How do we find our place (Belong) in the digital world…

I want to first take a moment to thank Dr. Howard for making his readings enjoyable.  I have read quite a few research articles this week and I certainly appreciate the ease and aptness of these readings.

Chapter 6 of Design to Thrive discusses the notion of belonging.  The synopsis asks “when does someone know when they have really “made it” into a community and, perhaps more importantly, how do leaders of the community help the achieve that sense of accomplishment?”  My answer is you don’t – so you keep trying in hopes that you eventually do. 

The examples provided in the chapter make this an easy chapter to understand as well as note the many applications.  I must say I belong to many communities, but my online or digital communities lack the sense of belonging that my “real life” affords.   Why is that?  I think it is me, and not the online communities.  I have not committed my online energy to maintaining a sense of belonging in digital communities. 

I am a member of various social networks of a sort – Facebook (as I have mentioned- I am a failure at Facebook – too little time to devote to the seemingly inane postings of people with too much time on their hands).  After reading the chapter, I now understand what people send me café (or whatever they are called) and Farmville requests.  I am assuming that is a sort of rank  / leveling of Facebook members. I of course have not taken the time to investigate this aspect of Facebook but at least now I get why people do it.

I have also signed up for various social networks along the way in an effort to become more connected in the teaching with digital technologies community.  Amazingly (or not so amazingly), I forgot my password and did not bookmark the site, so I am not any more connected than I was before I requested membership.    Again I was enlightened by the chapter with the notion of an initiation into the group.  This particular site (the one I cannot remember) required a request for membership and an explanation of what you hoped to attain by being a member.  It had rules (protocols) and I had to subscribe to those rules as well as provide that I was a graduate student interested in researching how teachers incorporate technology into their learning process (or to use Langer’s term – meaning making of texts). .  I got many supportive responses from members pointing me in directions for research – which I followed and promptly lost my connection to the site to no longer be able to follow up with the true veterans in the field.  I am hoping I can allot some time over the Christmas holiday to find this group again. 

I think the most important aspect of belonging may be the protocols.  Being able to build a schema with relative ease for that site and being able to participate in that community without feeling inferior or out of sorts as quickly as possible. For me Facebook (the 4 times a year I log on now that I am back in school) is about connecting with friend from a camp I attended and worked for from 1978-1991 and to connect with college friends.   Thinking about this now, I wonder what protocols have I broken as a defunct member of Facebook?  Can a friend request be out there too long without being answered?  What happens when someone posts a comment on a photo – do you have to comment back?  Then is it a battle of who has the last word?

I want to belong.  If I were to unsubscribe to Facebook I would cutting myself off from some potential something that may happen.   And I cannot run that risk even at the risk of committing a multitude of faux pas by not logging on weekly.  So I get my email updates from people emailing me on Facebook and my email of posts from friends: Lisa posted today she is “1 year cancer free!  YeeHaw”   I of course did not know  she had cancer  (which is something I do not think you would post on your wall)– but you can imagine my relief that she has been cancer free for one year!  

Thinking of Lisa made me thing of the Caring Bridge network and if there was ever a social networking site that is a blessing – caringbridge.org is it.   I have had students, friends, colleagues and family use caringbridge.org to keep information up to date and accurate.  This may be the most helpful social networking site I know of.   In our community there is a little girl with a rare disease in which she spends a lot of time in the hospital and each day is a blessing.  Her parents keep people informed about her progress on caringbridge.org rather than having to call people or answer the phone a million times a day.  Her mother usually posts a note on Facebook saying Caroline is back in the hospital you can go to caringbridge.org to follow her progress. For that reason alone, this particular social networking site is a blessing.  And the great thing about this website, is that it adheres to all of the principles outlined in this chapter.  

Amazing – once you know what you are experiencing – it makes all the sense in the world.  And to know there are mastermind designers behind the scenes creating things like Farmville to keep you logging onto Facebook and keeping the community active is all the more intriguing.   Very interesting.

Remuneration

I logged on today to read the post of everyone today and then decided to check if I had comments - Well how can there be comments if there is no post!  Ugh - you have to do more than click save now.   SO below you will find my post:

Every Friday night, Holly keeps an eye on the road as she moves between tables serving beers, pizza and soft drinks.   When she sees my car she begins to pour a pitcher of Bud and fixes the cokes for the kids.  When we walk in the pitcher is waiting, with 2 frosty mugs and 2 styrofoam cups with the kids names written in blue ink are waiting on an empty table.   IF she sees the Warren's car behind ours, there are 4 frosty mugs and the kids cups are on another table.   We do not order our pizza, we do not even know what we get on our pizza.  Every week our bill is $30 including an $8 tip (Jessica).  

Venus Pie is a dive.  The interior is the same as it was in 1982 when I moved to Spartanburg.  The most important thing about Venus Pie is the pizza is fresh (made on site- the dough is tossed for my children's entertainment), the beer is cold, and I do not have to think about dinner on Friday night.  My mother in law will not come to town on a Friday night because we will not forgo our visit to Venus Pie for her arrival and it lacks the sophistication of the more recently built establishments.

Remuneration. 

We return to Venus Pie week after week, because we know what to expect, we know Matt will be behind the register, Holly knows what kind of pizza we want, and the guys in the kitchen do not mind passing a little dough to Ligon as he sits at the bar, asking questions and demanding a refill.

I have not found my digital Venus Pie yet.  Perhaps it is BodenUSA clothes, as I know they will fit every time but I cannot afford to visit it with the regularity I would like.  I know of many people who find remuneration on Facebook, but I do not have the time to scroll through the inane comments of people not busy enough to realize we do not care about their delicious pot roast from the Southern Living recipe.  Seriously?  

My 30 something (almost 40) friends are in agreement with me about Facebook.  I understand the initial "extraordinary success" of Facebook but even that "sociability itch" is starting to wane.  The people who send cafe (and such) requests are irritating (only because they have time to play such games and I barely have time to answer my email).  Now that we (the 30 somethings - with a few 40s) have been "reconnected" we realize we do not want to be reconnected after all.  There is a reason we grow up and leave home (or in my case across town).  But my question is what can or is Facebook doing to keep those of us no longer under the reconnection spell members.  I personally do not have time to figure out how to unsubscribe and also more honestly wonder what I would miss if I did disconnect.  There are those 40 somethings that finally logged onto Facebook (my brother and sister) who suddenly think this is the only method of communication and get mad when I do not respond promptly (within a week). And those people who have decide the only way to invite or inform you about an event is through Facebook (and are irritated that you did not read the poster they posted on Facebook detailing how to place the mandatory Innisbrook order for the elementary school.

Facebook is adhering to The Checklist of Techniques provided (p.58) in Dr. Howard's Designed to Thrive.   So essentially this tells me the waning pull of Facebook is only from my end - and my peers that are too polite to disagree with me.  (I imagine them sitting in the closet logged onto Facebook for fear I may drive past their house and see the familiar blue and white glow on their computer screens). 

I of course think about the educational implications of remuneration.  I tried applying the techniques Dr. Howard listed to an instructional tool and I came up with blogs.   I think blogs are the best way to provide learners a platform to express their ideas as well as to get feedback from their peers.  It is a relatively low stake assignment - provided the student has the maturity to edit and think about their entries well before they post on the blog (Just as Lindsay did with her blog).  Blogs offer instant membership to a community (which you can get lost in - and lose many hours - going from post to post) of people within your class or people out there in cyberspace sharing ideas.  I have been unsuccessful in establishing a blog for my English 101 and 102 students.  Perhaps I need to take Chapters 4 and 5 in Design to Thrive and follow the steps one by one and hope I will in turn create a requirement that will provide remuneration (can you provide remuneration?).  I think a blog is better than the discussion board due to the element of play if offers and the more opportunities the students are afforded to express their personalities in their presentations. Now to convince the masses (or more importantly the 60 Freshman in my classes).

Well this reading has given me a lot to think about --- as well as to wonder if these same principles apply to teaching.... could this be part of a dissertation?  I think perhaps.

Future of Social Communities

Design to Thrive: Dr. Howard

I must begin by stating how compelling Hiltz and Turoff’s predictions are.   They are a cause for pause, but then I wonder if they are so compelling because we have a platform to connect them to.   Nonetheless, it is pretty amazing that technology exists that fulfills the visions of the 1976 Network Nation.

The other component of this chapter is Dr. Howard’s future implications of social institutions.  He begins the discussion defining copyright and then moves on to question who has rights to intellectual property, virtual identities and purchasing identities.   For me the most challenging component of his questions are related to the impact of social communities.   When he states: “the question here will not be whether we really want anybody to create communities that can undermine established social, religious, governmental, and economic structures” (218).   It  is presumed that we want communities to be able to undermine established communities as indicated by the use of Twitter in Teheran.  These platforms provide the common man a voice in an age of uncertainty.   Is this a good thing? Perhaps so – perhaps not.

Dr. Howard also poses will the educational and professional institutions be able to keep pace with the advances in technology?  From my perspective, I think we are failing at this point.  As evidenced in our Webinar last week, we were all surprised to learn that Twitter is used for more than inane posts from people who have too much time on their hands.  I called my older brother (in Afghanistan) on the drive home last week to see if he uses Twitter.  I honestly thought he was at home in Virginia and would not have bothered him had I realized his current location.  His job it to build and maintain the computers to support the military’s communication throughout the world.  I wanted to tell him about using Twitter, Elsiever,  and LinkedIn.  Other than being irritated with my untimely call, he said he is on LinkedIn but does not tweet.  I asked why not, and he said he did not have the time to tweet.  It seems to me he should be participating in the conversation about technology of our homeland security if he is one of the people using the designated the technology in the field.  He has been in his profession for 20 years and stays current within his field but had not thought about Twitter as an outlet to learn and educate others about the usability of the software they are creating.  I suspect when he gets my step by step directions of how to tweet (in the developmental phase) he will become a participant in the discussions that pertains to his profession.  BUT – he would not be inclined to engage in this social community, if I were not asking him about it for the next few weeks or months.  I think he is still skeptical – and will remain skeptical until he finds someone participating in the conversations, that agrees with his ideas, and has an impressive resume on LinkedIn.  (Provided he is willing to go to the measures describe in the Webinar).

I do not think institutions or educational systems grasp the technological potential the internet and social communities offer.  Because if we go back to the statement “the question here will not be whether we really want anybody to create communities that can undermine established social, religious, governmental, and economic structures”.  Is the only thing preventing a social uprising from happening the lack of technological training of the average person with access to technology.? Our current educational practices are not preparing our students (future citizens) to handle technology appropriately because of the generational divide among those using the technology and those instructing them.  The instructors are not familiar enough with the technology to protect their students or themselves.  And I cannot imagine a content teacher willing to forgo teaching an “essential” element to accommodate the demands of their content drive curriculum.

Here Comes Everybody Continued…

FASTER AND FASTER  highlights the power of social tools when placed in the right hands.   Shirky, defines social awareness on three levels: “ when everybody knows something, when everybody knows that everybody knows, and when everybody knows that everybody knows that everybody knows”  (163).  He provides the power of this knowledge through the GDR example in which he states: “social tools have changed the balance of power in this game” (164).

Sadly my real life examples comes from this weekends multiple viewings of  Camp Rock 2, the Final Jam.   For those of you not privy to the highly anticipated weekend marathon by Disney, Camp Rock 2, the Final Jam reunited the characters from (yes, you guessed it) Camp Rock.  Ahh, but there is a conflict.  The camp directors nemesis has opened a camp on the same lake and steals counselors and campers from our beloved Camp Rock on opening night.  As you can only imagine, there must be a battle of the bands to determine which camp is the better camp and the winner of the Final Jam will remain open while loser camp will close.  Camp Rock is the underdog in this scenario but they work together as a camp to produce a song for them to perform at the Final Jam.   The Final Jam performance adopts the America decides philosophy of American Idol.  But the Camp Star director has rigged the voting by (finally the text application) sending out a nationwide text to every cell phone to vote for Camp Star just as the Camp Rock takes the stage for their performance.  They never had a chance.  Camp Star wins the battle of the bands and it is presumed Camp Rock will close. 

The directors of Disney’s Camp Rock 2, the Final Jam demonstrates the “conformism of hipster culture” Shirky describes in the Flash Mob section (165).   The viewers presume people voting for Camp Star would not have watched the actual competition; obviously Camp Rock had the better performance, yet they voted for Camp Star because they got a text prompting them to vote.   Thankfully the viewers of the Final Jam were not swayed and the campers from Camp Star planned to defect to Camp Rock the following summer along with a host of nationwide viewers so our underdog camp was saved (I could not leave you wondering and force you to watch it).   Which begs the question, how often do we act blindly when prompted?  How often do we click when the box pops up on our screen (a lot less now than when it first started happening, but there are still boxes that intrigue us nonetheless).  Are the Disney directors making a comment about text messaging?   Are they in line with Shirky’s philosophy that “the real message lay not in the behavior but in the collective action” (167)?   For me this is alarming, yet a relief at the same time.  Maybe this event begins a dialogue between parents and children (those texting of course) about flash mob mentality and the use of technology to reach out to individuals to achieve a certain purpose. 

These chapters made me ponder how empowering technology is as well as how powerful technology can be.  Which makes me smile and shutter at the same time.  For the most part people use  technology (Twitter, blogs, text messages, and email) to serve their own needs and that is okay with me.   When Shirky demonstrates the use of  Twitter by Abdel Monem Mahmoud, I am okay with that.   When we watched the Tour de France and got Tweets from the cyclist it was great, because I did not think about the underlying manipulation that could be potentially be there.  So suddenly I am skeptical about the intentions of my tweeters, bloggers and texters.  I did not realize my social capital was at risk until I read  SOLVING SOCIAL DELIMAS  because I too have treated the internet like a sort of separate space until it began to interfere with my concept of life and “our electronic networks are becoming deeply embedded in real life” (194). 

When I read SOLVING SOCIAL DELIMAS  I immediately thought of eharmony or match.com.  Because most people on “these sites were latent groups” (searching for someone to date and /or marry)” and the cost and hassle of finding one another was too high.”   And “the society they lived in didn’t make it easy for them to find one another” (207).   I am assuming you all are familiar with this site and know enough about it that I do not need to elaborate.

Shirky concludes this chapter with questioning the cost of these new methods of communication.  As an educator and mother of a tween, the cost seems limitless.  You can lose social capital in the blink of an eye thanks to technology and overcoming that loss seems near impossible.   Or it could be beneficial.  At the present … where my children are in life … I would see the cost as being catastrophic much more so than beneficial.

Here is a very small examples that will last for many months…

Last weekend at the pool a young 8^th grade boy so in love with a young 8^th grade girl sat side by side on a picnic bench.   They sat so their arms touched while they texted either each other or friends (who knows).  And then in a brief lapse of judgment she decided to turn and lean her head on his chest.  The weather was cool and he draped an innocuous towel over their shoulders.  Now this child is the daughter of a dear friend and I thought, oh this is not good.  So I walked over and said “you need to sit up, it doesn’t look good from a far.”  They were embarrassed and said thank you.  No harm done, so I thought… In the span of 2 minutes it took for me to walk over to them, the lifeguard took a picture of them and sent it to her 6 foot 3 older brother, who sent it to his mother, before jumping in his truck to come to the pool.  The 6^th grade girls took a picture with their phones and posted it on their wall (they did not learn – or did they – about my last weeks discussion) and a mother called her mother to say you need to get down here right now.  You can imagine how their week has gone…  In all cases… nothing good came from the power of technology in this instance.  There was no way to prevent the spread of this information due to technology.  It was too quick.

Which makes me all the more concerned with the connectivity of communities and how small our communities are becoming with technology.  There appears to be no room for error.  There is no room for you to make an error in judgment (towel over the shoulder) because our tools enable us to document and that error lasts forever. You must be constantly aware of how your actions are interpreted and how they can be documented to put you in an alternate light – and even with vigilance you cannot avoid the misinterpretations technology affords us.

Can You Control Internet Collaboration?

Can you control Internet collaboration?

The example of Evan’s use of the Internet to encourage the return of the cell phone is unique.  As I read this example it was interesting to see the power of his blog and the unexpected response from the Internet community.  Yet, it was also a bit alarming.   Thankfully this was example ended well for the Evan, but what about Sasha? I am by no means condoning her actions.  However, the website provided personal information about Sasha and could have easily led to a more severe outcome in which the citizens reading Evan’s blog took matters into their own hands. 

Is this story unique?  The scale and people involved this Internet event is unique to my experience, but the story is not.   Last spring it was time for my high school reunion.  The organizers of the reunion decided to reach out to our classmates through Facebook.   They found most of the graduates in our class through Facebook connections.  The reunion team sent out Facebook email, encouraged our class to become fans of the reunion, and so forth.  It was nice to see people I had forgotten about among my friends until, someone posted .., “I am not going to pay $50 to go to a dinner that Sally is in charge of ... she had no taste in high school I doubt she has taste now.”   Hopefully, the person accidentally posted that statement publicly (rather than privately), but the outcome was devastating for the reunion.   Sally and all of her supporters were outraged by the insult and made their own responses.   Then supporters of the poster spoke on behalf of the poster and so on.   My response was I “de-friended” everyone and did not attend the reunion.   The reunion that had 150 confirmed attendees (based on the Facebook site) had an appalling 45 attendees on the day of the reunion.  Why, because no one wanted to be back in high school again and the Facebook post forced us to remember why we were glad to be out of high school.

So how do you control the Internet and all of the postings?  You cannot.  The example from Flickr demonstrates there are sites that can unite people without too much intervention.  What the people do with that information is up to the individuals and Flickr does not try to control the outcome.

The challenge comes when companies  (or individuals) try to harness the organic nature of the Internet to serve their own purpose and to eventually move from sharing to collaboration to collective action (Shirky, p49).  Can we create a “group identity” that will ultimately inspire cooperation and that will lead towards a collective action?  Shirky states this requires a change in behavior of all participants.   This is much more challenging than it appears – especially when participants do not have to confront one another face to face.    I teach online courses requiring collaboration to produce a brochure.  My students HATE this assignment.  I get more complaints about this assignment than any other assignment in all of my classes.   This summer I tried to change the behavior of my students to ensure a better outcome for the collaborative project.  I had students post on a blackboard discussion the hours they usually work on blackboard to enable me to group them according to their work habits.  Then students had to watch videos about collaborating on the Internet (basically internet etiquette) and had to be reminded often their group members are people with lives beyond sitting at the computer and to be patient.  This semester the student feedback was better but they still strongly dislike the assignment.   I hold onto the assignment despite the horrid student reviews on principle.  This is the collaboration of the future.   More and more companies are trying to avoid the expense of travel and lost production by scheduling virtual meetings rather than expecting individuals to work on projects in the same room.

Moving from sharing to collaborating to collective action is still a challenge and to suggest people willingly move toward collective action virtually is optimistic.  Evan’s followers were working virtually towards the procurement of the telephone.  They were protected by the anonymity of the Internet and were able to back out of the situation at any moment.   When individuals are forced into a collective action (via the Internet) it is my experience that the individuals are resistant and are more comfortable with meeting face to face so that they may read body language and “work more efficiently”.  However, I suspect with the ease of organizing groups on the internet, the ease of collective action is only a matter of time.