ElderBob

=Meet Elderbob=

Well, I have to start somewhere, so here are a few random thoughts about Multiliteracy.


 * First and foremost, multiliteracy is not static. It is a flowing thing. I cannot say, THIS is multiliteracy, but I can say, this is an example of what multiliteracy is about. As a flowing element, it means that I can insert my knowledge gathering device into this flow at any point and gather a certain amount of information, and upon withdrawal, I will know that I have learned much, I will also feel that I left behind much I need to know. I think it partially explains why this particular class draws me back year after year. I think it also explains why Vance feels compelled to host this course year after year.
 * To extrapolate out to a larger vision, perhaps this is what education is becoming. Being smart, no longer means being able to display what you know, but now becomes a measure of being able to find what you seek and being able to apply it to fluid situations. It explains the importance of a "wikipedia". Forget whether or not wikipedia is accurate or not, but focus instead on how it is used. It can be accessed from anywhere at anytime about virtually any subject. It is "on demand" knowledge. Being "smart" is now a part of a larger element "being flexible". Flexible to change in mid stream or in our case to learn in mid-stream. Information is increasing at such at such a rapid speed, that we need to redirect our efforts to provide understanding and analysis to both short term and long term learning. Learning something today, will not necessarily make it significant to tomorrow's understanding.
 * Finally, let us not forget that implicit in the concept of a flow is that the thing is never finished. A few days ago, I was watching a news interview with the gentleman who created Flickr. It is his contention that we have not yet begun to use this thing we call "the internet". Thus far, all we have done, is figure out some rather innovative ways to access it, but it's use and power, have yet to be utilized. It's abit like the scientist all standing around the thing that landed from outerspace last eve, saying "Well, yes it appears to be a space ship". But they do not yet know how it is built, what it is used for, nor how to control it for themselves. I find the idea abit simplistic, but at the same time strangely accurate. We are all still trying out different screwdrivers to see which ones work the best to get the screws out so we can take the lid of the "internet" off. In fact, we are often just trying to figure out what to call the tools and how they compare to each other (Folksonomy).

Now if you will give me about five minutes for my coffee to kick in, I might quite possibly, withdraw everything I said.....but at least I got some of it down in print so I can examine it.

Note: these comments also appear in my blog [|"....on the road to the Royal Library at Ninevah"] and can be accesses by RSS at http://feeds.feedburner.com/ onTheRoadToTheRoyalLibraryAtNinevah.

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//ElderBob, what is the URL of this video playlist? I'd like to put it on a PageFlakes. Can't figure out to get the original URL here.- Vance//


 * Critique these videos:**

**Video One** -
The first one, about **PangeaDay**, is an effort to globalize digital storytelling. (Vance) This is a great video, it gives you a sense of how individual stories can be shared all over the world. It's the first I've heard of PangeaDay, so I had a look at the website. (Simon)
 * Elderbob - The idea of putting PangeaDay was to express my belief in how strong visual stimulus can be. The photos evoke a lot of emotions, and whether those emotions are high level or low, they are still evoked. Keen would have us beleive that everything on YouTube is trash, but it that is so, then much of what has motivated man emotionally in the past, must also be trash. But it motivated us to do things, right or wrong. ||

Video 2 -
The second, percussion with basketballs in the streets of a tenement, moving up to a kitchen with pots, pans, and chopping knives, is much like a performance of a Korean troupe that recently put on a show in the Cultural Foundation theatre in Abu Dhabi of cutlery percussion, where they chopped a lot of veggies in rhythm before live audiences in a world tour. Is this an example of multiliteracies? Think about it. (Vance)

This reminds of when I was in Kenya in the 70s watching the Kikuya tribe performing their ritualistic dance. Some similarity perhaps or a Nike advert?(Simon)


 * Elderbob -- Simon, you are right. What I was searching for, and did not find, was a series of Nike ads, that had to do with super-dribblers. Amateur basketball players who were so adept at using the basketball bounce as a medium, that eventually, Nike sent them around the world to communicate through basketballs, with people who spoke dissimular languages. ||

Video 3 -

 * Surfing the Web 3.0** - videos from 2nd Life where an avatar takes paraboards, surfboards, hang gliders, jet skis, and even an orca whale out for a swim. Don't you wish you could have so much fun on your holiday? Who needs holidays. Head for Boracay in Second Life if you want to try out some of these toys yourself. (Vance)

I'm too old for surfing. It really does fuel the imagination of who you'd like to be, just choose your avatar. Sorry I mean it would be good for educational purposes! (Simon)


 * Elderbob - my thought here, was that Second Life and it's avatars allow folks to experience events and things that they would otherwise never have an opportunity to experience. The surface has just barely been scratched in this technology but already businesses and schools are looking at it as an ideal tool to put people in virtual situations that allow them to make mistakes and still maintain safety and security. No sharks will ever eat this surfer, unless we program them into the scenario. Pretty cool stuff. ||

Video 4 -

 * RSS Reader How To** - Shows you all you should be able to intuit about how to use Bloglines. It's a screencast done by TechSavvyMarketing.com, covers the topic well.

I (Simon) agree, it's a clear informative screencast. It enables everyone to have a go at using these tools.
 * Elderbob - this video was just a good explanation of RSS and thought it might be helpful to others. ||

Video 5 -

 * RSS Unleashed** - This is a Really Simplistic Sitcom about a lady who starts a new job where her boss tells her to get cracking tracking RSS feeds from the company blog where the customers are giving feedback. She doesn't know RSS but meets him in the hallway. He explains to her how she can subscribe to blogs in Firefox and other browsers. Her job is saved. (Vance)

I found this amusing and instructive, for the non tech-savvy, nice little video, especially the final scene where you see a man follow the RSS icon.(Simon)
 * Elderbob - another cutesy, instructive video for the more technologically challenged. It puts the material in a relaxed humorous mode, that allows folks to relax a little and maybe start to learn. ||

Video 6 -


From Elderbob: Just a note to let you know that you too, can put one of these widgets on your blog, your website or wikipage (or essentially anywhere that you can add HTML):
 * 1) Open an account at YouTube. You do not have to upload any videos, but you must have an account.
 * 2) Explore videos at YouTube that you want to display. You can either just browse or do a search or use their tagging system. Whatever method you use you will need to save them to your "favorites" file. Note that you can create subcategories in the "favorites" file. So in my case, I saved my "favorite" videos to a subfolder named "multiliteracy".
 * 3) Go to the "My accounts page and scroll down to the "Custom Players" in the far left column.
 * 4) Click on the "Create a Player" Button, and make your choices as to which player best suits your needs and will fit the style of your blog, website or whathaveyou. (Note again, that much of the style can be changed by altering the various parts of the HTML that is used to create the widget - size, color, placement, etc.) At the bottom of this page, click "Generate Code and save Player". This will open a pop up window that has the HTML code that you will need to copy into the HTML code block where you plan to use the player.
 * 5) Copy the code and put it in the appropriate place and you should be able to view all the videos that were in the subfolder you created in the "Create a player" page. Now, whenever you are browsing YouTube, you can mark a video as a favorite and save it into the appropriate folder (even multiple folders) and the video will automatically display in your widget. Adding more videos will not expand the original size of the widget put will allow you to scroll through all the videos that you selected.
 * 6) You can control the order or play by going back to the original video and adding to favorites in the order in which you want them to play. (Be sure to erase the early favorite position or the video will play twice.).

This is also a good place to tell you that the Google Video search will bring results from a variety of other resources (This means you can find educational resources that do not exist in YouTube). By running them through a converter (Google video is provide in .gvi and you need them to play in .avi, [|Virtual Dub], is open source and can do this easily.) and then uploading them to YouTube (don't violate copyright standards), then add them to your favorites and again, they will show up in your favorites stream.

There are other widgets that may better suit your needs, but I like this one because of it's ease of use. In terms of Multiliteracy, I think it is a significant platform in that it can be viewed in such a wide variety of net repositories (blogs, web pages, wikis, video capable cell phones, etc.) I hope this will help. (elderbob)