After the wikiversity lesson on networked learning posted previously, I have to upload this Internet parody of Mad TV. Interesting for analysis…oh and for a good laugh, because as Friedrich Nietzsche once said “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.â€
Month: December 2007
Networked Learning on Wikiversity
Cell Phones – Ange or demon?
Cell phones are important and indispensable parts of our lives.
Cell phones are not just telephones, they are our agenda, our clock, our calculator, but most important of all, our way of being always connected with family and friends, of knowing what is happening and of being constantly in touch. Certainly, they are also vital professional tools. However, what is most significant to us is that they help us to coordinate our daily agendas, to articulate with our family and friends when and where are going to meet, if we are late, where are they, what are they doing and so on. It gives us a sense of security.
Of course, this has several costs, besides the dependency and the radiations, that mostly experts say it can seriously harm our health, for instance you have to be always available, because if you do not answer a call, people get mad, specially when you do not get back to them on due time. In fact, Xmas text messages invade our mobile phones in this season…and you just feel you have to reply to the hundreds of people that, sometimes only remember you on Holidays.
A propos, this is a very interesting article about this particular issue:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17486953
This article explains that cell phones changed what means to make a phone call. For instance, our perception about time and punctuality is being altered, as cell phones help us to negotiate time and arrival time, decreasing the stress of being late.
Cell phones are also changing how we relate to one another, they seem to “tighten our inner social sphere”, but simultaneously to untie the bonds with those outside our inner circle.
Some concerns are related to the fact that cell phones are denominated “pacifiers for adults†or “electronic tethersâ€, as people can’t be alone anymore (Well, we are undoubtedly a “social animalâ€!). In addition, the line between the public and the private is becoming fuzzy.
Free online knowledge. Finally?
“At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star “
“Professor Lewin’s videotaped physics lectures, free online on the OpenCourseWare of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have won him devotees across the country and beyond who stuff his e-mail in-box with praise.”
Published: December 19, 2007
Facebook, Hi5…New forms of social networking and of doing research
“About Facebook! Forward March!
Scholars Are Falling Into Line to Maneuver Through New Territory: Online Socializing as Academic Discipline”
By Monica Hesse Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page M05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121400606.html
Conference "Family Diversity & Gender"
The conference “Family Diversity & Gender†(RC06-ISA), organized by the Centre for Public Administration & Policies (CAPP) is going to be held at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon from the 9th to the 13th of September 2008.
Call for papers – until 31st of January

