New Blog and Web Site

This blog was started in Barcelona in 2005 to explore different ways to share content with students in the classroom, and also to share pictures and short stories with friends living in far away places. It was used at the language center of the University of Cantabria in Santander, where I taught between 2006 and 2008. Students didn't bring laptops at the time, so we used an LDC projector on a white board and a "lab" with computers.

As an anecdote, a professional in communications who worked at UNICAN said sometime in 2007, that blogging was not appropriate in universities, where information should be one-way only. "Information is power", she said. Well, some things have changed and people learn faster now, self-organizing their own personal learning networks (PLNs), embarked in participatory learning by doing and also sharing on the internet. Digital literacy has extended quite a bit, even in traditional places like the Academia in Spain, where too many years of history, tenure and misuse of resources in many cases still are a heavy ballast. In my practice with in-company classes and private students, every participant is actually "hands-on" working with his or her own device, while we interact and blogs and wikis which are personalized.

It's been some time since I moved to Oviedo now ... and it was about time to integrate some of my different public digital patches here and there. So here is: the new mentalsys microweb and blog ...and also mentalsys in Facebook.

Maths without learning restrictions

John Mighton shares amazing ideas... on what kids actually do (when the system allows...)

www.jumpmath.org is dedicated to improving the teaching of mathematics in public schools.

Direct link to transcript Direct link to site.

Real problems and Common Knowledge

The problem with real problems, is who gets to define what those really are.

How to minimize the impact of lobbies taking advantage of public money unless the outcomes respond to public real benefits?

How to foster the networks and ideas that could either "respond to real problems with simple solutions that can evolve with time" ?

I came across this ScienceBlogs and it brings forth interesting points to reflect and think on examples. The heading of the blog is Common Knowledge.

The case of digital public TV in Spain now open to private entities for marketing sports and entertainment by business groups that contribute to soccer becoming almost a religion in some countries, could be one case to follow closely. What kind of role model(s) are the leaders and administrators of public funds offering the young? And what mass media are offering here today makes you hope that more and more kids may prefer to entertain themselves with video games and other informational skill building activities, via web or other, building their own social media networks and learning something of value along the way.

The integration between soccer, media and business, the trade with professionals and all the publicity that goes with it, I fail to understand how any of that should be subject to public interest, and draw laws that benefit any. It may be not as bad as pushing a stupid war move following lousy decision making in international centers, but it's also not heading in the right direction.

Moving on to another hot subject drawing amazing amounts of public funds and attention, in Asturias as in the US: public health systems: standards, administration and information. What is public, what isn't, and how to better integrate both with fair policies and rules. Not an easy subject by all means, where the mesh of standards, underlying assumptions and beliefs, not to mention the private interests are highly complex. Yet, we tend to expect simple positive outcomes, responding to what multiple opposed players define as "real problem", and that they are implemented fast.

My chosen take away of all this from the above quoted post by John Wilbanks, dated August 5, 2009,

"the real issues underpinning what it would take to generate real disruptive innovation in health technology and health costs."

"If we're going to bring that level of innovation potential to health IT, we need to keep the lessons of the simple standard in mind. Because right now, if you're a bright young entrepreneur, you don't get into health IT. And the lack of not just standards, but the right kinds of standards, is the first barrier we have to knock down to change that reality."

The Computer HIstory Museum

Amazing trip through time and evolving "Thinking Tools" visiting The Computer History Museum, courtesy of Rocktboom: daily internet culture Blog and YouTube Channel.

Ellie Roundtree from Rocketboom visits the Computer History Museum.

What a wonderful museum... See the Exhibit:

Internet History to learn more about the transformation and timeline of what we now know as "the internet", which became part of the infrastructure we can't go without. So much so, that we now take the internet and access to web content, to be a human right. Author Nicholas Carr explored a historical analogy with electrical utilities replacing in-house generators in his book: The Big Switch. Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google. (We read excerpts of it in class with adult English students and they loved the stories it brings forth).

Pity that Carr prefers to support Encyclopaedia Britannica, by hitting on Wikipedia and cricizing the quality of volunteer Web 2.0 information, and the blogosphere... Reading the Wikipedia page on Nicholas Carr, it informs that Carr became a member of the Editorial Board of Advisors of Encycloaedia Britannica in 2008. In any case, his critique was dealt with constructively by Wikipedia's leaders, and has therefore contributed to some quality improvements. Proof that: debating different perspectives in civilized ways can pave the way to new findings and improvements.

Wikipedia also leads us to another interesting debate, that of Nicholas Carr and author Yochai Benkler: well... more like a bet really. So far blogging has proved not to be "a fad", quoting The Guardian: "So the wager is half-on. Bookmark Carr's site for 2011. If, of course, blogging proves not just to be a fad." 2011 is not too far away. What do you think about this: will peer production processes or will price-incentivized systems... lead the majority of the contents on the web? in any case... "does it matter"?