The same information about NSO activities that appears in the syllabus also appears below.
Activities at NSO, Spring 2009
This is a list of the basic activities during our three-hour NSO. Explanations follow:
- Intro to course, each other - 30 min.
- Create a blogfolio - 30 min.
- Perception exercises - 20 min.
- Seeing technology’s Connections/Disconnections - 45 min.
- Creating a research framework - 45 min.
- Time left over? - What's your mantra
NSO Activity #2- Create a blogfolio; address visually differentiated text (VDT) (30 minutes)
All of your work will be posted on or through a blog you create using one of the many free, publically available blogging resources. Can you use FaceBook? Ning? Other non-blog options? Yes. The goal is to create a portfolio space for yourself that is embedded in the flow of the public internet. We will take some time in class for you to create your blog so you are up and running and can start posting immediately. And we will address presenting text on a blog using visually differentiated text (VDT) format.
NSO Activity #3- What do you think you see? (20 minutes)
I am not going to detail this activity in this document, for fear that I may spoil it. It will include looking at material from the web and reading something from Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You.
Note: it is afternoon and I am writing this after we used the materials this as a class, so this won't be ruined for you! I am including them on our class site in case you want to refer to them later:
- Passing the ball (Daniel J. Simmons). The theme of this exercise is "the bias of focus."
- pages 18-20 from Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson. I strongly recommend you read the entire book. The theme of this exercise is "the bias of tradition."
NSO Activity #4- Seeing technology’s connections and disconnections (45 minutes)
Technology connects and disconnects. The connections are often obvious, immediate and shiny, while the disconnections are often delayed and camouflaged. After all, it was difficult to foresee that the microwave oven would actually obsolesce the need for family dinner by enabling ever younger children to cook meals by themselves. Yet, that is exactly what it has done.
In this activity we will address a way to assess technology’s potential impacts, and then discuss a few technologies in terms their connective and disconnective properties.
Post on your blog, using the heading “Technology’s connections and disconnections.” What did you glean from this activity? How does it change how you view the technology in your life? What are your “take-away” realizations as a result of this activity? As always, feel free to note any biases you suspect in the materials that were used. Also, be vigilant about using visually differentiated text in your presentation.
NSO Activity #5- Creating a research framework (45 min.)
The success of your dissertation will rest heavily on your ability to form a clear research question and articulate the process needed to answer it. In order to do this you need to see clearly what you want to do and build a structure and path to get you from question to answer.
This activity addresses the steps of the research process and then requires you to create a research structure for studying an aspect of your energy consumption.
Post on your blog, using the heading “The research process.” What did you glean from this activity? How does it change how you view research? What are your “take-away” realizations as a result of this activity? As always, feel free to note any biases you suspect in the materials that were used. Also, be vigilant about using visually differentiated text in your presentation.
Time left?
NSO Activity #6- What's your mantra?
Guy Kawaski, a futurist and great keynote speaker, has this to say (in so may words) about mission statements. If you ask most people who work in an organization what the organization's mission statement is, they couldn't tell you. That's because it is too long, too complicated and too uninspirational. Companies need mantras - 12 words or less that boils down their essence so well that any employee would understand it and state it if asked.
Here's my mantra as an educational technologist:
- To use technology effectively, creatively, wisely...and funly.
- To use media and technology effectively, creatively, wisely...and funly.
