The €dvin Hàvkins Singers-Oh Happy Day

Penultimate Post Per Se

So, time does, in fact, fly. Yep, you've heard it here again. To be honest, I wasn't sure how I would like this part of the "assignment", but it has been fun AND educational for an old fart like me. I enjoyed this week's reading. I find Mr Castells, to be an interesting dude, and much of what he has to say is thought provoking. I think I will log on to BN.com and buy one of his books, so I can read more of what he has to say. I am really looking forward to more study in the halls of TC. This first class has got my "juices" going again (after a thirty year hiatus). There is so much that is so new in the world of education and I am looking forward to being part of the educational reformation that has begun. It's a higher calling for sure. Oh happy day.

Dodo bird

New Technologies (ICTs) > New Skills Needed (knowledge + information = innovation) > New Schools in the Networked World (a relevant education)

Twenty-five years behind a bond desk here in New York has taught me at least this one important lesson: "The only constant on Wall Street is that things are always changing". It appears that never-ending type of change has finally arrived in the rest of the world as well. In all of human history, the relatively recent advances in technology, particularly communication technology, have brought a change to the course of human events that, in my view, lacks an historical equivalent. How come so few people see it? Robert J. Hawkins has some advice for those that poo poo the notion that schools need to change in order to prepare students and teachers to meet the demands of a "Networked World". He points out that "While much has been changed with the advances of science and technology, education and the way that students learn and teacher's teach has remained largely unchanged".(Hawkins, R., Ten lessons for ICTs and Education in a Developing World) Someone better wake up. The future is hurtling towards us at mach speed, and teachers should be the first sound the alarm to implement reforms in the way they educate their students AND themselves so both will be equipped to thrive in the information age. Educators need to be visionaries who can create innovative, dynamic, flexible and , above all, relevant educational practices to teach the skills necessary to those who will implement this new technology "as a tool to increase their productivity and creativity".(Hawkins) Hawkins' warning is an important one. Those who have the means to effectuate change, and choose not to, will have no excuse, and will go the way of the Dodo bird. Is anyone out there paying attention?

Online Dating: Finding Love at First Click

Chat

...and the Question is? The beginning of the end game

A lit review or a mini-study? That is the question. Easy as pie (I guess)so... a "Lit Review" it is! My interests and the questions that have consistently emerged from my continuing study of the social and communicative aspects of computer mediated communication have been as follows: What is the definition of intimacy in cyberspace? Are these cyberspacial interpersonal relationships truly "intimate" in nature or are they a hoax? Can the basic human need for intimacy be fulfilled exclusively online? My resources at this juncture are as follows: Lee Bee Hian, Sim Li Chuan, Tan Mon Kiat Trevor, Benjamin H. Detenber (2004)
Getting to Know You: Exploring the Development of Relational Intimacy in Computer-mediated Communication Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 9 (3), 00–00.; Yifeng Hu, Jacqueline Fowler Wood, Vivian Smith, Nalova Westbrook (2004)
Friendships through IM: Examining the Relationship between Instant Messaging and Intimacy Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (1), 00–00. ; Sarah A. Birnie, Peter Horvath (2002) Psychological Predictors of Internet Social Communication Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 7 (4), 0–0.; Walther, J. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(3), 3-43. That's my short list so far and I am exploring some other sources in the next few days. Let's see if this dog will hunt.