What was Web 2.0? Versions as the dominant mode of internet history, published in New Media and Society, is now available through Online First publication. This paper is one of several that I have written / am writing that attempt to explore the consequences for how we collectively ‘think’ the internet as a result of Web 2.0. Links here to the other posts. Click to read more
In this recent paper, published in Media International Australia, I argue that Web 2.0 cab be understood, not as a technology or practice, but as the marker of a discourse of historical interpretation dependent on versions, historicising the internet so that it is now understood as different from (and yet connected to) that of the 1990s. While Web 3.0, implied or real, suggests the ‘future’, it also marks out a loss of other times, or the possibility of alterity understood through temporality. Click to read more
I spoke recently at the Media140 Perth Conference, on the digitalfamily day, presenting some views on the now and future state of education, in which social media and digital media devices will make a big difference to the way that we think about learning. My presentation is a visual evocation of both the similarities between school education in the past and the differences which new connective technologies are bringing. Slides, with full notes, are available. Click to read more
I recently attended the Media140 DigitalBusiness conference in Perth and liveblogged a panel discussion on Jumping on the social media bandwagon. Participants in the panel were: Louise Bourke, Venessa Paech, Kate Carruthers and Rod Farmer. Some useful information presented, with key points emerging concerning future social media innovations, importance of identity in social media use and more. Click to read more
Disclaimer: live-blogging Digital Business, Media 140 Joanne Jacobs, 1000Heads Reflects on the bad reaction she got from many businesses in the mid-2000s when attempting to promote the value of social media. What is the value proposition of social? How are stories crucial? what is happening with mobiles? Emphasises that businesses can’t manage conversations, can’t manage communities, and can’t control the message. Reflects on the gap between marketing now, and marketing as represented in programs such as Mad Men. Value proposition for social business is its use for all business activities – not just marketing, but HR, logistics and so on. For example, using twitter’s private functions to connect people and share critical information. ‘Social’ means saving money, not just bringing in more business. But it is not just technology – “we are the ones who made these technologies”. “Social media came about because trust in corporate messages had declined” – in other words, what we think of as social media is the result of many aspects of the managed, controlled marketing process which had come to dominate consumer life in the 1990s. Crucial to the power of social media is trust, and trust is formed through social interactions. Social interactions … Click to read more
Disclaimer: liveblogging (for more information about this event, see Media 140 Digital Business) The Hybrid Media Challenge: Taming the Coming Perfect Storms Gary Hayes, ABC EMphasising that the ABC is a leader in multi-patform media, but there are more challenges ahead. Ecosystem of devices that each user has, forming effectively a single ‘platform’ for which multi-platform development and distribution is essential. “Transmedia is about keeping the user engaged with the story”, across platforms. Hayes identifies “transmedia rituals” and “multiplatform cultures”. There’s not as much distinction anymore between media as content and media as interaction, ‘media’ encompasses it all. Mobile access to ABC content is growing rapidly, around 1% / month at the moment, with more and more time being spent in this form of access. [Personal media is, truly, coming away from a fixed location and into the hands of people where they are, at this moment.] Hayes argues that the business of ‘doing’ media online (not just watching, but also creating, sharing, reviewing) is taking more and more time, time that is taken from the traditional patterns of ‘media viewing’ of TV and other old media. Second screen Social TV is a key phrase helping to define the approach … Click to read more
Elaine Tay (Murdoch University) and I have just had published the first article on research we conducted into the use of wikis in a unit at Curtin University. Our paper shows how social media might be used effectively in higher education. We place into question the assumption that such technologies necessarily engage students in constructivist learning; we argue that the affordances of social media must be complemented by social affordances, designed into the learning experience, which thereby generate the necessary connection between students’ motivations to study and their motivations to exploit social media. We demonstrate, via the example given, how assessment structures and strategies are the most effective focus when attempting to create the pedagogical affordances that might lead to collaborative learning. Click to read more
Researching how people can use network technologies more ethically might be more important than governments and industry realise… Click to read more
The first of several posts, each relating to a different unit of study at Curtin Introduction Over the past two years, students in Internet Studies, Curtin University studying the BA (Internet Communications) and related courses have been doing a lot of authentic assessment involving online activities. These assignments are authentic in that they are ‘true’ to the content of their studies (that is, aligned with the outcomes), ‘ real’ within the likely fields of employment for graduates, and ‘natural’ for the the emerging dominance of knowledge networking in society. More on these three variations on authenticity in a moment. Not all assessments fit this pattern (nor should they), but we have seen significant improvements in the motivation of students to complete and exceed the requirements of assignments, as well as a greater degree of creativity and expression suggesting deeper engagement with learning. It has also, we think, improved students’ attention to more scholarly traditional assignments (such as essays) because of the variety we engendered across all assignment tasks. (And, it should be noted: essays are authentic – to the lifeworld of academic which also remains important as well as work and elsewhere). Much of what makes these assessment approaches authentic … Click to read more
I argue, or at least declaim, that we should care for the Internet by contributing to its information stores (and more), so as to sustain it from becoming overwhelmed by self-referentinal ‘me-media’ or colonised by mass media. Of course, these two things will continue to happen (and are not, of themselves, bad) – it’s just that, as I explain, originating, recreating, amplifying and extending online content, is also necessary. I briefly analyse Wikipedia as a model for individual collaborative parallelism; give a few examples of what people can do; and conclude that caring for the Internet is actuall about “connections between people based on the generosity of spirit with which we give freely of ourselves”. Click to read more
