A linkage can be made between this video and 'Connecting Visual Literacy and Metaliteracy' MOOC talk 4. This video above shows an extract from her book 'Techno biophilia, Nature and Cyberspace' where the description made of nature through visual interpretations sets a connection of understanding the desired intention with what has to be displayed. How imagery can help guide a mind from complexity. Informative visualization can be drawn from images and images of nature perfects this concept. Using nature as a wallpaper or screensaver can be seen as an enticement to the mind. It triggers the person into wanting to do nature-related things. The slightest comfort can be made by looking out of the window.  For the most part, beauty in nature is usually preferred over artificial beauty.  A sense of relaxation, relieving from stress. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/opinion/sunday/why-we-love-beautiful-things.html?_r=1&

This article is very interesting to me. It is pretty accurate how people are attracted to beautiful things. Yet again, what distinguishes beauty and ugliness? Its all a perception. Just how technobiophilia makes us believe in the relationship we have built between technology and nature.


One area of support for our innate affiliation with nature comes from research demonstrating increased psychological well-being upon exposure to natural features and environments. -Journal of Happiness Studies
2000, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp 293-322

Support develops from the strength and prevalence of phobic responses to stimuli of evolutionary importance and absence of such responses to potentially dangerous human-made stimuli. That survival emotions of equivalent intensity can be explained by the extremely rapid process of change and progress that has occurred. Given that our modern ways of living, as prescribed by Western industrialized culture, stand in stark contrast to our evolutionary history, it is proposed that we may currently be witnessing the beginnings of significant adverse outcomes for the human psyche.

Rediscovering Nature in Technology

Tech: Nature Literacy: Technobiophilia

Our human existence is the interaction between nature and technology. What is being presented to us vs what is being invented by us. To why it is in our human nature to have this uncontainable desire to link ourselves back to nature can be seen thoroughly analyzed in this MOOC talk. 

Firstly, I am thrilled to have my question answered by Sue Thomas.  The intention behind my questioning (Can biophilia really get all the nature we need from the digital world or its just a way of tricking us to feel content with the nature we are really missing out from?) is pretty well answered.  For nature loving people, it is an automatic response that technology's creation of nature doesn't replace the real sight of nature.  For those who are introverted and are computer nerds, spending more time indoors than valuing what nature has to offer might have a different opinion on this. In the end, it all comes down to a person's preference and how one signifies their meaning of life.

Going back to the overall topic, technobiophilia is being explained in the MOOC talk as the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology. With this concept, nature imaginary and humanistic threats through the portrayal of technology can count for creating an environment in the cyber world in order to meet human's adaptation.  This is very important when viewed that our sense of mental comfort is 'programmed' to seek nature. 

'The powerful desire to somehow merge with machine' (Thomas, 2013).

Through generational high-tech developments, replacements are repeatedly being made to improve our standard of living. However, in one perspective(that of religion) where the creation of man through Adam and Eve and the tree of life, is the core purpose of why we humans are naturally attracted to nature even through how much we've grown (in terms of developing a civilization). Our origin and where we come from. 

picture from=>https://sites.google.com/site/digitalstorytellingms/assessment

 

This video really helps explain the dynamics of storytelling. Even though this video is intended to explain the concept of digital storytelling, it is also an example of one.

Digital Storytelling and Metaliteracy

Digital Storytelling and Metaliteracy

   Digital storytelling molds our perception to how we view information. For this MOOC talk, the proliferation of digital tools and platforms through social networking is one of the key aspect of storytelling.  It is because thesis and developmental imaginary conveys a certain message, metaliteracy contributes in such a way that metaliterate learner will apply these terminology to their intended audiences through digital tools. 

In the the new millennium, 'multiliteracies' is becoming more complex and significant than ever before.  Keeping up with the latest information demands competence in a wide swathe of literacy. One way of viewing digital storytelling is its ability to untwist convoluted imaginary into simple understandable pictorials. Here, the main focus is a sequence of events that has a distinct storyline. In terms of academic achievements, it contributes to campus-wide collaborative efforts to develop critical thinking and skills with regard to visual materials. 
  
By combining personal narrative with multimedia, the creation of a 'movie' will instruct the viewer to understand what ever is being portrayed. One cannot ignore the challenges that may arise through story processing, as this procedure requires some sort of creative writing, film convention, media and visual literacy. This is where a metaliterate learner steps in. The key concepts (which is also shown on the MOOC talk) are communicate, review, analyze, collaborate and publish. 

Thinking of it in a global scale, it gets more exciting when two mediums combine together. When collaborative measures meets with cross cultural perspective. With all the cultures harvested, a sense of enticement is being lured. Not only will ideas be shaped through environmental society but the concept itself is unique and different.  It is very fascinating to think of the changes human 'evolution' has brought us.  Two thousands years ago, people used rocks and natural colorings to create stories on cave walls. Today, we have a massive broad range of media to create our expressions. 

"digital storytelling 'remediates'  the ancient practice of storytelling" (Bolter and Grusin 1999)

Digital stories take place alongside with narrative-based video games, web soaps, hypertext stories, blogs and web soaps.  The idea behind each concept starts with desire which strives them to take action, in order to come to a realization of how this creation will affect people. 

Some controversial arguments against digital storytelling is the usage of the tools. Technology. It can only be viewed through technological tools such as a computer, laptop, phone, ipad and so on. This encourages people to spend more time on these equipments rather than having social interactions with others. It shifts the focus out of the norm of having in-person interactions. Since technology has made it extremely convenient for people to research or find anything they have questions on, manual work such as researches at libraries or communicating with scholars are heavily being neglected. It can become a massive distraction because it is very addictive. Also its the easy way, making people lazy. 

There will always be an opposite opinion on anything in life and therefore shouldn't be dealt with with extremity.  An engaging digital story successfully links skill in visual representation and knowledge with a sense of personal narrative writing to conveying a particular message. To link digital media with cultural diversity, a philosophy of digital humanties seen through the lens of creative writing can be seen as important. To the extent where a parallelism can be drawn between modes of digital media and poststructuralism(various theories of analysis). 'Telling your story through my eyes.' This paradigmatic mindset of the creator will be able to reach audiences through a global scale. 

As simple as view, understand and process stories, this equation pretty much sums up intention of digital storytelling.

Question this

Furthermore....


    Even the scientific literacy and statistical model being shown in the MOOC talk has a focused point. The comparison made between developed countries and developing countries has guided us to agree that most of the consumptions in energy, fuel and resources are by developed countries even though they hold only 30% of the world population.

    The equation~> Population x Consumption per person x Technological Impact per unit of Consumption = Environmental Impact of Population.

    The explanation being made about Commons, how 'any situation of unregulated open access is unsustainable' has made a linkage to the popular quote by Herbert Stein, 'that which is not sustainable will end'

     With all these examples I have mentioned above, this is something I would like to conclude as Ubiquitous Assimilation, the concept of always absorbing everything everywhere all the time.
This triggers one to question how opinions are supposed to be made when images are always provided for you.  With the question also being asked during the MOOC talk on who controls information and who controls the truth, it comes down to sphere of influence.

    Its majorly what catches people's attention. It it more likely that a person would give attention to news that are provided by a familiar source rather than a random source where one might feel it is out of their comfort zone. In the end, what truly matters is whether the person cares enough to put effort in engaging with the different types of news that are generously being provided to them.
Having an open mind and a strong knowledge background would help the situation as well.



Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed. 
-cited from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full

Media and News Literacy

     In this MOOC talk, the linkage made between metaliteracy and media literacy can be concluded as the most controversial one (compared to the previous MOOC talks). Why might I sound slightly more opinionated than usual is because the topic about media itself is so broad that a lot of different intakes can be processed among individuals.  


To begin with, Five Core Concept of Media Literacy
1. All media messages are constructed
2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
3. Different people experiences the same message differently.
4. Media have embedded values and point of views.
5. Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.

     With all these concepts, it is only fair to keep in mind that media falls in between the consumer and creator.  That the fundamental structure of news portrayed by the media is based on a cycle of endless adaptation which spreads in the global society. 

Media and News Literacy

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/08/the-importance-and-challenges-of-universal-media-literacy-education239/<= image from

 

Continue of Visual Info..

    To further analyze the intuition of information visualization, we should also take into account the environmental effect.  To be able to appreciate visual metaliteracy through thoughts and reasoning, it can also be seen as an external cognition. In other words, it is a representational way of processing internal(among individuals) identity to external(society) ones.

   The importance of visual information and the breakdown of complexity into simplicity, is also a way of guiding a mind; as an unaided mind can be seen as highly overrated. Without the help of external concepts, the memory, thoughts and reasoning are constrained.  Human capability has proven us worthy through revolution that we are able to use our intelligence to become flexible and adaptive to the situation that we are in.  In other words, we are overcoming our limits.

A picture is worth a thousand words. This very popular phrase has definitely make its marking. Its graphical means has set an intended purpose to be created and discovered by people with different perspectives.

Information Visualization 

For this week's MOOC talk about Information Visualization and Metaliteracy, it highlights the essence of how information is being expressed.  This is also seen as a way to convey a specific message to the intended audience. 

The technological progress of the world we live in today has made visual literacy an essential aspect.  In terms of academic cultivation, the production and usage of images through visual media is a way 
of simplifying the content of literature without altering its significance. When viewed as a society as a whole, visual information helps in navigation and clarity for people to interact with their surrounding.


The 'Message and Metaliteracy' section of the MOOC talk has expanded the conceptual pattern of how we use information. Words such as:
-clarity
-dynamic
-ambiguity
-familiarity
-symbolism
-language
enables us to draw multiple conclusions to how we can process message into knowledge.  This transformation of message into knowledge is a powerful device that develops into one's ideology and belief. 

Global Perspective on Metaliteracy 



The first thing I want to point out for this week's MOOC talk is that anything which is being viewed on a global scale amplifies the significance of the ideology. It is because our world is rich with culture, it makes arising topics that much more debatable with clashing opinions.

The main conclusion I got from Paul Prinsloo's presentation is that everybody in this world has their own role in life.  A role that is being clearly specified based on your own biological and mental capabilities.  In other words, the reflexivity( the equation between cause and effect) has put great emphasis on the field that each individual is entitle to have. This puts great emphasis on the scholastic point of view that the reflexive interaction between habitus, capital and the influences made from social and cultural fields have more to do with being part of the field( the soccer positioning example), rather than just obtaining the subject.


The ability to transform information into knowledge has a powerful effect.  With this engagement, it can be broken down into contextual knowledge and integrated knowledge which makes the learning experience and metacognition more adaptable in a more specific concept. Information literacy along with sociolcultural engagement puts up the perfect definition for the model of metaliteracy. This empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate and create information proficiently to be able to achieve their social, personal, occupational and educational goals.

Even though there has been a massive increase of interest towards open education (such as massive open online courses and MOOC), it can also be viewed that open education lacks a philosophical or theoretical foundation. Other doubts include the distance education, where it can be identified as being slow to process with critical debates in research and theory.

It can also be quoted that, 'given the considerable rise of Open Education over the last years, these critical appraisals urge us to expand theoretical approaches to refine our understanding of evolving pedagogical and technological relations (cf. Bell, 2011).'


However, self-cultivation and self-realization is  a powerful reflective tool that can be used in engaging literacy in a global scale. There is a significant potential in coming out of one's comfort zone and being able to take criticism(if any) from an international perspective. OER provides rich base of educational materials that has multiple cultural contexts.

This engagement with various and complex resources can be identified as a transformation that is highly likey to happen among individuals.

Linked to the last question that was being asked to the speaker, as well as an overall view of openness education, I found this article interesting.

http://jmo.e-contentmanagement.com/archives/vol/18/issue/6/review/1236/the-virtues-of-openness-education-science-and

Openness and Metaliteracy

      In this MOOC talk, the main focus rotates around the idea of openness through intellectual gathering on a global scale and how it relates to Metaliteracy. The perspective that can be drawn from this talk focuses on the willingness of people to accept communicative program of Creative Common and OER(open education resources). 

     Creative Common represents the new generation. This concept portrays itself as the voice of individuals where suppression is the enemy and freedom of speech is the motto. Through the advertisement of identity protection, this encourages people to be part of the CC community. It starts off with people participating and getting intrigued with this new concept. Then it develops into a learning community where ideas are being suggested, processed and then edited into a new fresh concept that can be shared globally.
     This has a similar common ground to Openness and OER where any kind of teaching materials are free to access and interaction with one another is encouraged. During the MOOC talk, the free- textbooks-for-students discussion can be viewed as a very controversial topic to argue about. Many can view it as a scam- the money made from college students are being used to create newer edition of the textbooks where only little upgrade is being made. It is because many people have mixed feelings about the education system and how money is being spent on it, this encourages new ideas such as OER to step in and become the alternative that would be favorable to many people. 

Char Mooth continuation...


To be able to distinguish our brain power between knowledge and experience takes practice. When it comes to developmental appreciation, conscious cognition and affective experiences makes the mind more adaptive to how we want to portray our ideology through actions.

The discussion about Regulation of Cognition where planning, monitoring and evaluation will lead to success sets up a goal that can be achieved if practice with caution. The ability to lay out our strategies with the help of past experiences can be seen as a key factor for metacognition. In time, when we reach mental maturity, it only comes naturally that our mind tends to bend towards complexity and sophistication.

In my opinion, this MOOC talk is very helpful in such a way that I actually stop and think about how I process my thoughts and the linkage I make between scenarios to draw conclusion about how I view things. To go down this lane, I build confidence in how I want to speak my mind to others. Furthermore, complexity of the mind is just a portrayal of one's opinion that is being created through many synapses working together. 

CHAR MOOTH MOOC TALK

This MOOC talk about metacognition expresses an emphasis on the mind.  It makes me more aware of myself in such a way that the time being spent of subconsciously training my thoughts is actually close to nonexistence. Situations are usually handed to us in the moment and how it is being dealt with are mostly as a reflect which turns into experiences.  

Metacognition brings out the sophistication of how social, cultural and intellectual factors affect our everyday life style - what makes us who we are as of today and how we chose to deal with situations that are being handed to us.  To be able to challenge our mental capacity becomes a strategy that one has to try and perfect.  The readiness to learn and transform oneself, having awareness of our own cognition has a lot to do with the way our perspective is formed.

My interpretation of metaliteracy has to do with brainstorming ideas and posting it online. It gives people the opportunity to share opinions on related topics or come up with a statement that encourages people to interact with one another. This type of literacy expands the conceptual gathering of different perspective and ideology of people around the world.