Sliced Bread

I’m journalling my learning adventures during #change11 in Prezi. 

It is a work in progress, without set pathways yet, so navigation is yours to enjoy!

So far so good - #Change11

If you do drop by, zoom in for snippets of course related trivia. It’s sure not all about the topics, you think we are covereing.

So Cisco asked 3000 college students or recent graduates a few questions like these;

Is the Internet a fundamental human necessity?

Is a workplace with flexible mobility policies as valuable as salary?

Some interesting, but not really suprising to those keeping up, findings.

Study Highlights:

• Many respondents cite a mobile device as “the most important technology” in their lives
• Seven of 10 employees have “friended” their managers and coworkers on Facebook
• Two of five students have not bought a physical book (except textbooks) in two years
• Most respondents have a Facebook account and check it at least once a day
  • Half would rather lose their wallet or purse than their smartphone or mobile device.
  • More than two of five would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.
• At least one in four said the absence of remote access would influence their job decisions, such as leaving companies sooner rather than later, slacking off, or declining job offers outright.
  • Three out of 10 feel that once they begin working, it will be their right- more than a privilege -to be able to work remotely with a flexible schedule.

    

 Read Cisco’s full report here.

Commentary on the #Occupy movement saw this George Siemen’s post;

Learning is about coherence-forming…we connect concepts into some type of structure and coherent whole that enables action and guidance in our thinking. When language isn’t clear or when concepts can’t be cognitively apprehended because of too much specialization of language and protocol, coherence is simply not possible.

I’m not at all convinced or comfortable with this. Dissonance, confusion even, when learning allows for cognitive openness and growth.  If the language #Occupiers use is foreign, is that a me or them issue? Is it filter failure of my world view or them mashing up messages unsuccessfully? 

Context of course, but do I dismiss them because to me it lacks clarity, or do I acknowledge their message is still out of my reach? And more importantly what will be my response? Head in the sand grandstanding, “It will fail” end debate and move on, or let ideas ferment, perculate and distil?

Were Lichtenstein, Pollock and Picasso initially coherant to wide audiences? Not at all. 

Pushing creative, mixed and mashed up language boundaries, in this case artistically, allowed debate to flourish. An end came much later. Acceptance, celebration and a new coherant learning.

Using the #Occupy example, I too don’t hear a coherant message, but acknowledge there are messages being communicated.

Where George and I differ is I see that as opportunity, not a lack of resonance. Clarity in leadership or certainty? I wonder?

As others posit, maybe #Occupy is a way of life, and not a protest at all.

Douglas Rushkoff  says

what we’re attempting to move toward is not an end-state with winners and losers but a sustainable scenario where we actually keep the world and ourselves going. That doesn’t require a campaign as much as a slow steady movement toward a greater intelligence and new kinds of behaviors.

Bakunin’s populism, the Chigirin Affair, Land and Freedom, People’s Will and Black Partition were all #failed factions prior to the Iskra Board, ‘What is to be done’ and the Bolshevik’s final ‘success’. It depends on whether you see precursors as separate to, or the cause of, latter events.

Same with #Occupy. I see it as just scratching a societal continuum of  far deeper intent. This iteration may well be incoherant and #fail, but if one brick fails, does your wall tumble? Keystone? yes it may, foundation corner? yes it may. just another brick in the wall? probably not.

 Coherance is not learning, it is end product. Dissonance, disruption and confusion, the messy stuff, is learning.