It took more than 15 years for public eHealth approaches like using the Web for tobacco control to take hold, in large part because there wasn’t the ‘evidence’. In the age of social media, are we doomed to see history repeat itself? This post looks at how in the area of social media education and adoption, it’s deja vu all over again.
“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” If staying the same requires change, then what good is standing still? Actually, quite a lot. A mindful look at the systems around us.
Learning, when done to its fullest, is a disruptive activity that changes the way things are done. Yet, our education system is designed for change on a modest scale. With school back in swing, it is time to welcome the headaches brought by those who truly learn.
Information technology provides a lot of ideas for how to change, but the tools are only one part of the equation. Without considering the culture in which these tools are used the change we want will not be the change we get.
Books may be low tech compared to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, but its focus on narrative gives it an advantage over other tools. Some thoughts on how to keep a low tech tool useful in a high tech information environment
As we go back to school it is time to consider how the stresses of teaching and education build up over time and why it might be worth re-thinking its impact.
Resiliency enables us to bounce back from adversity, but like an elastic band too much stretching can lead to breakdown. Food banks, once a stop-gap for food security are now a model for education. Are we stretching a little too far?
Systems function well at the ‘edge of chaos’. In social systems that means balancing diversity with cohesion, but there are aspects to both that are troubling and may be highly incompatible. Can we have both or do we have to sacrifice one for the other?
