Disruptive Technologies

Course site for Disruptive Technologies. Exploring identity, community, & design.

Category: Weekly (page 2 of 2)

Week 6: On to Identity

Today we embark on our second theme, identity. The readings I had you do might seem strange in the context of identity, but I think they start to lay a deeper groundwork toward moving from looking at things from a pure perspective on community to how identity shapes what we see and feel. They really truly make perfect sense in the context of the team video project and based on the amazing conversations we had last week. Speaking of last week, you guys were terrific! Thank you for generating an exceptional learning experience for everyone.

Today we would have done quite a bit in class, but given the snow has conspired against us we will have to improvise. So what I am going to do is convert what we would have done in class to additional individual work that you will do here on the blog.

Had we been in class we would have started with a brief reflection on the synthesis presentations and answer any follow up questions. Given we aren’t together I am happy to answer anything either here in the open or more privately in a Yammer group. I would like everyone to take a minute and log in and give it a try. Do yourself a favor and get the Yammer iOS app … it makes it so much better on the go.

Speaking of Yammer, I posted some general thoughts on your work so far in our Yammer group. Please view it and leave a comment on it in Yammer so I know you looked at it.

We would have also watched your videos — Team Right Shark and Team Too Disruptive. Since we can’t discuss them in class, please respond individually to the other team’s video — specifically in the context of McLuhan!

To make the jump into our next theme, I want you to watch a video that explores an incredible story that will quite literally build a bridge for us from community toward identity. Share your reactions as comments to that video on that post.

After that, I want you to self record and publish a short video (no more than two minutes) using your iPads and iMovie for iOS is free for owners of iPad Airs). Please post it to YouTube and embed it in the course blog. In the blog post where you embed the video, please write your weekly iPad reflection to focus on the process of creating the video. The video itself should address the following questions:

  • How do you personally define the word identity?
  • Who are you?
  • What you do?
  • What shapes and makes up who you are?
  • Are you the sum parts of your online and offline identities?
  • When you post the video write our weekly iPad reflection to focus on the process of creating the video.

Out of Class

Preparing for next week — remember I will not be here (sadly), but a team from Apple will be here to teach you some more specific iPad skills. I will post a Week 7 overview, with assignments, readings, etc. Take care and be safe. You will need several free apps from Apple. Please make sure you get them. Go to the App Store on your iPad,scroll to the bottom and tap “Apps Made by Apple” … there you will be able to get that group of apps. Thanks!

apps

Hangout on Air

Week 5: Your Time to Shine!

Quick Hitters

This week the stage is yours … Teams Right Shark and Too Disruptive get to present their synthesis of the first four classes with an emphasis on Community. I am really excited to see how you pull together the notions of community that we’ve discussed in the first block of the class. I did my assigned readings, did you?

Before we dive into the presentations we will look at a few quick items and talk a little bit about what they might mean to us going forward. I know that you are all hard at work on your videos and I promise I will let you wrap up early so you can take some time work more on those. Next week we will be looking at those as we also kick off the “identity” phase of the class. But enough about next week, let’s get to work on discussing the first big artifact of the class!

Out of Class

Readings

Assignments

  • Continue working on your Team Videos and post them to the course site via a YouTube or Vimeo embeds with a short overview of what technology you focused on and why you chose to explore it by noon on 3/5/2015
  • Weekly Create using Phoster or another like app for the iPad that illustrates your initial thoughts on identity. Post your artifact and share a short thought in the post about why this speaks to our next theme. Due by 5 PM on Tuesday
  • Weekly Team Post … what were the biggest takeaways from the readings? Please cite at least two core ideas from both The Medium is the Massage and The Web is a Customer Service Medium and discuss them in the context of both community and identity. Do you feel differently about your team video now that you have read McLuhan’s work? Due by 5 PM on Tuesday

Week 4: Preparing for the Synthesis!

Quick Items

Today

We will be doing lots of team work this week. I will be asking you to work within your teams to construct a couple of artifacts. We will start with an informal presentation by each team of their work on rounding out the SWOT analysis of the iPad in education exercise we did last week (Right Shark & Too Disruptive). I want to push you to the front of the room so you get comfortable for your synthesis presentation next week. After we talk a bit about that work, I am going to ask you to individually identify your three top thesis from the Cluetrain manifesto and why and post them to the course blog … then do the same as a team, but I want you to add in a reflection/refraction with/about the Cluetrain New Clues piece — this time synthesizing your work together and make a single post. That will provide a nice basis for a discussion of those readings. The remainder of time will be for you to work together on the Synthesis Post and Presentation … if you have questions, I will be available.

Out of Class

  • I am not assigning any readings for next week as you should be doing that in your synthesis posts (be judicious)
  • Continue working on your Team Videos and post them to the course site via YouTube or Vimeo embeds with a short overview of what technology you focused on and why by noon on 3/5/2015
  • Construct your team’s first synthesis post, post questions for the class to consider, post any readings you want us to do (or videos to watch, etc) by 5 PM on Tuesday
  • Weekly iPad Reflection by 5 PM on Tuesday
  • Give me some early feedback

Next Week

  • Present Team Videos
  • Present your first Synthesis

Week 3: Community, The Bloomsburg Daily, and the SWOT

This week we will be our first real deep dive into community. Now that you’ve experienced a little bit of Wenger we need to unpack what you learned there. Let’s talk about your reactions to the chapter you read and discuss some of the big issues embedded in his writing. I am going to ask you to write your own definition of community in teams and post it to the blog.

After that we will take a look at the curious case of The Bloomsburg Daily. We will look at it through the lens of community and disruption.

The second half of class we will be conducting a SWOT Analysis in class around the question of the iPad as an enabler within the context of higher education — teaching, learning, and community engagement.

BTW, we will be done early today!

In class

  • Define Community
  • Conduct SWOT Analysis

Out of class

  • Readings:
  • Begin working on your Team Video project: This will be due in two weeks — by noon on 2/25/2015
  • Complete the iPad survey
  • Leave a comment on the other team’s definition of community
  • Team Post: Select one strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat from the class SWOT activity and expand upon each to make a persuasive argument. See post holding our SWOT outcomes. Due Tuesday 5:00 PM.
  • Weekly iPad Reflection: How are you utilizing the device now across all of your courses and academic life? Due Tuesday 5:00 PM.
  • Weekly create. Due Tuesday 5:00 PM

Reflections on Wenger’s Community of Practice

Chapter 2 of Wenger’s book discusses “Community of Practice”.  As definition, a Community of Practice (CoP) is a learning partnership where people engage in such partnership and start creating a learning environment by sharing common interests and needs with a set of tools.  This correlates directly to one of the classes themes, Community, and certainly indirectly to the other two themes, Identity and Design.  Wenger, a Social Learning Theorist, discusses the different dimensions of practice that embody community of practice; mutual engagement (identity), a joint enterprise (identity, design), and a shared repertoire (design).

The author goes in detail about how a CoP gets created, what are the necessary components, ground rules, its resources, governance, etc.  Conditions, resources, and demands shape the practice.

A CoP does not necessarily need to be “healthy”, meaning,  there will be fighting, disconnects, arguments, but at the end, it will still be a community of different and diverse personalities, learning and sharing valuable content.

I found this not to be an easy read.  I complemented the reading with other articles from the web, as well as a few videos in YouTube.  Time permitting, I will read chapter 1, as there were a few references in chapter 2 to this chapter.

Here are a few examples of a CoP in the Higher Ed space:

CoP

The questions I’d like to pose;

  • Are there learning environments that lack a community of practice?
  • Are there non-learning environments where a community of practice is present?
  • Could the same have been said in a simpler manner?
  • Change in Plans

    I was just notified that the folks from Apple will not be here today … other than it being a bummer it leaves a pretty big hole in our class today. I am doing some work now to expand our agenda for this afternoon, but I doubt we will be there all three hours because of the change. See you all in a bit.

    iPad Reflection Week 1 – Chris

    To be completely honest when the iPad first came out, I thought it was a wasted piece of tech. After using one for a week I cannot imagine working without it. I’m not 100%  knowledgeable of what the iPad can do so as of now I use it as a second screen while I work on a game I’m making.

    At this point I’m considering not buying a notebook and using the iPad for all my notes, so at the moment I’m looking for an app I can use to write with my finger (maybe I code one myself).

     

    I’m not that into apps so the only ones I’ve downloaded have been YouTube, Gmail, Spotify, and Yammer (for this class).

    Typing on the iPad is a little awkward in both landscape and portrait mode.  I know there are apps that improve on the native keyboard, but I feel Apple could do a better job.

     

    I’m looking forward to see what I can do with this machine.

    Week 2: Apple iPad Seminar in Class

    Week two is upon us and now is when we will really get things moving. I want to share some general thoughts on your posts and where we might want to go from here. We will reflect briefly on any lingering issues from week one and try to wrap up the idea of the Internet as a disruptor in general. This will let us set the stage for our first deep dive into our themes, starting with community. I will also introduce you to your team assignments and get you rolling on the Team Contract.

    During class some people from Apple will be here to do a hands on session with us to help us get the most out of the iPads this semester. I am keenly interested in us really unpacking the affordances of the iPad as a tool to support learning and student work flow in general. I have asked Apple to focus mostly on how the iPad can support content creation of all types. In addition to the Apple team, there will be some folks here from around campus to learn a bit more about the iPad.

    Week 2

    Out of Class Assignments

    Week 1: Welcome, Overview, and First Assignments

    So this is it. Week 1 … we are getting set to embark on quite the semester together. We will be spending three hours each week together having conversations about how technology is shaping the world around us — and in particular, how is it impacting us here on college campuses. Much of our time will be spent having conversations about the things we will be watching, reading, and making — in other words, I expect you to come ready to share what you are thinking about. Even today is influenced by a once very disruptive force — radio. After listening to an episode of Reply All, a podcast from Gimlet Media, I decided to completely redesign our time together today … and BTW, there will be a lot of that, so get used to it!

    I want you to feel comfortable in exploring new thinking with our class … the class will only be as good as we make it together! And we are off!

    • Introductions and course background
    • Syllabus review
    • Meet our technology: Twitter and course hashtag #CDT450, Google Drive, Yammer, Diigo, Course Blog, the iPad, and (maybe) NoteBowl
    • Disruptive Conversation
      • Explore the notion of disruption and disruptive technologies
      • Explore the three themes of the course — community, identity, and design
      • Explore a story and unpack disruption through the lens of our three themes
    • Establish our shared “Weekly Create Post” guidelines and assessment model

    Out of Class Assignments

    What is disruptive innovation?

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