Evolution

Thanks Arti and Bill for triggering my thoughts on DNA, oral traditions, the Renaissance, the 60's and evolution.

What separates us with our carbon fibre fishing rods, sonar fish finders or fish farm Atlantic salmon from grandpa's hand built bamboo and cotton rods or from our ancestors scooping out and eating raw fish Gollum like?

Our DNA is little different but there is a lot of evolution in our social structures. We carry 2 sets of encoded data, one in our DNA, the other passes on by oral tradition and later writing and the web.

When Gutenburg invented movable type round 1600, the Renaissance was triggered. A bigger revolution than the industrial revolution. Shakespeare and the novel round 1700 needed this evolutionary change before they could appear.

Yet another evolutionary change occurred in the 1950's. Information flows which had been vertical, from generation to generation suddenly reorganised themselves horizontally, because of mass but one way media, to the extent that my sister (1946) and I(1951), born 5 years apart, recognise that we are from different generations.

The two way web, yet another evolutionary change means that we are now part of a hive mind, refining each other's thoughts at the speed of light.

Yes Bill, the web is part of our evolution, we carry it inside us and pass it on like our DNA.

The Blu(e) Fairy

Thanks to Artichoke for these quotes on the importance of including an understanding of the pedagogy and not just proficiency with the technology in teacher PD:

“… by and large, teacher education programmes worldwide have not been very successful in providing teachers with knowledge, attitudes and confidence in using technologies in classes.” Kwok-Wing Lai (2005 p13)

And that a critical factor in this failure is identified as

“Far too often the acquisition of technical skills, rather than the pedagogy of ICT use, has been emphasised in teacher education programmes.” Kwok-Wing Lai (2005 p13)

The Ofsted report (2004) describes this as “the need for competence with the technology drove the training rather than implications of the use of ICT for learning’ (p8)