conferences in real time get very, very boring in a big hurry if only the speaker does the bulk of the talking.) (Physical conferences attendees seem willing to sit quietly for the longest, most boring presentations (of course they will be seen as rude if they get up and leave wheras in the physical ones they just quit the application (or multi task) and listen with one ear.) Energy? Or lack of same in virtual conferences as compared to the physical? I think this depends on the *follow up* --- which I think also depends on telephone contact and more intimate one-to-one conversations that can take place on the telephone. This is the weakest area of virtual conference promoters. They are much like those on this DDN list --- how many have YOU picked up the phone for purposes of establishing a relationship? Phone costs? First, European and American rates have dropped to the point that if the call isn't worth what the carrier charges, it probably isn't worth the time of the callers. Second, in comparison to the amount spent on taxis and tips alone, the costs of the telephone are minimum as compared to attending out of town physical conferences. What would happen if after virtual conferences there was more phone contact? small groups that would meet in real time on the phone for informal discussions? Organized effort to do just that? Are you sure that the virtual community doesn't get stronger after virtual conferences than does a physical one? And if the community gets stronger by way of the virtual, is this not the biggest reason of all to hold more virtual conferences - and less physical ones? What is the BEST part of a virtual conference that cannot be duplicated? One can gather the finest people in the world; ones who never have to leave their desktop...or their cell phone...that is if **your** conference is worthy of **their** (virtual) time. Is it? At 12:06 PM -0500 2/4/05, Stephen Snow wrote: Folks, It would be interesting to think about the differences between virtual and fF2F conferences and the value of each. There is a belief in some quarters that the F2F conference is dying because of telecom. I don't know about that. I do know, though, that virtual conferences serve me differently than F2F ones. I have been wondering how. The F2F conferences really provide the energy of real connection. I more often come away from virtual conferences information rich but a little tired -- all that screen time and alone time. Virtual conferences don't give me -- an extravert -- the energy that comes from F2F. They also lack some of the spontaneity and serendipity (though not always and not always completely). I am wondering perhaps if there are better ways to begin thinking about designing F2F conferences so they capitalize more on their greater strengths and the ways they are differentiated from the virtual ones. Both appeoaches have their place, even for the same information!, so I am wondering what people think about that, how F2F might be designed differently and how virtual might be designed differently, also. Steve Snow -Original Message- From: Sudhir Raghupathy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Feb 3, 2005 8:27 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Conferencing Discussion All, Perhaps I should clarify my stance. I am an advocate of virtual conferencing, especially as it applies to the Digital Divide - because of the opportunity it offers those who cannot afford to travel from different parts of the world as well as the environmental benefits inherent in such an approach. Anyone with access to the internet can participate, especially in free conferences like the one I am currently promoting (see my last post). I would never suggest all conferences take this approach- as I tated before there is inherent value in face-to-face contact. These types of conferences represent terrific potential, however, in their own right - coupled with efforts to make internet access
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Hi Andy Actually, this is done currently in asynchronous conferencing systems where there are a number of options. The system can notify a participant that a post has been made and you can go to to read and respond, sometimes the post is sent and the system can select how you can respond, either from your email or by going to the site. Each has trade-offs. These have been around. I have suggested a long time ago in a past far-far away that such a system is better than listservs because it keeps topics threaded and lets folks track only the threads of interest, while being alerted of new threads. Some asynchonous systems allow internal cross listings/linkings and other user driven features. These are over 20 years old- ancient by web time. One of the problems with listservs with floating communities such as DDN is that few threads have a long life- short attention spans and other pressing issues tend to lead most discussions into quick, terminal, illnesses. One of the problems is that a general list often leads to ideas that go off-list on a person-to-person exchange when specifics seem better conducted in private. This says that the lists serve a number of purposes much like breaks and receptions at a conference. The social dynamics of lists are often not a subject of discussion and I am not sure if they have been or need to be studied other than for an academic. thoughts? tom abeles Andy Carvin wrote: Hi Taran, Actually, this is something I've contemplated on and off for the last couple of years. While the current version of the DDN website doesn't allow category tagging in its blogs, we could always use Movable Type, which we have installed on the CMC website (http://cmc.edc.org). Were you envisioning that this would be done automatically, or would you expect to have a person or persons posting and categorizing each message? I imagine this would take some editorial judgment, and thus be done manually. Anyway, it's an interesting idea; I'll talk it over with my EDC colleagues. ac The new DigitalDivide website is a definite step in the right direction. It's bridging a cultural divide between email, RSS and content management systems in a good way. There's a few things I have ideas on, like creating a 'Digital Divide weblog' off of the list which handles each new topic as an entry, and anything with 'Re:' in it as a response to the entry. Why is that important? One of the main problem of listservs is that people have to know about them. Another aspect is that someone who is busy may not participate on the list, but they might post a comment to a weblog entry. Accessibility. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] 70% of Koreans Use Internet (fwd)
We have personal experience with Korean internet use. Koreans use internet cafes, rather than home computers. Seoul, which has 11 million residents, has over 10,000 internet cafes. These internet cafes have high speed bandwidth and excellent machines. Internet-based gaming is very popular, and the players demand the best in speed and equipment. My son is/was a famous professional internet gamer, and spent a year and a half in Korea (for anybody who is into gaming, he was 'Maynard' and 'KGOR'). In Korea, internet gaming is covered nationally like soccer or football, i.e., as a sport. My son used to appear on Korean TV regularly, and get lots of emails with beautiful school photos of Korean fans, who are so polite in their email. I think that the skills learned by young Koreans in gaming will translate into dominance in all aspects of computing, and at this point, the best gamers in the world are Koreans. When my son was a dominant player, Americans were the best, along with Brittish, Canadian, and even Australian players, reflecting the history of the creation of the web and video gaming. Not so anymore, and I think this is a harbinger of our future in computing and cyberspace. In Argentina, many more people have home or business computers to use for email and internet. But the charges for using dial-up access are outrageous, so it is common for people to limit their use at home or work. High speed broadband is now available in Buenos Aires, and BA has thousands of 'locuturios' or internet/phone cafes. They are incredibly cheap, albeit tiny, and a new one seems to spring up on every block. They advertise their bandwidth, and charge more for higher bandwidth. But it is cheap--about 33 to 50 cents (US) an hour. I take my own computer and just plug in to their network, because the equipment is not so hot. Notebook computers cost a fortune in Argentina, so I get admirers! The equipment varies from old and slow to usable: a Pentium II with 256K ram is about average. Computers are expensive in Argentina. In Mexico, internet cafes often use dial up access! Often the equipment is as old as the hills. Some, however, have broadband if they are located in the cities. Sometimes the internet is an add-on to a long distance telephone location: send faxes, take and make phone calls, buy cigarettes, candy, drinks, and manifiestos, etc., all in the same tiny store. The best one for use I have come across was run by an Argeninian living in Mexico who also served coffee, drinks, and snacks. Yes, you can use the computer and drink your coffee at the same time. But I have never seen good fast equipment. Kathleen Muro [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Hi Andy I would defer to the software experts on this list- I know there are a number of open source asynchronous systems out there. Blogs or weblogs started out as personal journals or musings of individuals. Some have grown a number of similar features to the ones I have suggested and which have evolved over time. I am interested in functionality more than trying to differentiate by type. In reality many of these ideas are now merging and we are only a few baby steps away from an open source 3D conference space such as Croquet where even more flexibility will be available, including avatars. If you can define functionality and those here can agree as to what might be desired, we can see what is available with both functionality and flexibility. thoughts? Andy Carvin wrote: Hi Tom, Are any of these tools free or open source? What would you see as the pros and cons of these tools versus having a blog capture DDN list messages? thanks, ac Tom Abeles wrote: Hi Andy Actually, this is done currently in asynchronous conferencing systems where there are a number of options. The system can notify a participant that a post has been made and you can go to to read and respond, sometimes the post is sent and the system can select how you can respond, either from your email or by going to the site. Each has trade-offs. These have been around. I have suggested a long time ago in a past far-far away that such a system is better than listservs because it keeps topics threaded and lets folks track only the threads of interest, while being alerted of new threads. Some asynchonous systems allow internal cross listings/linkings and other user driven features. These are over 20 years old- ancient by web time. One of the problems with listservs with floating communities such as DDN is that few threads have a long life- short attention spans and other pressing issues tend to lead most discussions into quick, terminal, illnesses. One of the problems is that a general list often leads to ideas that go off-list on a person-to-person exchange when specifics seem better conducted in private. This says that the lists serve a number of purposes much like breaks and receptions at a conference. The social dynamics of lists are often not a subject of discussion and I am not sure if they have been or need to be studied other than for an academic. thoughts? tom abeles Andy Carvin wrote: Hi Taran, Actually, this is something I've contemplated on and off for the last couple of years. While the current version of the DDN website doesn't allow category tagging in its blogs, we could always use Movable Type, which we have installed on the CMC website (http://cmc.edc.org). Were you envisioning that this would be done automatically, or would you expect to have a person or persons posting and categorizing each message? I imagine this would take some editorial judgment, and thus be done manually. Anyway, it's an interesting idea; I'll talk it over with my EDC colleagues. ac The new DigitalDivide website is a definite step in the right direction. It's bridging a cultural divide between email, RSS and content management systems in a good way. There's a few things I have ideas on, like creating a 'Digital Divide weblog' off of the list which handles each new topic as an entry, and anything with 'Re:' in it as a response to the entry. Why is that important? One of the main problem of listservs is that people have to know about them. Another aspect is that someone who is busy may not participate on the list, but they might post a comment to a weblog entry. Accessibility. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
I agree with defining the functionality. But I would rather define the funtionality without talking about the technologies first. People have a tendency to skew a design by their requirements, and in doing so they leave a lot out. If a person asked me for a vehicle with four doors, I would automatically think of a car. But maybe they need an airplane. ;-) Tom Abeles wrote: Hi Andy I would defer to the software experts on this list- I know there are a number of open source asynchronous systems out there. Blogs or weblogs started out as personal journals or musings of individuals. Some have grown a number of similar features to the ones I have suggested and which have evolved over time. I am interested in functionality more than trying to differentiate by type. In reality many of these ideas are now merging and we are only a few baby steps away from an open source 3D conference space such as Croquet where even more flexibility will be available, including avatars. If you can define functionality and those here can agree as to what might be desired, we can see what is available with both functionality and flexibility. thoughts? -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net Criticize by creating. Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Helping a fellow teacher who is from Jordan
Early last summer, I was allowed to conduct workshops in Jordan for science teachers. At the time I thought that they were going to come to the US to learn and be a part of the supercomputing conference . I had wonderful resources for them, but there is one teacher who has been constantly emailing and asking me questions. Of course his dream is to come to America and study more Chemistry. I only went to a small HCBU and have no idea how it is to connect him, with someone who can really help him. I don't know the system. Can someone help me help this teacher increase his schooling. Thanks Bonnie Bracey [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
