Semester Reflections

Self-directed Learning / Personal Blog Posts

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been able to explore and even investigate digital culture and its different developing facets. Although it was initially very difficult to wrap my mind around the idea of guiding and directing my own learning (rather than having defined homework assignments and topics to learn about), I have really enjoyed being able to focus on what is particularly relevant to me and my interests as well as what simply interests me.

To demonstrate my own self-directed learning, I’ve blogged about:

Intellectual Property (here)

Adrian Johns’s book Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates   (here) 

Cyberbullying (here) 

Anna Karenina and Digital Culture (here, here and here) 

The Media Fast (here)

Social Change (here)

The Open Education Movement, with a particular focus on badges (here, here, here, here and here) 

I’ve also posted to Google + about:

Badges (especially other relevant badge projects and resources)

Relevant blog articles mentioned above

Social Change through technology

Intellectual Property

The Open Movement

Research materials that I’ve found useful and important:

Adrian Johns’s Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Mozilla’s Open Badge Website/ The Open Badge Forum

Neil Selwyn’s Education in a Digital World : Global Perspectives on Technology and Education

Curtis J. Bonk’s World Is Open : How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education

        The Matrix

        Wreck-It Ralph

Collaboration

I’ve also been very involved this semester with my group’s project, the Mormon Badges Group, as we have explored how online badges can be adapted to meet the needs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been very active in developing and creating our actual badge prototypes (see here), blogging about what we were developing on our blog, and then going on to present our experiences and what we’ve learned at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium and last week to the head of Social Media for the LDS Church. It has been a fantastic experience to be able to collaborate with this group as we were able to develop our ideas together and ultimately pitch them formally to the Church.

With other projects, I’ve been able to help make suggestions as I’ve followed their projects. I specifically critiqued the Digital Sweet Home group’s project proposal , and I’ve really enjoyed following their work and development. I’ve commented online and discussed in class other projects, with the most interaction with the Educational Badge group as I’ve been able to provide them useful resources and links online and discussed ideas in class.

Others’ assistance

Throughout the semester I’ve followed most closely the work of the two badges groups namely Ellis Dyck, Josh McKinney, Katie Wilkie and Greg Williams due to the close nature of our two projects. But I’ve also enjoyed following their posts and writing about not only badges but larger digital culture themes. I’ve likewise been inspired (and motivated) by Tara Pina, Jason Hamilton, Allie Crafton and Audrey Blake.

Digital Literacy

Explain how you have developed your digital literacy during this semester. Use the categories of A) Consume; B) Create; and C) Connect. Please do more than list tools or services you’ve learned to use. Describe how your understanding of literacy has evolved or how you have become more conscious of and taken more control of your digital life.

Perhaps the most noticeable result of the time I’ve spent learning about digital culture has been developing my own digital literacy through coming to understand and better utilize new media. After beginning the semester with the media fast (http://leesjessica326.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-media-fast-or-what-making-non.html), I’ve learned how important it is to maximize my online interactions to be able to use my time productively and effectively while getting the most out of my time online. This is especially apparent as I’ve learned to Consume, Create and Connect through this class and my own online learning.

As I’ve been consuming relevant content for this class, my blog, the Mormon Badges Project and my Google+ posts, I have been able to better maximize my research time through using social tools as well as more traditional research avenues. I found interesting resources through search engines and the BYU library, but I also found tools through social networking tools such as Good Reads and even through receiving input and suggestions from classmates and contacts online. I have also been able to do more online reading through BYU’s ebrary, which gave me access to a lot of fascinating books about especially the Open Education Movement.

Creating content for this class is where I saw the most obvious increase in my digital literacy. Through this course I became much more familiar with Google resources such as Google docs and Google forms, which made it easy to collaborate as a group (for the Mormon Badges Project). I also used Prezi for the first time through my group project, and I really like that I’m now much more comfortable with this fun and dynamic presentation tool. Although I did blog this summer for an internship, this was the first time that I have had my own personal blog to express my views and opinions. Perhaps the most important concept I’ve learned from this experience has been how important it is to put my ideas out there early, even if they’re still being developed, so that I can get feedback and social proof to determine the validity of following a specific course of research and study. 

Likewise, my digital literacy has drastically improved as I’ve connected to receive social proof about my ideas and thoughts. Through becoming much more familiar with Google +, I've been able to post in an easy and accessible way. I also used my Facebook account for some more limited interactions for this class. The ease of this kind of communication showed me how important it is to use these connections, whether my classmates, friends or even family, to share my ideas and projects. Not only has this begun many interesting conversations online, but I’ve been able to connect in surprising ways with my family and friends. This has ultimately shown me how absolutely crucial it is to not do real research and thinking in the void that is so typical for the average college research paper, and I glad to have experienced the real benefits that come through connecting about academic and personal interests and topics.

Individual Exam Questions

Objective Questions

1. As is discussed in Adrian Johns’ Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates, Intellectual property presents many difficulties in the digital age because: (pick two)
a. The complexities of a single system make universal enforcement nearly impossible.
b. Digital Mediums are more prone to theft.
c. New forms of media are constantly developing.
d. Authors online cite less frequently and less comprehensively.
[See my blog post: To Change or Not to Change: Thoughts on Intellectual Property and Copyright ]

2. Online badges are an important example of _____________ as a means of motivating learning based upon the feedback mechanisms inherent to video games.

[See Prezi: “Mormon Badges”]

3. Because of what is described as the current “renaissance moment” due to digital culture, greater ____________ is achievable by each individual through new technologies and mediums?
a. Wealth
b. Social Change
c. Progress
d. Connections
[See my blog post: Accelerating Social Change through Digital Media]

Essay Questions

1. As is seen through numerous examples including badges and different online apps, gamification is an integral part of future educational models and learning as one of the most effective ways to motivate and reward individual learning within an increasingly digitally literate world.
[See my blog posts Authenticity and Badges, Making Gamification Sustainable.

2. The concept of multiple virtual identities, as described by Ellis Dyck, is instead of being harmful and destructive actually conducive to better efficiency and proficiency online. Although questions of responsibility will always exist online, the ability to work around strict concepts of identity through participating in various medium and contexts is ultimately more beneficial than it is negative.

[See Ellis's blog posts The Importance of being What? and Virtual Identities]

Badges and Distance Learning

Indiana University has recently announced that it will expand its distance learning programs through adding badges to their massive open online courses (MOOC). This is a very exciting development as badges are being adapted by yet another major university to expand their online learning programs through using the ideals that are embodied by the open education movement.


The program at IU "will offer educational badges to students who complete the courses and master certain skills but don't enroll in degree programs.'

"IU President Michael McRobbie says the new program, which replaces its School of Continuing Studies, will allow the university "to `project' itself beyond the walls of the campuses, and equally importantly, the walls of the classroom of the 21st century."'

"It recognizes that the distinction between `traditional' and `non-traditional' students is increasingly blurred and that it no longer makes sense to use different strategies to reach them," McRobbie said during his latest State of the University speech."

I think that the idea of blurring the distinction between traditional and non-traditional students is an interesting one when it comes to the increasing development of distance learning and even current education trends. Rather than simply focusing on the traditional learning model where a student attends a class and receives credit that goes towards his or her degree, I think it is powerful to open up university learning to a much wider audience, who no matter their background are able to learn about what interests them. And even more than that badges are a way to create clear credentials for this learning, whether or not a degree is eventually earned.

Although this usage of badges is still relatively new and being developed, I think that this is an essential component to developing accessible online learning in the future. With the ability to earn and display credit, I can only see this increasing interest, publicity and revenue for participating university's and programs, as their programs are then able to more fully stand on their own or work towards a degree.

I find it very exciting to see badges being integrated into this sort program, and I think this will only serve to increase the accessibility of open education and more widespread learning through these credentialing systems.

Making Gamefication Sustainable

Although I couldn’t have succinctly articulated three months ago what exactly gamification is, I have really come to see that it is an essential tool for encouraging online learning (as well as even learning in the classroom). Using the structures for rewarding and giving feedback from video games such as points, leaderboards or even badges, which have becoming so ingrained in youth culture due to the popularity of gaming, just makes sense to me as a way to encourage fun and creative learning. I think open badges are a fantastic example of this, but there are of course many different others ways to reward learning in way that uses gamification.

But today I stumbled upon this study by Gartner, an East Coast research firm, which predicts that by 2014 80% of gamified apps will fail. Now this number is pretty large, and at first glance this is pretty worrying. Gartner suggests in their press release today that, “Poor game design is one of the key failings of many gamified applications today.”

"The focus is on the obvious game mechanics, such as points, badges and leader boards, rather than the more subtle and more important game design elements, such as balancing competition and collaboration, or defining a meaningful game economy. As a result, in many cases, organizations are simply counting points, slapping meaningless badges on activities and creating gamified applications that are simply not engaging for the target audience. Some organizations are already beginning to cast off poorly designed gamified applications.”

Interestingly, they seem to be implying that the problem isn’t with gamification, but instead the issue is with the lack of a corresponding infrastructure to make the gamification plausible. I think this is a very important point: that you can’t just slap a badge onto something just to make it popular. Or just because something will then resemble a video game more can it be expected to work. For the idea of gamification to really catch on, and for it really to encourage learning, these video-game-like features have to be inherent to the system. Not something just thrown on as a cheap ploy, but they need to be deeply embedded within the structure of learning and education.

I would really like to see more gamificationin school settings, with systems such as badges not only encourage students to learn about what interests them but to also begin to discuss it online with their friends and peers. I’ve come to see through the Mormon Badges Projects that it is essential to not only have to give out the online proof of learning but to create a tool to share that proof online with friends and family. Gamification initially may encourage someone to initially learn something, but it is only through well thought out application and design of these elements that an app or badge program can really expect to succeed and have a lasting effect.

Ultimately Gartner asserts that, “While game mechanics such as points and badges are the hallmarks of gamification, the real challenge is to design player-centric applications that focus on the motivations and rewards that truly engage players more fully. Game mechanics like points, badges and leader boards are simply the tools that implement the underlying engagement models.”

The Matrix, Wreck-It Ralph and Identity

 

While I’ve been home for Thanksgiving this past week I finally had the time to see two digital cultural related movies (albeit completely different): Wreck-It Ralph and the Matrix. While I had heard good things about both, and I thought that they would both pertain to themes I’ve been blogging and thinking about over the last few months, I was very surprised at how nicely they actually go together. The Matrix is very much more intense and dark than Wreck-It Ralph, but they both pose interesting questions of identity and how to survive in a world completely dominated by technology.

I should probably begin by saying that I was pleasantly surprised with the Matrix, and Wreck-it Ralph drove me crazy. Going into both movies I expected to not like the Matrix and to enjoy Wreck-it, but it’s nice to be wrong once in a while. Although both movies left me with a lot to think about, I appreciate the mind-bending way the Wachowski brothers approached the questions they raised about reality and where we can draw the lines.

Within both movies there is the central idea of being able to create and mold who we are, especially in video games and virtual reality. I think that its essential that both Ralph and Neo only get power over their own world and situation, whether its their video game or inside the Matrix, as they choose who they’re going to be and how the world will perceive them. It is when Neo finally accepts himself as the hacker Neo, not the safe computer programmer he once was, that he finds his power as the one. Likewise Ralph needs to accept himself as he is, but also realize that he has potential outside of the roles others have prescribed for him, so that he can gain control over his world and his environment.

Now I don’t necessarily think we’re all living in a completely machine controlled world, but I do think that the idea of creating our own identity is still essential to controlling our online world (and the very physical reflections it can have). I highly doubt we’re going to have the types of identity crises portrayed in either movie, yet the way he define ourselves and our relationships online gives them power and authority within our world. As we choose who we’re going to be online, we decide what influences we’re going to let into our lives and the power they will have.

In the end both of these movies echo the same themes of who are we and how do we formulate our own identities in a world that is trying to describe ourselves for us. I don’t know if I’d personally recommend Wreck-It Ralph, but I think that both it and the Matrix provide an invaluable lens for viewing our culture and our increasingly digital society.

Looking at the DM+LC4

I've been meaning to take some time to examine the winners from the Digital Media + Learning competition 4 that I mentioned in a blog post this weekend. Although badges do seem to be relatively unknown, its pretty encouraging to see that a number of interesting a diverse groups are beginning to use badges for a variety of projects.

One of the badge projects that I've found most interesting is the "My Girl Scout Sash is an App" badge system. The project is described as bringing "the Girl Scout Leadership Experience and career development badge program to a digital media learning platform for girls, ages 5-17, with a focus on middle school and high school. Through collaboration with Motorola Mobility Foundation and MentorMob, teams of girls will create apps, demonstrating and sharing the knowledge gained and badge proficiencies. MentorMob's Learning Platform will be scalable to any individual, teacher, or organization as it is free, open, and crowdsourced."

This idea ties very nicely with the system I've been looking for combining Personal Progress with badges. Yet what is perhaps most intriguing is the idea of tying badges (not a new idea with scouting) to a digital media learning platform, which also seems to be linked with digital media learning. It's pretty awesome to be able to inspire girls to learn how to make their own apps and using badges as a means of demonstrating proficiency.

Another interesting badge project is the "Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explores Badges," which again is tied to education although with a focus on wilderness and conservation issues. This project is described as engaging "youth in nature-based explorations, offering them a way to learn about and become advocates for wildlife and wild places. As these young Wilderness Explorers learn about conservation issues, they become teachers and ambassadors, content producers, and change makers. Badges will provide opportunities for Wilderness Explorers to make real connections in their communities that promote conservation locally and globally."

Again this idea is drawing upon the gamification of learning, but here its fascinating to combine such physical and outdoor based learning with digital media, which is a typically indoor activity. This is actually quite an exciting juxtaposition, and I'm interested to learn more about it as the project grows.

Although there are many different and interesting projects associated with this competition, its exciting to see that others are realizing the capability of badges to influence learning through gamification, even if it is of material that is traditionally associated with the outdoors rather than computers!

Digital Culture and Civic Engagement

Last week prompted by the election, I had the chance to think more about digital ethics and how our digital culture is making it easier and easier to become involved within politics and our governments. My first thoughts on this were on all my friends who at the time were sharing their political views and opinions through social media without even having to leave home. While this was often a little too overt for my tastes, I appreciate how my friends typified how our generation is getting involved to try to create the change they feel is necessary in the world. But even more than just sharing on Facebook or Twitter, I’ve come to see that the internet is a powerful tool for true engagement in civic processes whether it’s on a local, national or international level.

This summer I spent time at the United Nations in Geneva advocating for social change for women’s and family rights. While it was obviously very effective to be able to communicate in person with NGOs and member states, I was surprised at the prevalence and importance of social media. Countries, and the UN itself, are making an effort to be online tweeting and posting Facebook updates. No longer do you have to be in Geneva to follow what’s being said in the Human Rights Council or at the General Assembly in New York (check out footage here! ). As the sessions are live, anyone anywhere can be actively following issues that are important to them.

Yes this does take time and effort, but I firmly believe that we need to be following issues that are important to us and our world – whether or not we see them directly affecting us.

Likewise I had the chance to do less personal advocacy within the UK through emails and letters to politicians about the issue of Female Genital Mutilation. While this is a very specific issue, it was empowering to see the kind of response a simple letter or email to a Member of Parliament could generate.  Most of these MPs have information available online with their voting history, and thoughts and experience about very relevant issues, making it simple and not frightening to contact them online or through more formal letters. At first I thought that these sorts of communications wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I am now of the opinion that this is exactly the way to make our voices heard. Even if we just send a short letter or email, it is vitally important that we let our politicians know how we feel about issues that we see as important.

Yes, I think sharing our opinions through social media is a great start to civic engagement. But as digital media brings our world closer and closer together, I know that we need to use all of our resources, whether that’s a webcast, twitter or email, to make our voice heard and start changing the world around us.