This week sped by in a blur of work, family and social media tools.  A few realizations have dawned:  The Web has the propensity for extreme good or evil.  It is the human behind the machine who decides for which it will be used.  As a research tool, it is unsurpassable in speed and accuracy but one must be guided by discernment to evaluate the validity of the sources. It is an awesome tool for connecting people over time and space but, if unchecked, can serve to isolate us from those in our immediate vicinity who should be the closest. 

As usual, I enjoyed Sharky.  His discussion of the philosophy and success of Wikipedia was fascinating for me.  His allusion to Richard Gabriel's  "Worse is better" philosophy (pg 122) described a phenomena that is initially counter-intuitive yet upon deeper analysis makes perfect sense as to why it would be successful.  Most people will usually choose a the simpler version  of something even though it is not as attractive or appealing an invest time in improving the object rather than with something they perceive to be overly complex (a good lesson to remember when writing or posting in grad school).  This was certainly applicable to me when I choose Google Blogger over WordPress despite the latter's enhanced versatility. 

Another fascinating comment on human behavior was the protectiveness displayed by contributors to Wikipedia topics.  In instances of page vandalism, the damage was erased almost as soon as it was created a la "Hovering, protective Mother" style.  Hard to believe but it's documented. 

Crack's research paper on teenagers in the U.K.  revealed access to the web in schools as potentially positive but noted that, if left unstructured or unguided, most users at that level, would succomb to surfing for fun and social interaction rather than for scholastic purposes. This I have found to be generally true with my teenagers.  The one in college will start out with great intentions of doing coursework and end up Skyping with friends, playing games and almost everything other than work.
However, I find it strange that she and her friends often Skype to do homework together while they are working on their individual assignments.  They will sporadically make comments to each other about what they are working on or ask a question that they hope one of their friends can answer (they're in different classes).  The rest of the time they work "together" in silence almost as though they were in a library with others around them.  I'd like to explore this concept more at a later date.

Personally, I spent a large amount of time exploring social media tools I've never before visited and while illuminating in many ways, I felt cheated by the return earned on my investment of time.  I attribute this in part to my lack of expertise and focus (it's easy to get side-tracked) and believe I will become more efficient with experience.  However, as a famous person once said:  There's a lotta junk out there (or something similar). My conclusion:  With social media tools, as with junk food, the trick is recognizing how to circumvent the bad while feasting on the good.

I'm truly enjoying this class.  Coupling this course with the Theories of Learning and Cognition (heavy thinking and delving) was a good choice since this course is teaching challenging but fun stuff.  It really is like a kid's sandbox full of different tools for digging, shaping and creating.