On Obama and Inclusivity.

Driven by my friend Datblogu's interest in this video, I've spent a little more time on Obama's website.

There can be no doubt that Obama works hard to be inclusive.
He has prepared and made available text, video and sound messages aimed at the many different communities and ethnic groups to be found in the United States.

I'm going to list in alphabetical order the people he aims to connect with here :-

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
African Americans
Americans Abroad
Americans with Disabilities
Arab Americans
European and Mediterranean Americans
Environmentalists
First Americans
Generation Obama
Jewish Americans
Kids
Labor
Latinos
LGBT
People of Faith
Republicans
Rural Americans
Seniors
Small Business
Sportsmen
Students
Veterans and Military Families
Women.

It all seems a bit clinical to me, or am I being too cynical?

My eye was drawn to the Sportsmen, curious as to where the sportswomen were?
I am so dull!
Sport in the USA is not quite the same as sport here.

Obama speaks to the sportsmen.

“I am very mindful of the fact that sportsmen in America may have gone hunting with their fathers, their grandfathers, their mothers, their grandmothers, and that this is part of a tradition and a way of life that has to be preserved. And there's nothing that I will do as president of the United States that will in any way encroach on the ability of sportsmen to continue that tradition.”

No mention of animal rights then :)

On eMentors

Here's an interesting thing.

Oaklands College is using eMentors appointed from amongst the students to help teaching staff with "everything from laptops to interactive whiteboards.

"The scheme has helped lecturers overcome their insecurities towards information and communication technology (ICT) while empowering and engaging students."

It's a clever idea, but I would seriously want to argue that if a teacher \ lecturer can't use an interactive whiteboard they shouldn't really be using it. If an institution is using interactive whiteboards as a teaching tool, training should be provided for those that will be using them.

Remember the DFES report on the introduction of interactive whiteboards in classrooms?

Apparently the students are being trained, why not train the lecturers?

I wonder what the lecturers really think of the idea?
I wonder how much are the students paid to support their lecturers?

Sometimes I just wonder ...........

On David Cameron, Facebook and life

Earlier this week David Cameron (bless) spoke to the party faithful at Blackpool. In a well received speech he mentioned the Internet saying

"We live in an extraordinary world of change and freedom. The Internet is transforming people's lives. The website MySpace has got 130m members. If it was a country, it would be the tenth biggest country in the world. Facebook, the social networking site, 30m members.

People are using it to talk with each other and meet people. I had a look the other day. There is a network on Facebook called 'David Cameron is a hottie'. It's got 74 members. And I looked a little further and there is another network called 'Am I the only person who doesn't like David Cameron?' and it's got 379 members - I am sure there is nobody here today. But the point is a serious one."

He's so right, "the Internet is transforming people's lives" yet Cameron, his speech writers, his advisers and his party so obviously don't understand it. He describes MySpace as a website and Facebook as a social network as if they were in someway different. He has explored Facebook, or someone has shown him around, yet he made no mention finding things of interest in MySpace. Remember danah writing about American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace?

He tells us that there is a network called "David Cameron is a hottie" and another called "Am I the only person who doesn't like David Cameron?" (facebook membership required), In telling his Conference (and us) of these networks he aims to impress but fails, revealing in fact that neither he nor his advisers understand how Facebook works. The networks he describes are not networks they are groups of little importance. I find it hard to understand how belonging to a group of like minded people who think that David Cameron is a hottie might "transform my life".

Networks lie at the heart of Facebook's structure, originally based on colleges networks have expanded and are now consist of geographical regions, colleges, workplaces and High Schools. Within these networks members join groups (such as those described by Cameron) often directly related to their personal interests.

A brief glance at these groups shows that conversation here is limited. Indeed to the members it is the belonging to the group that matters. I suspect that many Facebook users place or choose groups for their profile in the same way as train spotters might sport lapel badges or a WAG might leave books scattered on a coffee table.

Observers of Mr. Cameron on the Web or at his Conference might be persuaded of his digital credentials. I am not so sure. In Prensky's terms Cameron's words tell us that he is more of a digital immigrant than a digital native.

He is of course not alone, in every workplace, every classroom, every lecture theatre, every Faculty we constantly encounter those who would have us believe that their understanding of our digitally connected world is much more advanced than our own. Their voices are often strident, loud, and convincing but we need to take care that we are not led astray. Remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes?

There was another speech much reported at Blackpool this week, 'the quiet man spoke'. Firmly embedded in the real world, he reminded the conference that

“You cannot love your country if you do not care for its beating heart, the people who live in this country"

Whatever our personal enthusiasm for the wonders of the Internet or Web 2.0 might be, those of us who are or were teachers, need to remember that all our work must be grounded in the real world, with real students in real groups and communities.

On statistics (again!)

Lee Le Fever at Common Craft Blog (the people that brought us the outstanding RSS in Plain English and Wikis in Plain English videos) points at some interesting statistics produced by Harris Interactive for Wet Paint an American wiki company.

"16% of the US online population is familiar with what a wiki is.
Even if you just look at the online trendsetters (18-34 year olds), only 27% of those online users are familiar with wikis.
Blogs, which have universal awareness among nearly anyone reading this post, are only familiar to 35% of online users. And familiarity with social networks as a category still ranks below that of online forums at 28% and 35% respectfully.
For context, consider that 76% of the same population know of search engines and 97% of toilet paper."

These figures are confusing.

Given the hype and publicity around wikipedia, how is it that the wiki recognition figure is so low?
How can it be that only 76% of the same population know of search engines?
What context does that provide?

My informal observations of students and academics confirm what Lee suggests.

"We're making assumptions about what people understand about our online world. There is more misunderstanding than understanding and more confusion than solution."

Where are the digital natives?
Not in my college!

On email, addiction and statistics.

A poll by ICM research (prepared for Nasstar) presents some new statistics about email use in the UK. It appears that up to half of us depend upon email or are addicted to email.
I'm really not certain that the survey shows evidence of email addiction, but it makes for a good headline and who am I to criticise how the BBC might use language?

41% of teenagers indicated that they were reliant on email
50% of 25 - 34 year olds indicated that they were reliant on email
44% of 35 - 44 year olds indicated that they were reliant on email

I can't locate full set of figures but the press release suggests that email usage is lowest in Wales with only 34% of people saying that email was vital to them, as compared to 43% of people in the South East. No surprises there, just a little more evidence of the growing digital divide in our country.

These dependency figures probably say something about digital natives.
Some might argue that teenagers as digital natives don't send emails, I don't think the average teenager has much need to send emails. Communication between teenagers is far more likely in the form of short texts, instant messages, or twitter like communiques within social networking sites.

The 25 - 34 year olds are more likely to be in the sort of environments where emails are essential for work and business. In fact I suspect they may well be using email in addition to other methods of "electronic communication".

As is ever the case statistics never tell us the whole story.

More on Google and Privacy

Back in March, I was pleased when Google said that they intended to anonymise server logs. Records would be kept but user identification would be separated from the search data after a particular length of time, (except for the data of "opted in users" of Search History).

It struck me at the time that Google were attempting to live up to the "Do no evil" mantra. The particular length of time would be between 18 and 24 months after search execution.

Here in the EU the so called Article 29 Working Party asked Google to explain how the period of 18 to 24 months was proportionate under European data laws. Writing on the official Googleblog last Monday Peter Fleischer (Google Global Privacy Counsel) revealed their response and some further information.

Google believe that they have a legitimate interest in retaining search server logs for a number of reasons.

• to improve our search algorithms for the benefit of users
• to defend our systems from malicious access and exploitation attempts
• to maintain the integrity of our systems by fighting click fraud and web spam
• to protect our users from threats like spam and phishing
• to respond to valid legal orders from law enforcement as they investigate and prosecute serious crimes like child exploitation; and
• to comply with data retention legal obligations.

Additionally they announced a new policy, search server logs will now be anonymised after 18 months, but future data retention laws may obligate raising the retention period to 24 months. They also indicate that they intend to redesign cookies to reduce their expiration. Some observers might suspect that the change in policy is not much of a change at all. In plain English, 18 to 24 months is now 18 months (unless laws change somewhere); and one day we might change the life span of our cookies (if we can work out how to do it).

It's probably unfortunate that this statement came two days after Privacy International released their colour coded report. Google do care about issues of user privacy and are very aware of their responsibilities. Now they need to consider how they can best advertise their goal of improving user privacy protection. The words of a lawyer on the official Google blog may not be the best medium for this particular message.

Google is still trying to "do no evil", but is finding it harder to prove it. Conspiracy theorists will search out alternative search engines, informed digital natives will seek out proxy servers; the rest of us will just carry on living our digital life under the kindly panoptic gaze of Google and hope for the best.

On Blogging the Assembly

Yesterday I came across this post in the blog of Bethan Jenkins Assembly Member for South West Wales. While attending the first full session of the Welsh Assembly. Bethan blogged the experience.

There are all sorts of things to think of here.......
Is blogging during an Assembly session allowed?
Should it be allowed?

I can't tell when the posting was actually made, though Bethan prepared the post during the session. Her observations are made as a narrative, recording both the content of the Senedd debate and her immediate reflections.

From time to time we have thought about whether students might find it helpful to blog during lectures or seminars.

Instead of taking notes on paper, those with laptops, PDAs etc would make their notes and immediate reflections directly to a blog. Their peers who might also be live blogging, would have access to every one's notes and could leave comments. The theory behind this is simple, the practice far more complex.

Although it is said that digital natives are masters of multitasking I doubt that students in a large lecture would be able to listen, take blogged notes and comment on their peers blogs simultaneously. Having access to notes after the lecture could well be of use, even more so if the use of comments led to the sharing of extra information.

Alternatively I can see that use of something like Twitter could facilitate discussion during a lecture. The Twitter stream or flow of short observations could be easily displayed in a multimedia lecture theatre and could facilitate the sharing of knowledge.

The comments associated with Bethan's blog reflect observations that might be made by some lecturers in relation to blogging students. Some feel uncomfortable when faced students with laptops in lectures. In my limited observations of lectures very few students seem to use laptops for note taking. Encouraging live blogging of lectures or similar activities may depend upon the availability of laptops.

During practical sessions in the labs our students all have computer and Internet access, should we try live blogging of practical tutorials?

In the Senedd Bethan and her colleagues are all equipped with computers and Internet access, I wonder how connected they are one with another during debate?

On Internet Use, Social Networking and Age

In their May press release Nielson/NetRatings tell us that 18% of online Britons are women aged between 18 and 34.

Looking at the graph, it appears that the split between male and female users of the internet is fairly equal, but in the over fifties more men than women are active online.

In the words of Nielson's chief analyst

"The Internet is no longer dominated by young male adults times have changed considerably and many will be surprised to see that women aged 18-34 are now the most prevalent group online and that a quarter of the online population is at least 50 years of age."

The BBC report on this story suggests that young women visit a variety of sites including those dedicated to fashion, family and lifestyle issues as well as social networking sites.
They're shopping!

I have to confess that I find the figures for the under 18s surprisingly low, or is my perception of internet use amongst teenagers wrong?

In the light of the Nielson data it might be interesting to examine the age profile for male and female users of social networking sites.
Rory Cellan-Jones writing for the BBC suggests that as a 40 something Technology Correspondent he found it difficult to find friends in MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. He concludes his article by deciding that he is too old to Twitter and too mature for My Space.

In the interests of research I have profiles in several social networking sites.
I have to agree with Rory.
I'm just too old and mature (and I'm older than him).

LOL

On Google, Essay Writing and Plagiarism

Plagiarists take note.

Google has added professional essay writing companies to its blacklist of "product and services for which it will not accept advertising".

According to the BBC "From next month, Google will no longer take adverts from companies which sell essays and dissertations - and the internet company has written to advertisers to tell them about the policy"

As you might expect essay writing companies are upset as much of their trade comes from Google. The ban has been "warmly welcomed" by University authorities.

The owners of the essay writing companies believe that students buy their bespoke essays so that they might have access to model answers to guide their own work!

Ha!

I wonder where the adverts will appear next.

Digital Reflection

Here are links to three films. Enjoy.

The first is a short thought provoking video about Google entitled "Master Plan". Directed and produced by Ozan Halici and Jurgen Mayer it leads us to consider the "power of Google".
Watch it and reflect.

We should remember that Google are aware of their influence and of the significance of the information they possess. As doubts grow in cyberspace about their abilty to fulfill a corporate philosophy of "do no evil" it is pleasing to read of their intention to anonymise search records. Good for them. Organisations should attempt to achieve transparency in their record keeping. Why do the records need to be kept for two years? Seems like a long time to me.

The second much longer film is a documentary prepared by Chuck Olsen in which he explores the way in which blogs influence modern society. The film includes interviews with Rebecca Blood, Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan and other influential A List bloggers. As you might expect the the entire film is available online.

Finally, a film from the influential MacArthur foundation in the States that asks "Are kids different because of digital media?"

I'm not sure it answers the question......but there is no doubt that America is different.

On Ucas, Plagiarism and Pyjamas

The BBC carried an interesting story yesterday that brings together someof the issues facing those of us interested in Higher Education and Web 2.o.

Ucas commissioned research from CFL software development, a company who describe themselves as "specialists in finding similarities between documents and the detection and prevention of collusion and plagiarism"

CFL were asked to analyse the application forms of 50,000 prospective Oxbridge students of veterinary science, medicine and dentistry. The results are fascinating but I'm not sure what they tell us or what is to be done.

5% of these forms carried personal statements containing material copied / material from the web; that's 2500 forms! Of those nearly 800 drew on exemplar material to be found on a free advisory website, which carries advice on "Writing a Personal Statement"

Within this guidance can be found the following sentences.

"From looking at example personal statements you have probably found some language which you like or think works well. The first thing to remember is don't directly copy any of it - not even a single sentence! The reason is, copying statements is plagiarism, and if an admissions tutor sees a statement they recognise they will probably reject you instantly. You should also not copy single sentences for the same reason, sentences which stick out in your mind, may stick out in the examiners also. It is ok to find a sentence or paragraph which is saying what you want to say and adapt it to fit yourself though."

Despite that "CFL found :-

• 370 sentences contained a statement beginning: "a fascination for how the human body works..."
• 234 contained a statement relating a dramatic incident involving "burning a hole in pyjamas at age eight"
• 175 contained a statement which involved "an elderly or infirm grandfather"."

You can read the originals here!

It appears that Ucas does not intend to take any action against the applicants caught copying. One can only hope that university admission tutors are aware of this work and can make their own judgements when reviewing this years' applicants for places at Oxbridge Schools of medical, veterinary and dental science!

Higher Education admission tutors, prospective students and parents can learn from this story. Children in pyjamas should not be allowed to play with chemicals or surf the net unsupervised!

CFL point to the same story being reported by the Evening Standard and the Telegraph.

Internet Inequality

Sarah Richards' report "Internet Inequality in Wales Update 2006" is now available from the Welsh Consumer Council. I mentioned it earlier in the week, but since then I've been able to read the original report. For those of us working / thinking / learning in Wales it makes for interesting reading.

• Data for March 2006 showed that 47% of Welsh homes had an Internet connection. In 1999 that figure was 10%.
• The likelihood of home connection is unsurprisingly still related to social class, 64% of ABC1s are connected 67% of C2DEs are not.
• Of particular relevance to us at Treforest is the low connection level in the Valleys, 40% as opposed to 53% in Cardiff. (I wonder how many of our students actually come from the valleys?)

The figures relating to students are curious. The report states :-

"Students are by far the most likely to personally use the Internet with 94% doing so compared to just 23% of people who are wholly retired or not working. Interestingly, only 72% of students have a home Internet connection but 94% personally use the Internet, suggesting that they use computers in locations outside the home and / or mobile technology instead of a home connection."

This raises all sorts of questions for HE planners.
(I wonder what the definition of home might be halls of residence, digs or real home address).

I suspect that these figures suggest that student Internet access is done from on campus, it would be interesting to discover just how much time students spend on line. Perhaps they are really not that connected!

This an excellent report, clearly and precisely written.

Kudos to the Welsh Consumer Council for reminding us that

"it is important to note that over half the population of Wales still do not use the Internet".

Those of us who access it daily would do well to reflect upon that.

Flickr, Google and Walls.

I've been following a number of discussions which I think are of interest and linked one to another.

Josie Fraser has been writing about Pictures of Children online. Her wise observations bring together several strands of thinking about consent, ethics and digital presence.

I like photographs. I like Flickr. I love looking at the photographs deemed interesting, I love looking at the wonderful landscapes, I envy the skill of the photographers, but I don't feel the need to post personal photographs for the world to see. If I ever place family photographs on Flickr (and to be honest I'm not sure that I will) they will always be behind the family and friends wall.
Having a digital presence doesn't mean not having a private life.

Josie points to D'Arcy's "Deflickering".
I note his sadness at re categorising photographs of his son to the friends and family setting, but he's done the right thing. I don't really understand his thoughts about having carved his son out of his online place, to my mind he's placed his son into a far more special and safer online place.

D'Arcy deflickered his photographs in response to Cole Camplese seeking advice in "Flickr You."
On February 1st. Cole wrote
"I just pulled all of the little lady and little man from public view on Flickr. It hurt a bit, but it is the right thing to do. Funny how conversation just sort of sparked action. I like this social stuff … I hope I’m not being too open"
Well done Cole, I hope others will follow his example.

Josie mentions the conflicts we face in contributing to our children's digital presence and asks "Would you have liked your parents contributing to what searches of you might return?".
Can you imagine?
But think on, it might be time for us to consider how we have been contributing to our own digital presence.

Read what Nelson has to say about "Google search history and privacy".
Like Nelson I'm not sure that I want Google to be storing data about me. Time to do a little opting out. This personalisation of search results only happens when you sign in to a Google account. Time to question whether I want or need to go through that particular door. What's to be done?

Finally Apophenia has written a thoughtful post "about those walled gardens".
She's right, walled gardens aren't all that bad, but sometimes it depends which side of the wall you're standing.

Stephen Downes (not David Brake) notes
"the best wall is one with a door, and the best door is one with a key"

Their Space!

It is just over six months since I read "Everything Bad is Good for You" by Steven Johnson. At the time I mentioned the book to my tutors and we discussed several of the key ideas so ably identified by Johnson. The book is an easy and entertaining read, with a clear argument suggesting that popular culture is far more complex and intellectually challenging than we might have suspected.

Demos "the think tank for everyday democracy", drawing inspiration from Johnson's work have spent time exploring the relationship that children have with the Internet. It makes for fascinating reading. In fact I think that it should be read by anyone with an interest in learning. Demos spent nine months observing, researching and recording online activity and now have published their findings in the wonderfully named "Their Space: Education for a digital generation."

In this report Demos suggest that "the use of digital technology has been normalised by this generation (of children) .....and integrated into their everyday lives."

They find that

• the majority of young people use new media as tools to make their lives easier, strengthening their existing friendship networks
• almost all children are involved in creative production - eg. uploading /editing
• children are capable of self regulation when informed of risks contrary to popular opinion
• create their own hierarchy of digital activities when assessing their potential for learning......in contrast to their teachers and parents they were very conscious that some activities were more worthwhile than others.

The report identifies a number of user types

• digital pioneers
• creative producers
• everyday communicators
• information gatherers

(I am not certain as to how creative some of the uploading / editing activities actually are in practice. Digital dexterity sometimes obscures lack of knowledge, but that's nit picking)

As might be expected the report highlights the conflict between our existing education system and the world of this generation of children "who can't remember life before the Internet and mobile phones" . Some of us now working in Higher Education are aware of this challenge and are actively seeking ways of bridging the gap.

"Their Space" makes a number of important proposals.
In fact I believe the Demos proposals could and should be applied to all sectors of our rather formal education system.

• "The Children’s Commissioner should convene a working group of children to advise on children’s use of technology
• The development of a national strategy, led by schools in combating the ‘digital divide’, with schools responsible for delivering access to hardware such as a laptop, tablet or mobile device for every child
• Measures should be taken to tackle a divide in knowledge, with schools working with parents to develop the skills to help all children interact with technology confidently and safely
• Children should be given the opportunity to build up a ‘creative portfolio’ alongside traditional forms of assessment, access to which would be determined by the children themselves"

I like this report, everyone should read it. Its nice to read a report that's not produced in America. But are the proposals really new?

It's not been that long since I left the world of Primary Education. In my school we kept creative portfolios in which the children self selected work to be displayed, shared and celebrated between Key Stages and on transfer to High School. We worked with adult education and community groups to enable and facilitate interaction with technology by children alongside their parents. We worked at diluting the digital divide offering community access to the Internet whenever practicable.
What we didn't have was a laptop for every pupil.
What a difference that would have made and would make now.

Try transferring or translating the proposals to Higher or Further Education :-

• a working group of students to advise on the use of technology
• a laptop for every student
• tackle the divide in knowledge between lecturers and students (in both directions) to help students and lecturers interact with technology
• students should be given the opportunity and actively encouraged to build up creative portfolio in digital form

Now there's another report!

Ephemeral profiles

Browsing Apophenia earlier this month I was interested by Danah Boyd's observations on the readiness with which teens create new identities for themselves when using social type websites.
I love the phrase "ephemeral profiles" that she uses to describe such activity.

I am no longer a teen and have such profiles, many of which I will never use again. Many I have forgotten, outgrown or just don't need any more. Some have been created in pursuit of academic research, some for the hell of it and some because a particular web site might have needed me to create a profile (with an email address) so that I can be contacted, spammed, sold to interested parties or just counted. I hope that I have developed a mature(ish) approach to investigating such websites and have created an on line persona for just that purpose.

To be honest like many of the teens, I was finding it difficult to remember the passwords and user names and was reduced to writing them on scraps of paper, post it notes or in my notebook! I considered investing in a password collecting application.

However if there are so many of these abandoned personae lurking in cyberspace what credence can we place in the statistics offered to us about the use of social websites?

Our work here at Glamorgan, reinforces to some extent the observations made by Danah.
A number of students were required to create a blog using Blogger in beta as part of their course work; of those at least 12% created more than one version of their blog before settling on the final version. The ephemeral blogs still exist often containing just one post and can be linked to from the bloggers profile.
Several of our would be bloggers had to start the process of blogging again, having forgotten their user name, blog name or password. Several (far too many) created their blogs in Blogger and had to start the process again. Our small contribution to the blogosphere has littered cyberspace with abandoned profiles and blogs.

When researching Blogger in beta during last summer I created several additional dummy / research blogs with which to simulate student blogging activity. Using these blogs over several days I wrote dummy blog entries, made dummy blog comments and linked blogs together. During this time I additionally deleted and altered the dates of blog entries, tracked my own activity using RSS readers and undertook searches in Technorati, Google, Google blog search and experimented with Del.icio.us tagging. All of this was undertaken with an ephemeral profile. I suspect that many other students of the Internet do the same. When I was content and comfortable with the medium I deleted all the dummy blogs. Are they still being counted?

How many of the avatars allegedly wandering through Second Life consuming electricity at the same rate as a Brazillian actually exist?
How many of the blogs allegedly created and tracked every minute actually exist?

I've just noticed that Bill Thompson at the BBC points to Danah's work also and develops a similar argument with a little more style and substance.

Death of Beta.

Thanks to Lifehacker, this evening I note that Google have now completely rolled out their new version of Blogger. The little beta tag that caused some of our student bloggers so much trouble has been retired. In fact it has been neatly crossed out.

I noticed the Blogger beta version back in the summer. It is a giant amongst the free blogging platforms with much to offer. It provides painless entry into the blogosphere without an understanding of HTML, useful for the many digital immigrants amongst us. The drag and drop templates, easily applied labels and WYSIWYG post creator are ideal for use in educational settings.
Purists will argue that lack of understanding of HTML is a bad thing, I suspect that there is some truth in their thinking. My knowledge of HTML is slight but I know enough to understand what the new Blogger offers.

Making a post, or leaving a comment in a Blogger is so much easier than posting to the University Blogs!

While I am not really a fan of large organisations (as small is always beautiful); the closely linked diagnostic tools additionally offered by Google are bound to be of use to educational bloggers who wish to analyse the usefuless and readership of their site. Blog authors need to be aware of their readership, not in terms of numbers but in terms of identity.

So far in our blogging experiment we have no grumbles about the new Blogger. Our 130 students created and maintained their blogs fairly effortlessly. Whether they used them effectively is another question for another post. Whether they appreciated the potential of the medium is another question for anothe post.

From a personal point of view I am looking forward to a new Blog This button for Firefox.
But I can wait.
Its not as if I blog much.

Lost in Space!

Seeing a link to this magnificent photograph reminded me of my childhood.

Many of my generation spent many hours following the exploits of NASA's men in space. Our teenage years were spent devising ways of following the space race whilst allegedly studying in school.

As a radio enthusiast, I followed our progress in space with the aid of what was at the time the worlds smallest radio, manufactured and sold by Clive Sinclair, (of ZX81 and Spectrum fame); which could be used during lessons to listen in to the radio transmissions between earth and the Apollo spacecraft as they travelled towards, around and eventually to the moon. To make absolutely certain that teachers didn't find my radio I secreted it inside a hollowed out text book. Its nice to read that such books still have some use for the owners of iPods!

It's all quite different now, the wonder of space is just a mouse click away, I have over the last couple of days spent hours watching the live transmissions from the ISS courtesy of NASA TV. No need to hide my radio earpiece, the streaming video has been permanently on view on my laptop.

I can't but help wonder:-

• Do today's digital youth spend hours watching astronauts as I did?
• Does anyone?

Or were my generation the real digital natives?

Thinking about space has led me to explore cyberspace. Enjoy the view.

• A blog, from space.
• A collection of Spaceships.
• Really lost in space.
• A photo from work!
• Google in space too!
• A Christmas list from closer to home!

Panoptic Thoughts

I am constantly surprised by the Internet and the numerous opportunities it provides some of us.

Several weeks ago I was participating in a discussion about "Benchmarking" in one of the University blogs. Someone mentioned the panopticon leading us to consider how awareness of one's audience might influence what is written in a public blog. This led me to think of the panopticon in relation to my own work.

Writing in the 19th Century Jeremy Bentham designed a radical new form of prison the panopticon. Circular in form, the prison comprised of cells arranged around a central point occupied by a guard. From the dark centre the guard can see all the cells which are constantly lit, but the prisoners cannot see the guard. As a result of this the prisoners are aware that they might be watched at any time, but they don't know when they are being watched if at all. Bentham suggested that under such circumstances the prisoners would behave all the time.

In the 20th Century Foucalt drew upon Bentham's design as a metaphor for modern society in which we are observed from the centre and encouraged to conform to the norms of society. It is not difficult to see that in this model a small centre can control a large population. This is often referred to as "panoptic surveillance".

To some extent Bentham's model can be used to describe a group of students blogging. The tutor in the middle observes student blogs through RSS feeds, the students aware that they are being observed (but not sure when) will be encouraged to conform to the norms of the group and will participate in the learning community.
Or will they?

In the original panopticon the prisoners were not allowed to communicate with one another. In a community of bloggers communication is to be encouraged. One might assume that prisoners in the panopticon would attempt to communicate with one another.
Or would they?

One might also assume that a group of students asked to keep reflective blogs would attempt to communicate with one another.
Or would they?

One might assume that being aware of their possible audience (their tutor / their peers) such a group of students would be encouraged to reflect carefully in such blogs.
Or would they?

Blogging tools facilitate observation from the centre, allow communication to and from the centre, and communication around the centre. Encouraging the communication around the centre lies at the heart of effective use of blogging in a learning community. We need to consider how this can be facilitated.

Heleen van der Klink writes about surveillance on the Masters of Media blog in Amsterdam. Drawing on the work of Bentham, Foucalt and Giles Deleuze she takes the argument further and writes of "synoptic surveillance" in which a majority of bloggers watches a central minority. This is an interesting concept. Could a majority of reflective blogging students have a positive influence upon a tutor / department / university?

While researching the panopticon I came across the following. Enjoy.

• Pictures of surveillance cameras on Flickr
• Bentham's Panopticon Writings.
• panopticist (via boingboing) where this video is worth watching
• An interesting presentation / essay "The Rise of Participatory Panopticon"

More Statistics

My tutor suggested that I read a relatively short document entitled
Internet Inequality in Wales Update 2005. This short report written by Sarah Richards is published by the Welsh Consumer Council.

I would never have thought of looking here for statistical information about the Internet.
But what a gem this report is. Short, concise, well written and informative. Every page a rich source of information.

The report is available to buy or as a free pdf . Guess which option I chose?
The report is short, five chapters and an appendix.

• Home internet Access
• Broadband
• Individual Access inside and outside the home
• Internet Usage
• Conclusions and Recommendations

Each chapter provides food for thought....

As might be expected the report relates to Wales but the issues are global; indeed reading the report I have been reminded of the Digital Divide which is clearly demonstrated here within fifteen miles of my home. In fact the statistics are staggering :-

In 2005 the percentage of adults with a home internet connection in the regions of Wales was as follows

• 51 % in North Wales
• 34 % in Mid / West Wales
• 39 % in South /West Wales
• 26 % in the South WalesValleys
• 48 % in Cardiff / South East Wales

Look at the 26% figure......thats staggering. I want to see the 2006 figures, when will they be published?

How many digital natives live in the valleys?

Looking for Statistics.

I've been doing some reading around the concept of the digital natives....been wondering about the original statistics quoted by Prensky in his original two articles. So I went looking for more up to date sources of statistics.

I'm not sure that my reading has led me to what I was looking for but I did come across several interesting sites.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project, created in 1999 as a Pew Charitable Trusts’ initiative, the Project studies the social and civic impact of the Internet, arguably the most far-ranging, behavior-changing communications innovation since the invention of printing. The project surveys not only what people think about the technology but also how they use it: for example, to expand their educational and religious activities, learn about health care, engage in politics and build relationships with family and friends.

The PEW Latest Trends pages provide recent statistics that might prove to be of interest.

I wonder if there is an equivalent project based in the UK.


As you might expect the Entertainment Software Association (again in the U.S. of A.) provide some interesting information about game players, and provide links to research indicating the benefits of game playing. I was taken with "the average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for twelve years".


A little closer to home I came across the Interactive Software Federation of Europe.
More statistics with a European emphasis.
Check out the Digital Entertainment Facts, and the Studies and Reports.


A link from the ISFE led to this BBC commissioned report looking at UK residents and their gaming habits..

Interesting stuff