Cyclical history

I was reading an article in BusinessWeek about trends that lead companies and the marketing in our contemporary society. The article is called "Scientific management is past its peaks." The author, Roger L. Martin, comments that current trends rely on highly developed statistical analysis and complex softwares that strongly influence the process of decision making. Martin points out that this over reliance on scientific analysis may have reached its developmental limit. That is, where else can this method go? If the computer performs all the analyses, it might-as-well make the decisions and carry them through as well. Why do we need managers and decision makers? Statistics can tell whether we need the brand new cell phone with all the works (and of course, advertisements will compel us and make us buy the phone). Well, I don't need a camera on my phone, so why should I buy one with such feature? This is exactly the point that Martin wants to make: different people have different needs and different uses for products. What we need to do is to understand more these people and their needs, and be a little less concerned on the numbers about them. Martin sees a come back of qualitative analysis.

Two things came to my mind as I read the article. First, it reminded me that history is cyclical. If we simply think in terms of historical periods, we can see that certain characteristics from a previous period, disregarded in the present period, return in the next period. For example, the Middle Ages were marked by a strong religiosity and spirituality. The Renascence valued the exactitude of scientific methods. The Baroque period saw an increase in religiosity. Maybe the scientific hype of the 20th century is reaching a point in which the person has to be reconsidered.

This leads me to the second aspect that came to my mind. I am involved in the field of education, and although it is taught that we need to consider the wide diversity of students, and provide them with appropriate resources for their learning and development, what is found in most studies is exactly what Martin mentioned in his article: statistics leading the decisions. The students may be diverse, but for the purposes of allocation of needed resources, they are just numbers. Standardized tests only reinforce this trend. I am not generalizing and stating that all that is done in education is number crunching; great qualitative studies provide the complement knowledge that the quantitative approach alone cannot provide. So, on the same lines as Martin's claims, I too would see education moving to a more humanistic arena. However, since the field of education is normally a little behind other fields in terms of methodological and ideological development, the scientific approach may not have reached its peak yet, but as I said, history is cyclical, and the wheel of fortune is always turning.

Medieval tech support

The technology might have changed, but the technical support is timeless...

Tech Support

Contributions of technology to my career

I've been thinking about how technology can contribute to my role as instructor and researcher, and the ideas keep coming and going. What makes such question somewhat difficult is the fact that technology is around us in our everyday lives, and this includes the classroom. It is in a way like conducting an ethnography, in which a participant observation has to be performed, and an objective eye used on the familiar tools that I, and many more, employ in our daily work.

Due to the well established written culture in our academic milieu, word processing tools of all sorts are not only helpful but essential. These tools include the traditional word processors; however, any other form of digital print is also fair game. For example, the internet in general provides immense resource of information, and most of it in written format. Although the format itself is well established, it is the exchange and editing of the information what makes the technological tools so important to my area. Simple email messages help connect ideas. Web sites present relevant (and irrelevant) information that can be used for complementing, contrasting, inciting, or simply entertaining thoughts. Web 2.0 is giving the reader the opportunity to participate in what he or she reads online. Blogs, for example, have been used as an interactive tool in classes, in which students not only comment and debate particular topics, but also help each other in their learning. On the instructor side, such digital tools have given the educators possibilities to organize and present materials in more efficient ways, and in ways that approximate to current trends among the new net generation. The increase connectivity seen in both students and teachers (as well as among researchers) has blurred the boundaries between the classroom and the "outside world," transforming both sites into an integrated learning environment. This raise a question, though: as an extension, does the classroom becomes part of the "integrated entertaining environment" that was part of the outside world? Since the same technology is used for both work and entertainment, how do we separate them? Do we want to separate them?

On a different note, the integration of pictures, videos, and words has created a new format for information to be presented, represented and manipulated. Multimedia is breaking the solid walls of the printing culture, and academia is giving in to this inevitable format. Presentations make use of multimedia, web sites, podcasts, video casts, even virtual office hours are possible. Academic journals are on-line and available to eager researchers and readers in general, saving trips to the local library in the middle of the night. I personally think that the embrace of multimedia could be a more emphasized in academia. Although we make use of different technologies, we still need to write a document that will be printed (even if only digitally). In other words, to inform our audience about the advances of knowledge we are proposing, we still resort to plain words (with some charts, tables, and eventual pictures).

As of now, I'm already using many tools to improve my classroom presentations, to contact colleagues and students, and to help with my own learning. I still need to explore more the Web 2.0 to create my network of contacts, and to carry more collaborative projects, but I believe I am on the right track for these endeavors. Here is my blog, a small contribution toward my connectivity to the world.

Educational Technology I

I'm going to stop for a moment with my tale and digress a bit. Last week I received a call from above reminding me that I am supposed to spread the word about my thoughts on educational technology. Well, in a way or another, I've been alway involved with computers and education, and sometimes both of them together... This semester in particular, I'm more involved with the topic, taking classes on it and making myself visible on the web.
It's funny to think that my final project of my computer science undergraduate degree (finished more than 10 years ago) was a multimedia tool for classroom presentation. Well, that never flew. After going to completely different fields for several years, here I am, interested in... multimedia tools for classroom presentation... The only difference is that I'm no longer programming their underlying code, but using prepackaged applications. My exploration now is on the many uses of technology in classroom from a cognitive and educational perspective.
Although there are several tools that can be used by themselves for classroom presentations (ppt being the current almighty first choice), there is a converging tendency toward on-line interconnectivity. Standalone presentations can be upload to the web, in any format, and be seen by millions. Necessary resources can be download from the web to be used in isolated presentations. The Web 2.0 is allowing ideas to become closer; integrated in various ways. However, besides ideas, are their authors also becoming closer? Are such connections made among people, or among parts of people? It seems like at the same time information is becoming more connected and cohesive, the individual is becoming fragmented. The parts of this person are scattered in different web sites, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, chat rooms, and so on. Interestingly, one place in which these parts are reconnecting into a new whole is on Second Life. It seems like we need to deconstruct ourselves before being reborn from the ashes. The irony is that such new whole is virtual. In the process of deconstruction, the body can be discarded, and a new, improved (?) one created in this no longer imaginary world.
But why all this blabbing? First, because I wanted to. My fragment in this blog still has agency. Second, and moving back to the classroom, because this makes us think about the new interpersonal dynamics in this learning environment. Are teachers still teachers or are they facilitators? How do students interact among themselves? Some (instructors and students) still refrain from embracing the technology, while others can only be found virtually. It is within ed. tech. that we try to understand and tame this colossal entity, but at the end, we are still at its mercy, and we are the ones who end up tamed.

Chapter 2

My quest begun early. I have always been interested in that. Throughout my whole life I've searched for it everywhere: in large cities, small towns, beaches, mountains, at home and in the streets. I've looked inside and outside buildings, monuments, fairs, meetings, classes, even in my closets and under my bed. I've accumulated some of it, but it never seemed to be enough. I had to to find more of it to fulfill this unexplainable inner need. I had to go beyond the boundaries that kept me tied to the ground, and continue my journey in this unknown world. In this adventure with no beginning or end, my quest for knowledge begun early.

I always knew that one day I had to go. I had prepared myself for that moment; at least I thought I had. I gathered all resources I had been carefully acquiring, organizing, polishing, and nourishing for years, put them into my brand new bag, and left. I was ready for it. I had never lived in a cave watching the show of shadows on the wall; I did peak outside several times, but now it was different. I was a little scared and nervous, yes I admit, but confident and excited. "How will this new world be?," I kept asking myself in anticipation. Although I wasn't sure of what people or events would cross my path (and be part of it), or even the places I was about to explore, I took a deep breath, gave the first step, and began to walk on that barely charted road with conviction and determination. I was after a dream. I was on my journey to find knowledge. I always knew that one day I had to go...

Chapter 1

Here I am, in this computer lab, thinking, typing, typing, and... thinking. Am I really thinking? The words seem to appear on the screen, but I'm not sure exactly what to write to the world. Will my words make a difference? Maybe for me, for you, or for someone we know. Will anyone hear me? Yes, you, my reader. For you I tell a story, a story with no beginning, a story with no end. It will be fun at times; it'll be boring and dull at other times, but worth the reading, trust me. Today, you have the introduction, and as with this whole tale, it doesn't start, and it doesn't end. It just moves, floats, flows...

I am the writer, the reader, and the main character. I'm the villain and the hero. I start this journey alone, but as you, my reader, follows these uneven lines, you join me in this adventure. Wherever you are, there I'll be to tell my tale. Wherever you are, my thoughts will reach you. Keep reading and you'll discover that we all have the same story, we just tell it with different words.