Pushing and shoving do not produce quality uptake

What many senior management in institutions do not realise is that in their eagerness to push through the implementation of online learning and increase its uptake for strategic reasons, this pushing and shoving will eventually lead to a mass adoption in a shallow form that does not necessary guarantee an increase in the quality of learning. The masses will adopt a learning management system or a virtual learning environment simply to ease their current administrative task such as grading assessments and communicating important information to large groups of students. These reasons do not automatically lead to more effective teaching or learning experience. It will make the work of the academics who adopt the technology more efficient in completing their administrative work, but it does not necessary mean that this efficiency will be transferred to teaching and learning practices. 

Quality implementation requires learning about the enhancement that the technology brings. This learning process is achieved through both formal and informal interactions between those who have already mastered certain best practices and understand the affordances of the technology, and those who are just beginning to embark on their journey to explore the possibilities of integrating technology. Thus, the concept of community of practice is well-suited as a model to understand these interactions between the masters and their apprentices that would lead to fruitful collaborations between the two parties.  

Tipping Points??

After reading a posting on Facebook of Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers (how do your actually pronounce this word?), and remembering several other earlier blogs on the same book in my Google Reader, I decided to check out the book at Borders (Curve). 

I remembered that just a few weeks ago, the book was prominently displayed and promoted at the entrance rack when it was first made available at Borders. So, I was thinking that it would be displayed at the same place. I was even expecting the buy two for 20% discount offer. But to my surprise, the book was no where to be found. After spending 30 minutes searching for it on my own, I decided to ask the support staff instead. The moment I mentioned the title, (that was when I start to wonder whether I had pronounced it correctly because she certainly said it with a different pronunciation than mine) the friendly staff exclaimed that the title was all sold out. She asked me why so many were asking for this book and I explained to her that this could be due to the word of mouth or blogs, in this case, that had been spreading over the Internet. Now, she understood why fifteen copies of the book were sold off immediately after they arrived at her store at Curve. Curious to know more about social networking, I asked her about Tipping Point, and she said they ran out of this title too after checking her computer. I was pretty surprised at this situation because it was not so often that I could not find popular and general book titles that I want at any local book store. This was a first for me.

Then, I thought to myself. Why not check out at MPH since it was also located at Curve and was not far away from Borders? So after a short walk to MPH and with only 30 minutes left for browsing before the store closed, I searched quite quickly at the usual racks where this title would have been displayed. Initially, I could not find any except for Blink (this title was also available at Borders). I thought the sales must really be good for this book to have two stores in the same vicinity selling off their copies of the same title. Then, after a last desperate attempt and a quick check with the sales staff, I actually found both Outliers and Tipping Point. And there were many copies available. So sales was not as brisk  as I thought at this book store. 

I decided to hold off the purchase of Outliers and bought the two older titles instead after a quick glance. After reading a few pages of Tipping Point, I started thinking why the brisk sales at Borders did not 'tip' over to MPH? What prevented it from happening?

• Was the interest on the book not suficient enough to cause the potential customers to check out another store at the same mall?
• Was it because they did not know about the existence of another book store?
• Was it because the location of MPH was much less visible or prominent compared to Borders?
• Was it because of the discount promotions available at Borders (MPH was having sales too)?
• Or were there other hidden reasons that I could not think of?

 Perhaps after reading Tipping Point, I will understand this phenomenon a bit better. 

Strange interest and capability

Often, we would stereotype a person as being interested in either science, or arts (humanities etc.). This is generally how we would look at people's interests or their inclination. Perhaps this is even more true for us in Malaysia due to our intense segregation of the fields of arts and science early in our high school education system. The divide is almost like the incompatibility between quantum physics and general relativity, or the ancient cities of Rome and Jerusalem. 

But strangely, I find myself interested in both science and history. I read books on the elegance of universe and at the same time magically drawn to ancient histories of civilizations long forgotten in the minds of the modern society, engulfed by the huge tidal waves of popular culture and post modernistic thinking. 

It made me think about what is the connection that links my interest to both science and history. Is there an element that connects these fields at a general level? I would think that I would dread to look at the mathematical equations needed to prove and understand all the scientific theories. I think I would dread learning mundanely, the vocabulary and grammar of ancient languages, although in this aspect, I think I will survive and evolve better than learning the arcane equations of mathematics. 

Or, perhaps, the human mind is capable of learning almost everything the human soul puts its energies to? Perhaps learning is more about the intensity or passion of the soul rather than the objectivity and logical reasoning of the mind. Perhaps, learning is utterly subjective in this sense. So, does it make sense to switch to the concepts of personal learning environment  (PLE) and open education. Is there a revolution at hand on the existing educational structures that have become mental barriers limiting our learning or interest to a stereotypical field of either arts or science?

Leaders really need to learn

I was reading the business section of a local newspaper which I seldom do, it dawned on me that perhaps one of the reasons why we are facing so much of bad results in our business or organization operations is because our leaders or decision makes do not listen to those who are below them. Perhaps this should not be generalized, but I think Asian leaders are more susceptible to this flaw because of our culture where respect is automatically given and demanded from once you are placed in the position of leadership. I am not saying that leaders should just do what is popular with the crowd, but they seriously need to learn how to listen to the feedback of those who are actually on the ground, be it their employees or customers. 

Book prints are here to stay

I just bought my first copy of Harry Porter after updating my DVD collection with all five movie adaption of the popular fantasy fiction. Earlier, I had tried to read the e-book version of Half-Blood Prince because I can't wait for the movie at the theatres. It is really an intriguing and inspiring story of the trials and triumphs of nobodies against seemingly powerful adversaries and odds. 

But my point is not about Harry Porter. What I was amazed with is the experience of holding and reading from the hard copy of the book compared with the digital form. The experience was totally lopsided. With the printed version, I could not stop but turn the pages as quickly as I could whereas I did not even manage to get past the first page on my large LCD monitor! The physical experience of holding and reading from a paper-bound print utterly outclass the iPaper analogous to watching a Premier League team against a non-league outfit. The feel, the touch, the colour and the texture of the hard cover were totally irreplaceable by what I saw on the screen.

This personal experience makes me conclude that unless there is a world-threatening and irreversible ecological disaster, printed books are here to stay compared to their digital counterparts.  

Mind mapping

I think one of the greatest drawbacks of mind mapping is its inability to show overtly the relationship between the keywords that it is linking. It is akin to writing down many keywords or subjects in sentences without the predicates that carry the main story of each sentence. This makes the sentences unintelligible and meaningless. The same goes for mind mapping where a mind map may be understandable to the author at the point when it is drawn, but it loses its effectiveness because the meanings or relationships that tie the keywords together are forgotten over time. The author may at the moment of creation of the mind map understand what he is drawing because his mind is constantly processing the links between the keywords, but it becomes unintelligible when the mind forgets these linkages. That is why I always preferred concept map instead of mind mapping. No doubt, the mind mapping process can be very useful while brain storming, but it can become quite lame after this process is over.

Provision does not automatically transform to success

Many people nowadays have the idea that once technology is provided, strange miraculous results will automatically follow without doing anything in between the starting point of provision and the end-point of success. The end-point is paradoxically never an end because success is a process just as much that it is perceived as a state. So I find it strange that the free provision of Internet access is listed as an immediate solution to our current global economic woes as if the provision of the technology alone is sufficient. No doubt it will in one way or another provide relief to the economic strain, but much work still needs to be done to transfer the technological investment to economic gains. A focus on efforts to raise literacy level of the public on the positive use of the Internet might quicken the pace towards the intended goal.