Keynote at OCICU conference in Chicago. April 4, 2013.

1. Are We Amusing
Ourselves to
Death?
With a tip of the cap
to Neil Postman

2. Barry Dahl dot com

3. URL: desire4community.com
Desire4community.com

4. Clicker Time
Courtesy of Turning Technologies
• Grab your clicker
• First, some
demographics.

5. Gender & Life Experience
40%
1. Female, < 45 yrs.
2. Female, 45 + yrs.
23% 23%
3. Male, < 45 yrs.
14%
4. Male, 45 + yrs.
1 2 3 4

6. Choosing
up sides
Images from Icon Archive

7. Who’s Your Daddy?
50%
1. Apple 25% 25%
2. Google
3. Microsoft
t
le
e
of
pl
og
os
Ap
Go
icr
M

8. Are you a fan?
49%
1. Baseball 30%
2. Basketball 22%
3. Hockey
l
ll
ey
l
ba
ba
ck
se
et
Ho
Ba
sk
Ba

9. Education

10. Entertainment

11. Faculty Perspective

12. Entertaining Students is
NOT my Job
35% 1. Fact
65% 2. Whack

13. Engaging Students is
NOT my Job
2% 1. Fact
98% 2. Whack

14. Not this kind of entertainment

15. A Tupperware (or Bridge) Party

16. Who said this?
“Anyone who tries to make a
distinction between
education & entertainment
doesn't know the first thing
about either.”

17. Now
this...

18. Which of the following describe you?
88% 1. You are a texter
86% 2. You use online banking svcs
93% 3. You have Wi-Fi in your house
47% 4. You can define “Web 2.0”
0% 5. None of the above are true

19. What is Web 2.0?

20. Select each site where you
have an account.
82% 1. Facebook
43% 2. Twitter
89% 3. LinkedIn
45% 4. You Tube
0% 5. None of the above

22. No Facebook?
Source: The Daily Mail (UK)

23. Too Much Facebook?
Overdosing on Facebook may
lead to the development of
psychological disorders in teens,
according to Larry Rosen, a
professor of psychology at
California State University.
Source: Mashable

24. Too Much Facebook?
• Development of
narcissism in teens
who often use
Facebook;
• Presence of other psychological disorders,
including antisocial behaviors, mania and
aggressive tendencies, in teens who have
a strong Facebook presence;
Source: Mashable

25. Facebook = Red Meat

26. Do You Get Enough Vitamin E?
72% 1. File income taxes online (e-file)
65% 2. Check e-mail on 3 or + diff. accts.
35% 3. Sell anything via e-commerce
84% 4. Learn via e-Learning
0% 5. None of the above

27. Which of these devices
do you have?
75% 1. Smartphone
80% 2. Tablet (iPad or similar)
36% 3. e-Reader (not #2 above)
70% 4. mp3 player (iPod or similar)
2% 5. None of the above

28. The most wired are
311.36 Google
307.5 Female, < 45 yrs.
286.93 Basketball
Team Scores
284.77 Baseball
272.95 Apple
265.9 Male, 45 + yrs.
257.5 Female, 45 + yrs.
253.41 Microsoft
250 Male, < 45 yrs.
250 Hockey

29. Now
this...

30. Who said this?
“I don't necessarily
agree with
everything I say.”

31. Speaking of
Twitter …….

32. Twitter is Stupid!!!
44% 1. Twue
56%
2. False

33. They Called Me Stupid!
80 Female, < 45 yrs.
62.5 Hockey
50 Apple
Team Scores
45 Microsoft
44.44 Female, 45 + yrs.
37.5 Basketball
36.36 Baseball
36.36 Google
33.33 Male, 45 + yrs.
0 Male, < 45 yrs.

34. Twitter makes me like people I’ve never met and Facebook
makes me hate people I know in real life. @shaylamaddox

35. If no one tweets about it…
did it really happen?

36. How many people
are in this room?

37. Networked Learning
• It’s all about
connections.
• I learn more every day
from my Twitter
network than I ever
did in school.
• (Blasphemy, I know)

38. Now
this...

39. Who said this?
“I wouldn't have seen
it if I hadn't believed
it.”

40. Now
this...

41. Neil Postman
• Public Discourse
in the Age of
Show Business
• Published 1985

42. 1985
How about a memory
refresher about what the
world was like in 1985?

43. World Leaders
USSR
USA

44. Who lost to
Reagan in ’84?

45. Television
Name the top-
rated television
shows in 1985

47. Television
Name the most
popular televangelists
in 1985

49. Television
Name the news
anchors for the
“Big 3” networks

50. ABC CBS NBC

51. Marketing
Tagline for
American Express
Traveler's Checks

52. Technology in 1985
How old was the
Macintosh
computer?

53. Postman Didn’t Mind This
Kind of Stuff….

54. Of course he died before he saw this

55. So what was his beef with television?

56. In a Nutshell
Postman argued that
serious discourse was
being reduced to mere
entertainment.

57. In a Nutshell
Most troubling was the
non-serious nature of
news, politics, religion,
and education (when
televised).

58. In a Nutshell
Pg. 87 - The problem
P. 24 – sillier by the minute
P. 107 – Disinformation

59. Pages 159-60
• We would all be better off if
television got worse, not better.
• The A-Team and Cheers are no
threat to our public health.
• 60 Minutes, Eye-Witness News and
Sesame Street are.

60. Amusing Ourselves to Death
• Many of the
remarks he made
about television
can be made
today about
computers and
social networking

61. Which of these books have
you read?
26% 1. 1984
12% 2. Brave New World
40% 3. Both of them
36% 4. Neither of them

62. Amusing Ourselves to Death
Foreword

63. Graphics by Stuart McMillen

72. To the videos

76. Graphics by Stuart McMillen
• All words from “Amusing
Ourselves to Death: Public
Discourse in the Age of Show
Business” by Neil Postman … a
book about the possibility that
Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

77. What about the
Internet age?
• Postman’s opinion of the Internet
was much the same as his opinion of
television.

78. What about the
Internet age?
• One of Postman’s biggest complaints
about television was its one-way
communication. No rebuttals.
• Web 1.0 was just another one-way
distraction device, very TV-like.

79. If Postman were still
alive …
• However, Web 2.0 (and after) goes
beyond amusement by bringing
people together and encouraging
creativity.
• Online communication possibilities
solve some of Postman’s concerns.

80. Related Questions
• How does the use
of emerging
technologies add
value to the
educational
process?

81. Related Questions
• If we aren’t adding
value, are we
simply trying to
amuse ourselves?

82. Skills Taught in Education
20th Century
Literacy
Skills
The “forum”

83. Now
this...

84. Name this Dude?
Mookie!!

85. Let’s get MOOC-Y
76% 1. You can define “MOOC”
31% 2. You’ve signed up for a MOOC
7% 3. You’ve completed a MOOC
26% 4. Hope to have your own MOOC someday
19% 5. None of the above

86. Most MOOC-Y
50 Male, < 45 yrs.
47.73 Baseball
40 Google
Team Scores
37.5 Apple
35 Female, 45 + yrs.
32.81 Male, 45 + yrs.
31.82 Microsoft
30.88 Basketball
30.56 Female, < 45 yrs.
21.88 Hockey

87. MOO

88. MOOC

89. MOOC
• cMOOC:
–Siemens/Downes/etc.
“Connectivism” Fall 2008, and
more recent offerings
–Groom/UMW “DS106” Digital
Storytelling

90. MOOC
• xMOOC:
–Coursera – for-profit
–Udacity – for-profit
–edX – not-for-profit
–Udemy – both

91. Are MOOCs
Disruptive?

92. Are These Things Disruptive?
• 7% Completion rate
(Coursera Software Engineering – 2/12)
• No interaction with faculty
• Impersonal feedback via auto-grading
• No technical support
• An acronym that means anything you
want it to

93. Is This Disruptive?
At Stanford, “I normally teach 400 students.”
In the MOOC, he “taught” 100,000 students.

94. Is This Disruptive?

95. Hey Barry, what’s the significance of
↓
Now
this...
(pg. 99)

96. Who said this?
“All media exist to invest
our lives with artificial
perceptions and
arbitrary values.”

97. Now
this...

98. Is this Innovation or Insanity?
Culture, Gender, and Identity – taught with World of Warcraft
CC Flickr photo by
glenn.batuyong

99. Is this Innovation or Insanity?
History of Rock-n-Roll Music course – taught with Guitar Hero
CC Flickr photo
By 5th Ape

100. Take your pick
76% 1. Innovation
24% 2. Insanity

101. Who said insanity?
50 Male, 45 + yrs.
42.86 Hockey
36.36 Apple
Team Scores
25 Microsoft
18.75 Basketball
18.18 Baseball
10 Female, < 45 yrs.
10 Google
0 Female, 45 + yrs.
0 Male, < 45 yrs.

102. Who said this?
“We shape our tools
and afterwards our
tools shape us.”

103. Tool Example #1
FaceTime
Facelift?

104. Tool Example #2 – The Internet
• The Internet and
the billions of
devices connected
to it – most
powerful tool on
earth (ever) The Global Mind

105. In 60 seconds
Source: bit.ly/every60seconds

106. Exponential Growth

107. Exponential Growth of Global Mind
By 2020…
Over 50B devices

108. Exponential Growth of Mobile Access
Next 5 years…
56-fold increase in
mobile-only
Internet users

109. Exponential Growth
Why do we think
education is immune
from this?

110. Now
this...

111. Cell phone cheating?

112. Cheat with Siri?

113. “Never memorize what you can
look up on your smart phone.”
22% 1. Bill Gates
22% 2. Arne Duncan
0% 3. Albert Einstein
56% 4. Steve Jobs

114. Actually…
Einstein said…
“Never memorize
what you can look
up in books.”
Source: wikiquote.org

115. Reality or Myth?
By using technology, students
cheat more now than ever
48% 1. Reality
53% 2. Myth

116. What about the other
side of that
?

117. Reality or Myth?
By using technology, educators
can catch cheaters more easily
83% 1. Reality
18% 2. Myth

118. Who said this?
“We look at the present
through a rear-view
mirror. We march
backwards into the
future.”

119. Who said this?
“The medium is
the message”

120. Marshall McLuhan

121. Are We Amusing
Ourselves to Death?
Final word from Postman?