I first saw Andrew Odlyzko’s article Content is not king in Vol 6 Num 2 of the journal First Monday in 2003 or something. First Monday has consistently delivered many a mind altering experience for me, and even 6 years later it is worth revisiting this Feb 2001 article. In it Andrew makes an almost prophetic argument for the time.
In the following sections I develop the argument that connectivity is more important than content. The evidence is based on current and historical spending figures. I also show that the current preoccupation with content by decision makers is not new, as similar attitudes have been common in the past. I then make projections for the future role of content and connectivity, and discuss implications for the architecture of the Internet, including wireless technologies.
At the time of Andrew’s article, Learning Management systems were being used by educational management to bash the early adopters of the Internet into line and force them out of their DIY Internet projects and into template driven, organisation wide Learning Management Systems. I was called in to create high cost “Learning Objects” that the students would use instead of text books and analogue distance learning materials. The teacher took a back seat, always waiting expectantly for the content, always quietly skeptical that anything online would change what they do. To claim that content was not king at that time was something of a challenge to the likes of me who’s income was being made through eLearning content production, and to the managers who were blindly redirecting massive amounts of money into new content production. We hardly took notice of this argument, strangely nor did the displaced teachers…
Around the same time Dave Wiley produced the Reusability Paradox which was another spanner in the works articulating a persistant frustration being felt by content producers and elearning developers. The content wasn’t being used!!
It took me another 2 years to see the writing on the wall, and when Web2 / socially networked media / user generated content came along in 2003/4 I began to see my escape route.
Today, I recognise a connection in Andrew’s argument that content is not king, and Illich’s Deschooling Society – Chapter 6, Learning Webs. In Learning Webs, Illich also argues for investments in connectivity before content. I also recognise through the Illich connection that this argument has been going on for quite some time, and is not likely to get resolved anytime soon. Even with such stark and plainly obvious proof like email, SMS, blogging, online learning communities, and content-less courses that it is connection that is of more value to people.
So today, the struggle to appreciate these arguments goes on. At Otago Polytechnic we are investing in Flexible Learning. A considerable amount of that investment goes to Internet based content production unfortunately. We bicker and fight about this nearly every day. I myself spend a significant amount of time developing content, even though I am experienced and aware of the reasons why not to. To balance this plain as day risk we are also trying to get our teachers (and students for that matter) connected as well, but it is harder to quantify or see the results of this than it is with numbers and screens of content.
What does “getting our teachers connected” mean? It means helping them to appreciate Internet connectivity beyond content access; it means encouraging them to blog; network online and find others in their field, make contact, communicate, form learning communities, connect. It means extending the already familiar and tangible notion of face to face contact to an online and hence always connected context. It is very hard work, and very difficult to develop, especially when we can have very little say in the infrastructure that supports such an effort here in New Zealand.
A quick look at NZ Internet stats …
My sense tells me that these stats reflect a reality in Otago that we fail to fully comprehend in education. And when we’re talking broadband, we should probably expect low speeds, low data caps, poor reliability, and shared computers to be further impacting all through that 33% broadband. How can we facilitate connectivity in the way I’ve described with infrastructure and take up that produce these stats?
Connectivity is our biggest challenge. Both infrastructural and behaviorally. Content is hard to justify when at least 67% of New Zealanders have very limited means to access it.
I plan to find out more about the KAREN project, and how it is promising very fast internet connections between universities and other nodes throughout NZ. At the moment the KAREN project seems to be focused on its application in research and formal education, celebrating stories of video conferencing between research groups, and distance education into schools. I want to find out if anyone has proposed distributing some of that connectivity out to communities. Something along the lines of South Australia’s Air Stream project, would possibly help improve both access and uptake of broadband connectivity, and help introduce an appreciation of wireless in the region. I’m not sure how big the KAREN is, but if a portion of its use could be made available for free community wireless across the region, I think that will go a long way to improving connectivity.
Update:
- Very thought provoking proposal by Rod Drury, Owning our digital trade routes
- 10layers – Good blog keeping us updated on the state of play in NZ connectivity
- Wireless mesh proposal on KAREN’s wiki
21 comments
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December 27, 2007 at 5:48 pm
John Larkin
I could not agree more Leigh. Your post has struck a resonating chord. I spent the second half of the 1990s as a member of various teams creating CD-ROMs using a variety of tools. I also built Apple HyperCard stacks. It was an exciting time and some nice products were created by the teams but I wonder where are they now?
Following that I was part of team developing eLearning ‘solutions’ that were to be hosted on platforms such as SABA, Blackboard and Docent. The LMS approach appeared to be quite prescriptive following the work on the more enlightened CD-ROMS that had applied a constructivist and collaborative approach to the embedded activities. I am not a fan of the LMS. They are useful for storing resources but the discussion forums were not always a well used teaching and learning tool. [I must add the some institutions have embedded blogs, wikis and podcasts within Blackboard of late and the tools are not that bad actually ~ this is a step in the right direction for those organisations].
The buzzword back in 2001 or thereabouts was ‘learning objects’ as you indicate above. I could comprehend the concept but I could never see it as being practical. The central issues were time and change for me.
Creating a meaningful, instructive and reusable ‘learning object’ using Flash, Director, Toolbook or even C++ would take time and a lot of resources. If it was to be a worthy learning tool or object in my opinion you would need a decent programmer, a worthy instructional designer, a graphic artist (skilled in art, bitmap and vector graphics), an editor and a subject matter expert. Occasionally there would be individuals who possessed all of those qualities and may produce nice programmable Shockwave simulations for physics lessons (such as my friend Goh Wee Sen of Nanyang Technological University) but that was rare.
Another aspect of the ‘learning object’ phenomenon that puzzled/amused me back in 2001 was the various definitions and examples that the term attracted. I remember hearing one speaker argue that a university could be termed a learning object. How many SCORM parameters would it attract in a database? A photograph could be a learning object. Just about anything could become a learning object. [It was the first time I had heard of tagging however.]
I gradually moved away from those areas of information technology and began teaching teachers and higher education staff, both academic and general, how to become more productive with the tools of the trade ~ digital cameras, video cameras, computers and the like as well as tools that I felt that they would find enjoyable to use such as Photoshop, Sound Edit, Premiere, Audacity, Lectora, Blogger and so on.
I felt that it was better and even more true to myself to teach other educators how to be more practical, save time and enliven their environment. I moved from production cubicles back to the teaching arena ~ back to the classroom. My focus moved towards building skills and time-saving strategies. Connectivity and collaboration were the two central messages. Share the tools with their students and colleagues and never work in isolation within a faculty or department. Collaboration with colleagues and students affords economies of scale one can never achieve working in isolation. It also affords an emphasis on what it means to be human. Being connected.
Leigh, as you argue connectivity is indeed the direction to take. I don’t want this to be a ‘me too’ post but it has come out that way. Leigh your thoughts mirrored my own back then and I simply wanted to respond. Communication, sharing, building and reflecting. An inspirational post Leigh.
December 27, 2007 at 6:19 pm
leighblackall
no worries John, nice to hear your story here too. So much money was poured into learning objects hey!! And it has quietly gone away without even as much as a hick!
December 27, 2007 at 6:22 pm
TeachTech » Blog Archive » Leigh Blackall on Connectivity
[…] to socially constructed learning’ at Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand has written a telling post on connectivity. His post looks at the premise that content is king and he argues that it is connectivity that is […]
December 28, 2007 at 7:45 pm
John Larkin
Thanks Leigh. Yes, a great deal of money was poured into ‘learning objects’ and earlier developments such as CD-ROMs. I was a part of projects where the budgets exceeded 7 figures and I know that several of the products are now redundant and sitting on shelves or stored upon back-up hard drives.
Quite sad in a way. Several of them were quite good as I indicated above and secured awards in various venues but unlike a good book I do not think they will be ‘republished’. It is an interesting thought.
It is doubly sad as the CD-ROMs were not published for profit but purely to enrich the learning of children.
Cheers,
John
December 28, 2007 at 8:03 pm
leighblackall
Yeah, but it could be an easy fix (or value add).. we should upload all the media to popular servers, in open formats, with free licenses. Then at least we will potentially see them republished, in the socially networked media way. Suggest Archive.org as a good place to start. I’ve often thought about it myself.. I still have backups of the projects I worked on. They are all shelfware now, and I didn’t sign any IP contracts, so technically I could republish this media… 🙂 I will if you will 😉
December 29, 2007 at 11:23 am
Wayne
Hi Leigh
Perhaps you’re being a little hard on yourself criticizing on your efforts to generate content ..;-)
Content are the “objects” of discourse — discussions (and education) cannot take place in a vacuum, we need something to talk about!
Perhaps its more productive to think about social connectivity and content (the things we talk and think about) as two sides of the same coin.
The power of the Web is that this is the first communication technology that is simultaneously the medium and content of our interactions. For example this communication/interacting is potentially an object/content for future discussion.
Just a thought ….
December 29, 2007 at 9:28 pm
leighblackall
yes, you are right Wayne. This is a communication, producing content of a type, long after our connection. But it is a very different sort of content to the stuff of eLearning1.0 hey.. the CDs, the learning objects, the flash animations, the html pages to replace text books. The wiki work that you and I are doing though, I reckon that is the happy middle ground, and it is the type of content you describe. And that’s where I’m investing my time with content creation. I wish though, that we were directed to do more about connectivity though…
December 30, 2007 at 3:44 am
Based Conferencing Web » Blog Archive » Revisiting Content is not king. Connectivity is priority. KAREN
[…] Revisiting Content is not king. Connectivity is priority. KAREN I first saw Andrew Odlyzko’s article Content is not king in Vol 6 Num 2 of the journal First Monday. First Monday has consistently delivered many a mind altering experience for me, and even 6 years later it is worth revisiting this Feb 2001 article. In it Andrew makes an almost prophetic argum… […]
December 31, 2007 at 7:10 am
phil ker
Snap! Leigh, I agree with your comments, and hope you win some more of those battles with yourself NOT to create more content . Actually, you need to win them with some of your colleagues – those who need to appreciate that our job as educational designers ( subset of teachers) is to create an engaging and stimulating learning journey. Not to recreate content that is available in abundance.
As a senior manager of Otago Polytechnic I am hugely frustrated by that part of our spend on course/programme development that goes into content regeneration. There is so much more we can do with our scarce resources! What’s wrong with an on line course that uses a good text? or a good set of readings ( on-line or print )? or which points students in directions where they can locate their own content? Including talking to people who might actually know things – other than their official teacher!!!
So, all strength to your arm, and those of your EDC colleagues, to win the ” we do not need more content on-line ” battle.
January 1, 2008 at 9:02 am
leighblackall
Hi Phil! Its is reassuring to have you say that. Always good to know that the boss is with you on something.. well, many things as it turns out.
I’m not sure if you are involved much with the KAREN project being managed over at the university, our if you know how much involvement the Poly has in it? And I have been saving info, ideas and other resources relating to cheap portable computers, wireless connectivity and we have had a lot of involvment with many of the facilitators working at the Community Learning Centres.. perhaps we can get involved in some initiative that sees more people satisfactorily connected in Otago backed up with CLC support for learning the skills to use it effectively…
January 1, 2008 at 5:15 pm
The Age of Kings is over — Internet Time Blog
[…] now and then some blogger repeats the ancient mantra, “Content is king.” Another will counter that Connections trump content. (Tom Kelly used to say “…and […]
January 9, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Marg
Nice post Leigh. What it says to me is that connections endure, whereas content comes and goes.
January 19, 2008 at 1:20 pm
John S Veitch
Hello Leigh
It’s nice to find you writing about the need for people to be more connected. Speaking for myself it’s taken a long time for that penny to drop. I think that in the social climate in New Zealand, we tend to look for single sources of expertise, and so we look for “content”, and expect it to come from a single source.
In contrast some of us are involved in a communication web that has no centre and no source of divine inspiration and wisdom. My own interest is far from the classroom but deeply involved in education still. I’ve been fascinated to observe my own re-education in the last 15 years of very heavy Internet use. My own learning curve continues to be steep, and I do as much as I can each day to keep climbing. I’m involved in many communities of practice.
All communities of practice have accepted positions and moving edges where there is debate about what practice should be followed. All communities struggle to make progress along that edge. A way to make progress may arise within the group, but often the breakthrough idea comes from somewhere else altogether. Often the person who carries that breakthrough idea isn’t a member of the group at all.
I’ve learned the value of having a large diverse network. I’m trying to help people to understand that need, and to develop their own networks, reach out beyond their own profession and social group. I’ve just published a new web site that I hope points the way.
http://www.openfuture.co.nz/
January 21, 2008 at 6:21 am
phil ker
Hi Leigh,
Took me a while to come back to this discussion! The poytechnic will be joining the Karen network ….soon, I hope.
As for connecting people and communities in Otago with the CLCs as a facilitator – good idea. I can envisage a really good Adult and Community Education (ACE) initiative on this.
March 24, 2008 at 10:58 pm
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April 3, 2008 at 10:31 pm
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April 28, 2008 at 11:04 am
leighblackall
Have started a lobby of the KAREN project through their Wiki
May 2, 2008 at 9:03 am
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December 13, 2008 at 4:56 pm
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