I live in The Seabrook, a retirement center in coastal South Carolina. I live with senior citizens, all of who are older than I am, some of them by more than 30 years. Many of them don't want to learn about technology--they protest that they are too old to learn new things. For some that is true, but for others they just need the encouragement to try new technology. I am a leader in this community in technology in several ways. When we had a party for all of those people who were over 90 (and there were more than 70 people in that category in a group of 220 or so residents), I took a short video of the party. You can find it on my Facebook Page. There may only be a few who have seen it, but some said how amazed the were at what technology could do.

I have also shown several people my iPhone and the pictures on it. There are those who can't quite change the ink on their printers and ask me for help. Some have been given iPads and Kindles by their children who show what they need to do, but they don't quite remember and turn to me. Even some of the people in the office--who are all younger than I am--need help for the occasional spread sheet. So I am doing what I can to be a leader in a community that is still back in the 20th century in many ways.

I borrowed the video of Blade Runner from my nephew, Keith, who is, like I am, a science fiction and fantasy buff with an extensive video library. Because I was visiting Debra Hanks for the weekend, I took the video along to watch together; we reviewed the assignment before viewing the movie. Her son and my sister also watched the movie—Deb’s son kept pointing out the details that might be appropriate to our assignment, just about driving my sister nuts (she was less than enthusiastic about the movie, and the interruptions just kept making the experience longer).

DVDs and video on demand seem to me to serve different functions. I own all of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel DVDs because I know that I will want to watch them again. Video on demand is one of my favorite technologies on which to watch tv shows because I don’t want to keep them—one is probably enough. Before I bought the Buffy DVDs, I video-taped the reruns of it and had to remember to set the equipment and make sure there was enough room on the tape. I did the same thing with Star Trek the Next Generation, and ended up with boxes and boxes of tapes. Not convenient, but somehow I could not quite throw them away.

I am not sure where DVDs and video on demand are on McLuhan’s tetrad. Obviously, they have both enhanced the viewers’ ability to control when and where they might see productions. The both allow for the manipulation—fast forwarding for example, although NBC has started to make fast forwarding of their on demand tv shows unavailable so viewers are forced to watch the commercials they have on the shows. They have obsoleted VCRs to a large extent, at least on demand usually comes with a DVR capability. They retrieve story-telling and reading in some ways. They are probably going to be replaced by computers, television, home security, and telephony systems that are all connected somehow.

Module 4 Second Life

Second Life is addictive, creative, and social. While it may require basic knowledge of how things work to make the laws of nature different, it seems to have unlimited possibilities to reinvent yourself and the world in which you live, all for $1,000.00 down and a couple a hundred a month. Philip Rosedale, the man who created Second Life, in The Disruptive Power of Second Life says it is a bottom- up situation where digital people create, buy and sell digital items; it allows people the fundamental freedom to create. However, we may prefer our digital selves over our real selves. Regardless of the possible downsides, according to Rosedale it is unstoppable, inevitable, and disruptive.

It is much like the Internet and the Web in the early ‘90s. People can put themselves forth in the form of an avatar that is who they want to be, not who they are. It replaces cities, simulates space. Users create data that they can sell to earn real or digital money; people can build houses, businesses, and events anywhere. You can even have a baby, a digital baby, in Second Life. There is no structure to this game that is not a game. The economy of the game drives what people create; they want to sell their creations to exist in their virtual world.

Social creatures need others to learn, recommend, and experience information together. This may be the essence of constructivist learning. While this seems no more harmful than television in many ways for adults, is it applicable to people who are not adult learners?

Ryhmes of History Technology

Unfortunately, I have become addicted to the game on Facebook called Kingdoms of Camelot. This game, of course, harks back to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We are sanctioned by the king to build cities around a castle and produce resources to support the one industry that is available to us: war. Of course, other activities, such research on improving things like fertilizer to grow better crops and training our troops, are part of the game, but mainly they are ways to have more might than someone else so that we can beat them. Furthermore, we have alliances of other players that will help us if we are attacked or if we need to have more resources than we can individually support.

The interesting thing to me is how this has drawn my family together. My brother and sister-in-law started playing and told us how fascinated they are. Then my sister started playing. Because of my classes in Walden, I resisted, but just like the Borg in Star Trek, resistance is/was futile. I joined and so did my nephew. All of these people are over 40; my 18-year-old nephew just thinks we are silly. There have been times that four of us sit in one room, each with his or her own laptop, playing the game and discussing strategies. It reminds me of a quilting bee, each of us working on our own project and chatting. There is also a very active chat online with this game. We have found a community of players who have avatars and names that hide their ‘real’ identities; my sister and I are taking our real selves to Pennsylvania next week to meet some of them and go to a Renaissance Faire. We also have a code of conduct, norms that are established by the high ranking members of the alliance. These norms sound very much like the Knights’ Code of Chivalry from the Song or Roland. So yes, the future is like the past, just with cooler toys. And only pixels died when we go to war.

While a Smart Boards is a product made by a specific manufacturer of interactive white boards, the concept may be called that regardless of who makes it, in much the same way that atissue is universally called a kleenex. Smart boards enhance the ways that teachers present material and information and students demonstrate understanding. They allow for students to have hands, eyes, and ears on concepts in ways not previously available to them. Asmart board obsoletes many tools used by educators: the traditional chalk board was replaced by the white board which is now being replaced by by interactive versions of the same concept. Smart boards connected to a computer allows for whole classrooms full of students to view what might have been on a TV/DVD set up. Because interactive boards naturally promote collaborative teaching and learning, they retrieve community learning, storytelling with illustrations collectively told. They can be reused in much the same way that slates in early public schools were reusable. But they can also save work done collectively, therefore they retrieve publishing as well. They might be replaced one day with holo-decks, as in Star Trek and virtual world.

Skype

Skype is an emerged technology that is shaping the future, if not in itself, at least in the expectations of the generations to come. It is an on-line telephony system in which you can see the person with whom you are chatting. It can also be used as an instant message system and a voice only service. Up to 24 people can all be in a conference call, although they can only talk. Furthermore, documents can be shared among participants.

I have used it for at least a couple of years for personal use, but I am interested in how it might be used in schools. Last year, Debra Hanks and I made history in her school district when we set up a Skype video chat between her students and me. They asked me questions about coastal South Carolina where I live. While I had difficulty hearing the students, it was a great experience for this ol’ teacher-without-students. I hope to get the pleasure of Skyping with her third-graders as well as another class of third-graders at the same school. There seemed to have been a bit of rivalry over who got to talk to the lady about the alligators.

I have been working on a volunteer program at a local high school to set up Skype between a Spanish class and some native Spanish speakers. Several of my Spanish speaking former students have shown interest in communicating with the students who are learning Spanish. Last night I introduced one of these now-college students to Skype. She was quite impressed that this old dog knew a trick that she didn’t. Another one found me in Skype the day before, and all she could do was worry about her hair. So, for some, seeing the person to whom you speak (or yourself as they see you might be a detriment.

Some of the problems—in addition to seeing yourself on your computer—have to do with poor quality video and sound that goes in and out. These are likely the problems with the individual computers. Another issue in collaboration is differences in time zones; users have to set up time when they can get together comfortably.

Another potential problem is that while you can call anyone even on a non-Skype phone, it is not free. To Skype for free, both parties have to download Skype.
Some of the advantages may come from actually seeing who you are talking to. I get to see a grandson on the West Coast every now and then. I also like that I can see who is online before I contact them.

If you would like to see more about Skype, go to http://about.skype.com/

Below is a graphic of Skype showing what it might look like once it is set up. I wrote a Skype tutorial for a previous class that will help you get going if you would like to try it:http://8847shelton.wikispaces.com/Skype+Tutorial