Obviamente que as redes sociais não mataram os blogues. São tecnologias que têm finalidades diferentes, e cada qual tem o seu espaço, mas a rapidez da Revolução que vivemos pode levar a declarar as tecnologias mortas, antes que estas se tenham desenvolvido.
- Since the early 1990's, I've heard a fair bit of hype around how the internet (and then the web, then web 2.0, now social media, and tomorrow "big data") would impact society and businesses. Frances Collins (director of the human genome project) made a statement to the effect that we "overestimate the short term impact of technology and underestimate its long term impact". It seems that someone has to declare "blogging is dead" or "web 2.0 is dead" or "[insert hype term] is dead" before the real work actually begins. We have to move past hype and get to some level of institutionalization of new technologies and new concepts. Once this happens, the tools or concepts become part of the "work flow process". Elearning or blogging or collaborating are no longer seen as separate activities - they are subsumed into existing work practices. I can't speak for Jon and Terry, but my goal with the Landing as a collaborative tool for AU is to achieve a level of institutional adoption that follows and allows the extension of existing work-related activities. Obviously, a similar level of adoption for teaching and learning is also desirable.
It is this stage - where new technologies change practice and changed practices in turn alter organizational structure - that fascinates me. It's now quite fashionable to call higher education either "the next bubble" or "obsolete". What critics really mean, I believe, is that it's not higher education that is obsolete but rather the structure and manner in which it is delivered today needs to be rethought. Instead of working within the system, educators and leaders need to begin working on the system.
George Siemens
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