Carbamp ’09 – not too much brain, please.

^ Yes, i was trying to be funny.

But seriously, i want to talk about my recent attendance at Barcamp SG ’09. Barcamp is basically a gathering of people involved, interested in and earn money from social media. We have bloggers, film critics, geeks, students (like me), and the list goes on, and on, and on. The programme of the day revolved around a voting process where participants vote for topics to be discussed and presented.

I hate long posts (and so do you). In light of that, I will only talk about one single topic that I identified with. This topic below relates to me, you and brains.

“How to explain difficult concepts to lesser beings (for smart geeks)” by @coleman (you can find him on twitter)

Tip#1:  Watch the curse of knowledge – I guess many of us are cursed by the knowledge we have. This knowledge then causes us to speak in a language that people lacking that particular knowledge do not understand. So yes, cut down on technical jargon – speaking in shakspearen english to an ah ‘beng’ just doesn’t cut it. Anymore.

Tip#2: Use analogies. There, I just proved my first point.

Tip#3: Oversimplify first. By oversimplifying an idea, it would be easier for the person to grasp. Something like an appetizer (man, i love analogies). It is only ethical to force-feed someone only if you have whet his/her appetite, makes sense?

At the end of the day, my point is this – technology is unleashing all our inner geeks. If we don’t look back and start breaking down what we know into edible pieces, we are going to die with that very knowledge. By learning ‘how to explain difficult concepts to lesser beings’, we benefit both ourselves and also the learner. Only speak html to someone who understands HTML, if he/she doesn’t, then use the three steps above

To all vowel haters and synonym lovers out there, stop LOL-ing.

 

Learning with social media: an overview.

So a few days ago, I was a presenter for the future of learning in our NCT class.

IMO, it was a very eye-opening experience for both us presenters and the audience. While Mikh and Zam spoke about learning environments and learning in the past respectively, I presented about something ‘close to our hearts’ – learning through social media/technology, A.K.A. social learning.

“Social technologies, aka social media, are a new breed of technologies that have developed over the last few years that have changed the face of the Web and are having a big impact on all aspects of life – working, learning and playing” – Stolen from somewhere off the internetz

Simply, we have moved from web 1.0: the “read-only web”

to web 2.0:

• the “read-write” web
• Supports user-generated content, that is content created by “users”
• encourages the social aspect of the web

Essentially, social media + learning = social learning, it’s what happens when we apply Web 2.0, social technologies to learning. E-Learning (week? ) 1.0 was all about delivering content, primarily in the form of online courses, produced by experts. E-Learning 2.0 (social learning) is all about people like me and you creating content in a variety of formats and sharing it via blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and social networks.  This is going to be the new, collaborative and convenient in which we learn, be it in/formally.

I feel that social learning can create more powerful and enduring learning experiences through the use of online communities and networks, where learners are encouraged to co-create, collaborate and share knowledge and fully participate in their learning. I really hope this gives you people out there some food for thought. And when you digest that food, please tell me that I’m not delusional.