Of Mice and Middle Years…

I remember as a boy in the mid seventies watching the T.V series called Space 1999 . The premise of the series was that a horrible nuclear explosion caused the moon to drift away from the earth into deep space. At night I would stare in wonderment at the moon and imagined what it would be like to be looking up from earth and see that terrible event occur. One night I dreamt that this actually happened. I remember looking up and hearing someone yell “BOOOOOOM!”. There was no sound effect, just someone yelling “BOOOOOOM!”. At the time it frightened me because in my mind that was what it would have sounded like. I had no idea what that sound would be like, no concept that in actuality there would be no sound. I was young and that was that. Funniest thing I remember from my childhood.

As I sat Wednesday night in our session in EC&I 831 that focused on the order of closure on an educational blog by Al Upton in Australia, and my previous post on the recent events that surrounded the near expulsion of a student at Ryerson for his use of Facebook I recalled that dream.

I remembered the dream because in a very real sense it parallels the lack of understanding that these administrations of their respective institutions have in relation to these technologies. So instead of investigation and consultation to develop an understanding of these social networking tools and their applications, they come to their own rash and uninformed conclusions and act accordingly. They yell “BOOOOM!”.

It was very soon after (maybe a couple of weeks) I had that dream I recalled how silly it was to hear that yell. I wonder if these institutions are still yelling the same sound and how long it will take them to come to that same realization that I did those many years ago.

After listening to Brian Lamb and D’arcy Norman’s presentation Tuesday night, I took some time to read the article they had posted entitled Social Software in Action (No Real Software Required). I think the article does a terrific job in summing up the message that both gentlemen conveyed in their presentation; knowledge need not be housed or conveyed to only the select few in our society through traditional or “proprietary” (and expensive) avenues… it can be open to all and distributed through the collective efforts of a social network using a variety of inexpensive/free tools.

I must admit, I had some struggles in regards to free access to knowledge in regards to whether there was a question of that knowledge bearing academic validity and integrity. After picking Rob’s brain (local calls are really cheap) I came to the conclusion that I was actually muddling these concepts. We in EC&I 831 are introduced to presenters who facilitate insights and knowledge (academic validity and integrity) through an expensive program such as Elluminate, yet that same presentation is then sent out to Ustream where all can view and (by the grace of the instructors) participate (free access to knowledge). Our Wednesday night discussions are delivered effectively through free online tools (Ustream and Skype) In a sense, I was preoccupied with the “milk” and the “driver” and not on “truck” itself.

Do they even still have milk trucks?

Although he will not be expelled, the Ryerson student has still been found guilty of academic misconduct, will receive a zero on ten percent of his course, and have to take a course in relation to academic misconduct. View the CBC article here.

If anyone has more information as to why he was found guilty and yet not expelled, I would be interested to know why.

Your thoughts?