Sustain the Matrix

I'm sitting on my exercise bike, typing on my computer. That's right... I have a desktop on my exercise bike that allows me to pedal for hours while working (it's the only way I can find to keep in shape and stay "jacked-in" to my computer all day.

Anyways, I'm supposed to go into my office today to get some work done. However, I'm a commuter, it's a snowy day outside, and I'm thinking about the gas I'm going to burn going to and from work. I'd like to say I'm environmentally friendly when I can and besides, it's the post-xmas time of year when my wallet hurts a bit. If I'm right, the root "Sustain" will be the most used word of 2008! Sustainable market, credit, growth, environment, progress... So, don't I want to sustain?

I ask myself, do you want to help sustain the environment? Would you drive to work and waste the gas when what you need to get done can be done from the warmth of your own home? Are you ready to abandon the peace and quiet of the office (and possibly the productivity) and try to find a quiet corner of the house away from the noisy (very, very noisy) toys Santa got your daughter for xmas?

If I don't go to the office, well then they don't have to heat the office. Those are resources saved too right? My home will stay heated whether or not I'm here. In fact, with a virtual office, I can abandon that room altogether.

One of the biggest concerns I've dealt within my area this last semester is, "How does art fit in a virtual world?" Now there is someone teaching drawing in Second Life! So maybe I can start teaching drawing from home. Poof! My classroom no longer exists. More resources saved!

How far do we want to take this? Perhaps the idea of humans living in small spaces pedaling away on their bikes like hamsters on the wheel while using virtual worlds to live and work (escape?) isn't such a bad one? I'm already doing it! And I feel good about it!

Wasn't the idea behind the Matrix supposed to be evil? What if the world came to a point where every resource was calculated to the point of precision.... Or absurdity! How much oxygen does the grass in my yard produce? Might I plant something else that may yield a better carbon dioxide to oxygen conversion ratio? Do I fill my yard with trees?

Now if only my bike powered my computer... Perhaps my body heat energy could be harnessed too. Am I sounding strange? Ask yourself this: If all the people trapped in the Matrix were released at once, could their world have sustained them? Wouldn't they want to go back in? Wouldn't they want to survive? Live? Sustain?

YouTube Channel: Classroom

From Vlog Blog:

Vlogging the Classroom

There is an interesting article over at Adweek about how universities are leveraging YouTube by putting PR videos, classes, and even entire semesters of classes online at the video sharing site.

The article concentrates mostly on the efforts of UC Berkeley, which has set up its own channel. Under the current agreement, YouTube has agreed not to put ads on the Berkeley channel. Instead, they have traded the space for the extra cachet they hope to gain.

While there is no “outside advertising” on the channel, and there is indeed a lot classroom material, the Berkeley channel is obvious meant to be one giant advertisement for Berkeley itself.

In the article, Ben Hubbard, co-manager of Berkeley’s Webcast program, explains: “You can put together a one-minute spot that markets the university in a certain way, but there is nothing like showing the real thing.”

And so, is it working?

The article states:

Within three weeks of launching the YouTube partnership last month, Berkeley had 1.3 million views on the three channels it runs on its page. “When you really boil it down, the size of the YouTube audience is mind-blowing and it shows how hungry people are for this type of content,” he (Hubbard) says.

I'm not sure if putting my classes up on YouTube is a good idea. However, I recently gave my students a list of 5 classroom innovations to see which they'd take most advantage of. Downloadable podcast or vodcast lectures and collaborative blogs (as opposed to individual blogs) ranked the highest. Starting a Facebook group or supplying supplemental podcasts (interviews with artists, extra information about an element, principle, or concept) ranked lowest. Of all things I was surprised the Facebook group ranked lowest because in the same survey 70% of them said they use Facebook daily.

The above article is an obvious example of how the media or the web is driving innovations in education. I wonder if this issue is addressed in the new book by Edward Castronova: Exodus to the Virtual World in which he tries to project the medium-term impact of virtual worlds on daily life in the real world, especially in regards to politics and policy. I hope to include Exodus into my Winter Break reading list (which seems to grow daily!)

From: Terra Nova - RE: Game Time

Terra Nova: CFP: Breaking the Magic Circle: "One of the classic theories of games and play was presented by Johan Huizinga in his work Homo Ludens (orig. from 1938). Huizinga wrote about the free and voluntary nature of play, how it is 'an activity connected with no material interest' and how it 'proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space', involving and absorbing players utterly into a separate world set off from the 'ordinary' life, while being created and maintained by communities of players."

This idea that play 'proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space' is very much in line with Ed Hall's ideas of Polychronic time. I would also extend this idea of 'play' to many other online activities such as surfing, blogging, and even reading. I know I get on a Wikipedia reading kick and hours will pass.