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Posts tagged with: technology

Has Digital Technology made us less curious?

using a toy lizard to demonstrate a pendulum

There have been 2 events this week that made me think about digital technology. [Digital Technology in a vague modern term, from smart phones to digital cooking scales].

First I must explain the picture above. This is my attempt at explaining a pendulum to my 11yr old son. He wanted to know why I was going on and on about women’s rights and marches and other womeny things these days, and I was trying to explain that long-term oppression can cause an equally wild reaction. As in the swing of a pendulum. Women have been oppressed for so long, we need revolutionary action (non-violent subversive stitching, is as revolutionary as I get) to get the pendulum swinging against patriarchy. It will swing wildly at first, and then, naturally find its own balance. I believe this of all kinds of oppression fall under Newtons Third Law –For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. And/or perhaps karma.

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(Digital Literacies) A Pedagogy

image of a hybrid unicorn with words hybrid pedagogy

The cultivation of learning is a cognitive and emotional and social activity [Illeris 2002]

Investigation and identification of digital literacy activities, since the inception of the world wide web and personal computers, has been the concern of numerous researchers. The need for mastering electronic tools, ability to plan, execute and evaluate digital actions; these skills are now considered crucial [Fieldhouse & Nicholas 2008, Martin 2003].

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Digital Literacy

image of ancient greek lady writing with text digital literacies

As discussed in a previous article, Digital Literacies is one of the nine themes of Engaged Digital Citizenship. I wrote only briefly about it though, as it is a complex theme in itself and it warranted having its own article. Of all the nine themes of Engaged Digital Citizenship, Digital Literacy has the most meaning and potential to facilitate knowledge, ideas and communication in community based digital projects. In order to be able to research the benefits and obstacles within digital community-based projects, it is essential to understand what Digital Literacy means: with regard to the practical, pedagogical and lifelong learning. In this article I will discuss why we need to know about digital literacies.

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Engaged Digital Citizenship

citizenship

In my quest for the holy grail of knowledge; how individuals, community-based projects and digital technologies can positively facilitate each other, I am researching ‘engaged digital citizenship’.  To truly understand how individuals can become digital citizens, I am looking at the policies and research on the subjects of engaged digital citizenship, including digital communications, digital literacies and digital health and well-being. By being acutely aware of the themes of Digital Citizenship, I can gauge better the successfulness of a digital praxis in a community-led project.

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Critique: New York Public Library

graphic with text of new york public library digital collection

The New York Public Library has just released a Mecca for graphic designers, artists, researchers, designers, digital artists, fabric printers, scrapbookers, students, visual browsers and many, many, more.. The no holds barred online publication of over 180,000 digitized public domain images, that include manuscripts, maps, photographs, sheet music, lithographs, postcards, etc.

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How do we read? From Svennson to Hayles

image of a girl reading a book and a hand holding a kindle

[Source: flickr.com and pexels.com]

Reading Patrik Svennson’s ‘Envisioning the Digital Humanities’,¹ I found his article slow to read and heavy, but exciting in the end. His thoughts on collaboration, interdisciplinary work, the uniqueness of the situation that Humanities now finds itself in, with evolving digital technology. His discussion on the academic side, of its recognition by universities, the current graduate system, and also funding initiatives, seem to be the major fence, digital humanities must climb.

What I found most interesting is the uncertainty of Digital Humanities. Is it human or technologically pushed? In the future, will it be sponsored by philanthropy or by corporate businesses? Can it expand, to

“a well-designed and conceptually grounded space, whether mainly physical, digital or necessarily mixed, can help bring people together, instantiate technology, be clearly invitational, support collaborative and processional work practices, and allow ongoing, cross-sectional, and profound dialogue”?

Following on from this we were asked to think about how we ourselves read now, has anything changed because of technology?

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