Think Link

Picking up from yesterday's thinking about links and why it's important to 'teach links', here's a brief talk by Jay Rosen on the 'ethic of the link' and the meaning of the Web:

I'm still working this stuff out in my mind, but I would love to hear what you all have to say about it.

The Difference Between Knowing and Understanding in the Immediately Connected Mobile World

Fisch notes that 'We have the technology'. Concerning the Bionic Eye iPhone app, he notes:

This is a nice little app for what it does, but imagine what it’s going to evolve into: a portable heads-up display for everything. Yes, right now it lists restaurants, subway stations (in certain cities), and wifi hotspots, but it’s not that hard to extrapolate a few years into the future where this app – or something like it – connects you to all the available information about whatever you’re looking at.

Whether it's this thing or some other, we are one way or another headed towards immediate on-the-go information all the time. But information alone is not education. Knowledge of content is only half the battle.

As constant immediate information becomes the norm, more than ever we are going to need to instill critical analytical skills into our students' educations. But we have to get beyond the limited definitions of critical thinking so often espoused.

We have to ever more distinguish between the ability to 'know' something and the ability to 'understand'. And most specifically to what this type of critical thinking should look like in the Digital Age, I'd suggest we need to consider the uniquely particular 21st century instances of content: namely links and apps.

Now, sure, links have been around since the beginning of the World Wide Web. But especially with regard to the savvy linking done on the fly via Twitter, links themselves are taking on the position of content rich text-forms.

We have to teach kids to understand the critical basis of 'link decision'; that is, the decision to hyperlink online. Links -- especially in mobile apps -- have become more than just directional; they've gained a sort of a live intertextual import. And so, I'd like to see intertextuality take center stage in our discussion of teaching critical thinking skills.

Because it's not just about reading the text; it's about meta-reading the links.

That too is part of the difference between knowing and understanding in the Digital Age.

Owning Knowledge: thoughts about the 'Ethic of the Link'

Great interview with Jay Rosen on social media and journalism that I think bears a lot of importance for educators.

Pay close attention to the comments made concerning the "Ethic of the Link" around 4:27:

"You don't just use the web to tell people stuff, you send them to where they can learn more.... to connect people with sources of knowledge that they can use themselves so that they're not dependent on you all the time to tell them something else."

That's what we want to happen in the classroom. As we discussed concerning the Pappas article from a couple of days ago, if a student is always looking for teacher validation, that student will be lost once they leave the classroom.

We need students to validate themselves.

So, we shouldn't be giving information to the students. We should be giving students links to the information and then we should hold them responsible for following and searching the links. Classtime itself should be a conversation, a debriefing, a discussion based on what the students found.

Now, this is not unlike asking a student to go read an article so that we can discuss it tomorrow. Except in that few students are going to read a piece of paper and then, autodidactically, go off and try to find out more information. But via links, the student enters into a Web of information navigable in an inviting way; personal interest and self-motivation is cued by curiosity and made accessible by simple access to more links. And, of course in the fluid and social world of links available via Twitter, Diigo, and the like, the student actually becomes part of the process of the creation of knowledge itself. The result is ultimately one of activating ownership.

The process of actively accessing sources of knowledge rather than expecting the passive reception culled from the distribution of knowledge is the defining feature of a successful academic mindset.

We want the student to own knowledge, not lease it until the exam is through.

Introducing Google Innovation Blog

Check out my new Blog dedicated to Innovations at Google:

http://googleinnovation.blogspot.com

Google Innovation

Google Innovation Blog contains the latest:

News, Reviews, Articles, Case studies, Best practices, Insights, Ideas, Success stories, Blogs and more about Innovations at Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)

I am planning to incorporate the latest technology, business model, partnerships and software advances at Google as they are announced, and provide my review and analysis on the same. What insights can be gained from these new innovations? How successful will these innovations be in the marketplace? The Blog articles and posts will be as I see it, my opinion, my analysis, my thoughts on how Google is shaping new innovations and bringing them to the marketplace. There will be the occasional interviews with the innovators and product champions at Google. I also plan to include some of the best materials found on the web and the blogosphere on everything to do with Google innovations. Some of the pertinent blog posts on Google Innovation will find their way to the Creativity and Innovation Driving Business Blog.

For instance, in my latest blog post:

Google Trends: Everything Out in the Open, Move Over Zeitgeist

Bottomline:

Google Trends and Hot Trends are definitely Hot! It not only gives you a pulse on the latest happenings online as seen by Google Search, but also gives you comparisons on two or more trends over the time frame of your choice: today, yesterday, or any given day. Now if only Google can tell us what will be Hot tomorrow!! Move over Zeitgeist.

Google's New Search - Step in the right direction - Still some ways to go

Bottomline:

Google's new search technology is an early effort towards making searching for information better. Google has the right vision of integrating the search across various dimensions of Web, Images, Video, Products, etc. and providing comprehensive results. However, implementing this algorithm for new search, producing the results in parallel, and showing the results in a visually appealing and contextually easy-to-understand manner is going to be key as Google moves forward. Google may also be faced with the problem of what a majority of the user population may be seeking: a simpler answer to their search query. The more sophisticated users may appreciate the comprehensive answer that Google will provide. How would Google know whether the user is a layman user or a sophisticated user? One thing is certain though: Google has the ability to mine the world's information and present it in a contextual setting that is relevant to the user. Google just needs to make sure that in creating a new search, it does not make it confusing for the end user, as this would be huge step backward.

Google to create new R&D Center in South India

Bottomline:

Google is poised to expand its base in India with this new R & D center that can house up to 4,000 engineers. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh in South India wins the nod from Google, partly because Google has already a 1,000 person engineering and services operation for the online sales running quite smoothly; however, when you have the chief minister of Andhra and his team wooing you to do more with all the incentives, it would have been very hard for Google to say no. Timing is everything. Don't be surprised if by the end of 2010, Google has a four thousand people strong R & D center in South India with plans to make it a ten thousand employee organization across all of India based on the kind of growth Google is seeing and its position as one of the top innovators of the world.

I invite you to explore the Google Innovation Blog, and provide me your valuable comments and feedback.

Here's to blogging on Google Innovation.

References:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.