4 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2017
    1. The freedom of the Web—the freedom to link and follow links—is a function of the closed and recursive nature of the system, one that includes by necessarily excluding. Most contemporary search engines, Google chief among them, now share the assumption that a “hyperlink” is a marker of authority or endorsement.

      This endorsement of a hyperlink as a marker of authority is necessary to the efficiency of the web because it facilitates a heirarchy or priority system within the web that the user can control in order to be connected with or promote his desired information. Without this connector tool of the hyperlink's priority for searching online there would be no order or organization in search engines but rather a chaos that prevents or adds delay to the almost infinite set of information's efficiency.

    1. Experiments demonstrate that readers of ideograms, such as the Chinese, develop a mental circuitry for reading that is very different from the circuitry found in those of us whose written language employs an alphabet.

      I wonder if this same mental circuitry developed in readers of ideograms will appear similar to the mental circuits woven in the minds of the digital age's up-and-coming generation whose current language includes a set of alphabetic letters with an increasing ratio of meaning-bearing images like online symbols and emojis. One day in the future I look forward to being able to compare brain scans of current day native Chinese speaking individuals with individuals who developed their literacy skills through primarily online interactions, such as my children who will likely grow up in a world where the digital age was well in prominence prior to their birth.

    1. The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.

      Initially, I would have argued that the quality and accuracy of the present information contained in the pipe that is being actively disseminated is the most important aspect of the system. However, after reading Mr. Siemens' blog post here on Connectivism, my stance is closer to his conclusion. I think the information within the pipe will have fluctuations in regards to accuracy, but that is to be expected with freedom of use and not as concerned about (as I initially was) because that information is constantly held accountable by the the web's active users. The pipe needs to have the highest priority of sustainable integrity because it is what facilitates the connected to said free information, without the pipe, there is no endless web of links and connections across distance and time over the web.

  2. Jun 2017
    1. Now let’s connect these ideas to Bruner and his ideas in Toward a Theory of Instruction, ideas that influenced Alan Kay and other learning researchers who helped to envision and build the personal, interactive, networked computing environment we now live within with varying degrees of openness and permissiveness.

      Alan Kay understood that in order to maximize what could be achieved out of Bruner's three levels of communicating (learning), the computer first needed a democratic change in accessibility. Bruner's influence led Alan Kay imagine a change in the conceptual use of a computer into a dynamic personal media system that would be easy for even (especially) children to utilize by both learning through and creating/innovating on the same screen. *See MOD 3's Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, “Personal Dynamic Media” (essay, 1977)