Lisa Guernsey of the NY Times does a timely article on how wireless networking and instant communication apps are changing how people are learning and teaching, both in the classroom and at conferences.
Liz Lawley responds at the Social Software blog with a great post about how this has affected her directly as she is a professor. Liz reminds us that lectures are a pretty poor way to learn in the first place. Also she explains that she saw 3 modes of IRC communication at Supernova 2003 including: 1) virtually no communication when an excellent speaker held the audience, 2) moderate, directed and focused communication during some speakers, and 3) a "free-for-all, untethered from the room entirely" when there was an uninteresting speaker.
We can't benefit from wireless networking and instant communication tools without having those technologies affect us in other ways we may not have accepted or realized.
The other thing to note is the comment on Liz's post wherein another professor speaks about his experience with the issue of class and money surrounding technology and tools. That is definitely something I need to ruminate on much more.
great find Gen.
This new wave of backchannel communication is really piquing my interest at the moment too. The backchannel happening at the 1imc was very informatiive and, at times, fun. I noticed that by the end of the day some really interesting questions were being posed by people who'd discussed the session content on the irc channel already; as opposed to earlier on when people hadn't had time to digest the content when questions were requested...
Since then I have participated in several backchannel converstations during specific events. The most notable being the recent Always-On 2003 conference when a fair few people where participating in a chat channel that was being displayed on the stage during some of the sessions. I found that we were able to contribute to what was being discussed to a fairly decent level; until Joi was broadcast in his underpants on the screen that is ;)
I also noticed that there was a wide ranging response to us 'chatting' in the background. The conference was being streamed in real player at the same time so it was easy to watch the panel's responses to it. On the occasions when the moderator referred to our comments there was some noticable shifting of bums on seats with some of the panel members. Only to be expected I guess, but interesting nevertheless.
At the moment I have only gotten to the observation stage with all of this. I must give this some more thought too I think...