Newfound Knowledge

Describe some of the ways in which you intend to make use of your newfound knowledge from this course.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil.

That sounds ominous, but what I'm trying to say is that all these tools can be incredibly useful, or can turn and drive the user. One could become obsessed with checking RSS feeds, or keeping that blog up to date. Over the course of my married life, my husband has given me three truely great, inspired presents. One was a chainsaw. These tools are like chainsaws - powerful, useful and fun, but watch the kick-back.

More than the knowledge of any one or several tools, is the knowledge that I can now explore other tools, with greater freedom and discretion. When the internet was first available, it was slow and cumbersome, and had limited utility. As it became more valuable and easier to use, it also became more dangerous; worms, viruses and phishing appeared. Now we know better how to protect ourselves while using the net, but I think some of the trepidation remains in trying new tools. But a safeguard is that many of these new tools keep information on the user computer to a minimum, and are much safer than the old ways.

Vroom, vroom.

What it all means

Although the expressed focus on the text is on education, I have been trying to assess these tools in how they could be applied in other fields, such as government, business or religion.

Richardson makes two points early on: that the web will continue to provide more and more content, and that this content will be generated collaboratively. And it’s not just the content that is generated collaboratively, but the availability of the content. An essay with one author still requires the collaboration of the programmers that created the wiki/blog/RSS/social bookmarking, the business people who make the application available on the web, the hardware manufacturers, etc.

It’s easy to see the sharing of information and the shift to collaboration in education; after all education is about information sharing. The shift may be slower in other fields, but I think it is happening. For example, when the Town of Brattleboro wants to add to or modify a section of the Zoning Bylaw, we search for a document we can use as a framework. Sometimes the State provides a model document, but more often we look for a Bylaw already in use by another Town. More often, we are finding the sample ordinance on-line. It usually isn’t exactly what we want, so it gets changed to fit the local need.

This is where the “new literacy”, the reader as writer/editor steps in. We first find the content, then evaluate it, then modify (edit) it, and finally, the new document goes full circle, and reappears on the Town website as part of the Zoning Bylaw/Town Plan/Sign Ordinance. All ready for someone else to find, evaluate, edit and publish.

What it all means

Although the expressed focus on the text is on education, I have been trying to assess these tools in how they could be applied in other fields, such as government, business or religion.

The text makes two points early on: that the web will continue to provide more and more content, and that this content will be generated collaboratively. And it’s not just the content that is generated collaboratively, but the availability of the content. An essay with one author still requires the collaboration of the programmers that created the wiki/blog/RSS/social bookmarking, the business people who make the application available on the web, the hardware manufacturers, etc.

It’s easy to see the sharing of information and the shift to collaboration in education; after all education is about information sharing. The shift may be slower in other fields, but I think it is happening. For example, when the Town of Brattleboro wants to add to or modify a section of the Zoning Bylaw, we search for a document we can use as a framework. Sometimes the State provides a model document, but more often we look for a Bylaw already in use by another Town. More often recently, we are finding the sample ordinance on-line. It usually isn’t exactly what we want, so it gets changed to fit the local need.

This is where the “new literacy”, the reader as writer/editor steps in. We first find the content, then evaluate it, then modify (edit) it, and finally, the new document goes full circle, and reappears on the Town website as part of the Zoning Bylaw/Town Plan/Sign Ordinance. All ready for someone else to find, evaluate, edit and publish.