Information Flow: Consuming #blendkit2012 and Freeing Content

This notion of “flow” was raised in the #blendkit2012 MOOC on blended learning by the folks that developed Blended Learning Toolkit.

Drs. Kelvin Thompson and Linda Futch, in their introduction email link to an article by danah boyd titled Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media. They use this to describe the distribution of information about the course. And I think she describes what and why we’re trying to do some of the things with content that we’re working on at OEIT.

In particular they’re referring to the flow coming from the daily emails summarizing the flow. While perhaps an antiquated way of presenting the information, I find it useful personally to manage access to the flow. For me, it’s the right moment and medium to engage. I’m not creating a blended course right now so the materials/process are useful for a future date. But the daily “reminders” are helpful to remind me to participate and keep track of what’s going on, to gain the value of the cohort of people “taking” the course so I can learn from them and their experiences.

As danah writes:

“The goal is not to be a passive consumer of information or to simply tune in when the time is right, but rather to be attentive in a world where information is everywhere. To be peripherally aware of information as it flows by, grabbing it at the right moment when it is most relevant, valuable, entertaining, or insightful.”

And:

“The power is no longer in the hands of those who control the channels of distribution; the power is now in the hands of those who control the limited resource of attention.”

With respect to the things we believe are necessary for educational “content”, I think danah expresses it quite eloquently:

“We need tools that allow people to more easily contextualize relevant content regardless of where they are and what they are doing, and we need tools that allow people to slice and dice content so as to not reach information overload. This is not simply about aggregating or curating content to create personalized destination sites. Frankly, I don’t think this will work. Instead, the tools that consumers need are those that allow them to get in flow, that allow them to live inside information structures wherever they are and whatever they’re doing. They need tools that allow them to easily grab what they want and to stay peripherally aware without feeling overwhelmed.”

I’ll admit my first take on this is to enable the destination site, but ultimately it’s about getting content in a position to live in the “flow”.

(Via BlendKit2012 Email, September 24, 2012)