October 9th, 2010
Derrida, Jacques, and Barry Stocker. Jacques Derrida: Basic Writings. London ; New York: Routledge, 2007.
In this chapter, “The End of the Book and the Beginning of Writing” from Of Grammatology, Derrida looks at what he considers to be the problem of language. This problem has to do with how we now (Note: this was published in 1967) use the term too loosely. “This crisis is also a symptom. It indicates, as if in spite of itself, that a historic-metaphysical epoch must finally determine as language the totality of its problematic horizon” (6).
As the chapter title suggests, Derrida is looking at the end of writing in reference to the book, since the book is a finite, limited, set collection of words and pages. Conversely, language has no boundaries, nor does the larger idea of writing. Writing itself can be altered, redirected, repurposed, resent, etc. To put it in context of the idea of the signified, spoken language (langue) signifies the thought and writing signifies the spoken language. Therefore, writing is the signifier of the signifier.
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October 6th, 2010
Lowerison, Gretchen, et al. Are We Using Technology for Learning? Journal of Educational Technology Systems 34 4 (2006): 401-25.
No, this post has nothing to do with me staying on task beyond the fact that it is another blog post reviewing yet another source for the dissertation. This addresses a specific section of Lowerison et al.’s Are We Using Technology for Learning.
Time on Task
Bloom (1957) stated that the amount of time one spent on a task increased the likelihood that the material would be processed at a deeper level. Lowerison, et al. note that the computer technology is a benefit to students since they could spend their energies processing information instead of gathering it, it reduces their workload, it allows for increased organization, and it makes it easier for them to access materials. (405). Read the rest of this entry »
October 5th, 2010
Lowerison, Gretchen, et al. Are We Using Technology for Learning? Journal of Educational Technology Systems 34 4 (2006): 401-25.
In this article, Lowerison et al. detail their study on the role that computer technology plays in transforming the learning process in higher education, specifically, the relationship between computer-technology use, active learning, and perceived course effectiveness. It is this latter point in which I am most interested, since my own study does not consider learning outcomes, but rather focuses on both students’ and instructors’’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the online video conversation (OVC) in the asynchronous online classroom (AOC). Read the rest of this entry »
October 2nd, 2010
“Education is ultimately concerned with something more than passive responses. It entails the creation on new visions” (183).
Veltman, Kim H. Understanding New Media: Augmented Knowledge & Culture. University of Calgary Press, 2006.
In chapter 8, Veltman explained how the corporate world created “action science,” a management method based on the tutorial approach of the academic world. He opens chapter 9 discussing that education, in turn, adopted some of this method into the idea of distance learning. In this way, more responsibility is placed on the student to become a more active learner. “Education is becoming learning or, as one company puts it: ‘the twenty-first century has no room for students, only learners’” (180). In other words, the opportunity for students to be less-involved or active, sitting passively in the back of a FtF class focused largely just on getting the class grade is not possible in the distance education class. The distance education student must be more active and involved, completing not only the required assignments but also being engaged in discussions online, since the instructor is not always leading the class in one-to-many lecture. Rather, the instructor still holds a leading role, but the students are all forced to show their presence and opinions, helping shape the class. The focus becomes not just getting a grade but on being more engaged in the learning process and in actually learning the material. Read the rest of this entry »
October 1st, 2010
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T.S. Eliot “The Rock” (1934)
Veltman, Kim H. Understanding New Media: Augmented Knowledge & Culture. University of Calgary Press, 2006.
In my last post, I ended with a comment on how new media changes the way we organize knowledge and by extension changes the way build and retain it. To continue that discussion, I looked at Veltman’s chapter (10) on enduring knowledge.
[E]nduring knowledge, or perennial knowledge as it is called in the Far East, concerns what is stored in our memory collections (libraries, museums, and archives)” (229).
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