Jonathan Savage

What’s the future of education?  There is an interesting collection of ideas being put together by these guys. One of the first responses was this tremendous video which should promote a lot of discussion:

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person’s sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

The full text of each volume in the Series is provided for free and open access thanks to the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation. The full text of these chapters is openly available here.

As someone who is doing a lot of writing at the moment, I was fascinated by an article in yesterday’s Observer with the same title as this post (that should be the other way around!). Anyway, the opening quote in the article was from the Don DeLillo, the author of the modern epic, Underworld. He said:

I need the sound of the keys, the keys of a manul typewriter. The hammers striking the page. I like to see the words, the sentences, as they take shape. It’s an aesthetic issue: when I work I have a sculptor’s sense of the shape of the words I’m making.

I appreciated the reference to the sound of the typewriter’s keys’. I found it interesting that, for this writer at least, the sensory experience of writing with a typewriter is important (essential); as is the sense of the words emerging and being shaped by the technology he is using. It’s a reminder that digital technologies are not always the best solution in supporting creativity. Sometimes, the ‘limitations’ of a technology are the key to successful engagement with it as a creative tool. Can the art of great writing survive the digital age? Probably, but for most of us it might be a lot quieter. And that may not be a good thing!

I’ve been loving this series (Disappearing Acts) from the Guardian. There have been some fascinating insights into how various beautiful objects are made, including violin bows and silver watches. The craftsmanship is, in a near equal balance for me, amazing and sobering. Amazing in the attention to detail and sheer sophistication of the design, creative and production process; sobering in that in this age of mass-production, so many of these skills are being lost.

I loved this article by Bill Thompson which explores how the arts can (and are) leading the way in the development and application of technological tools and environments. There are some very obvious applications to the world of education and I really liked the metaphorical application from The Tempest to describe the ways in which we interact/react to the digital world.

Here’s a lovely piece of video from Stanford University. It shows how the iPhone can be used as an ensemble instrument. I particularly liked the Ocarina instrument which utilises the microphone input as a wind controller. The best bit, for me, was when Ge Wang showed us how users could access music created by others using the instrument from around the world. Great stuff:

Thanks to my colleague Clive for pointing out this helpful site provided by the DIUS. It is a useful online function that converts .pdf files into .html, .xml or image files.

Thanks to PixelSumo for pointing this one out. I loved this example of augmented reality by Camille Scherrer which received the Pierre Bergé best European diploma at the exhibition TALENT in Eindhoven.

Do you like quizzes? Here is a good one from the BBC. How many of these old computers do you recognise? This took me back to afternoons after school and long summer holidays in friend’s bedrooms with ZX80, Acorns and Spectrums. Let us know what you scored? I got 8/10. Super Mario!