I came to the same conclusion. Looks good but doesn’t deliver anything new.

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Mind also raises the issue of communities arising around shared concerns through the power of the internet, and influencing governmental or political authorities. An example of this is a recent, national, news story involving an Academy applying a rule to a pupil who had contravened it. The story got out on the internet and traditional paper based media, and a community formed against the school decrying the indiscriminate application of rules; the Academy has since reconsidered its stance (The Independent). Authoritative bodies, including educational institutions, are now having to consider how they apply their policies more carefully, as they are more likely to be held to account.

Mind considers the vertical structures of organisations to be in the past, with a progression towards networked structures. Information will flow through these networks in many directions.  Potentially anyone could become part of a network and be empowered by the information they access, and in turn, influence the network, creating a feedback system.

To my mind, there is a flaw in this type of reasoning. Information is disseminated freely to all; informed debate may occur but this could be overshadowed by the vast majority of uninformed commentary.  On the other hand, any discussion is better than no discussion at all.

Hand, M. (2008) Hardware to everyware: Narratives of promise and threat. In: Making digital cultures: access, interactivity, and authenticity. Aldershot: pp. 15–42.

I have included this clip as I thought it demonstrated a potential use for technology that could save human lives. Although, there is evidence that implies that shipping is becoming safer anyway.  International Shipping Facts and Figures – Information Resources on Trade, Safety, Security, Environment.

It also discusses the problem of international regulations that will need rewriting to meet the needs of future technology. And explains that human labour will be removed from the ships to the docks.

“The type of jobs will be new. Society is evolving all of the time. And this is just the natural continuation of making one part of society more efficient.”

An example of technology catching up with theory.  It started with a paper 15 years old that had been shelved.

They set themselves an unmovable target of 18 months to complete a project from start to end; and achieved their target.

“Where will it go… To the limit of your imagination.”

My first reaction to this was to wonder how an ebook can ascertain your interest level / prior understanding etc and then deliver the level of material that is best suited to your learning needs, but if they are using algorithms similar to Facebook /Google then this has been proven to work already.  FB / Google has been developing for years and has millions of users; but can OpenStax be as successful with it’s relatively few users.

How will they avoid the ‘filter bubble’ trap? One of the advantages of being a student in a classroom with a teacher and peers is that they are exposed to ideas / material that they may not otherwise discover; will these OpenStax books be programmed to replicate this.