Ewan McIntosh | Digital Media & Education

Shocker! | Cable TV News and Public Sector Leaders: They're The Same!

I love watching Jon Stewart's continued picking apart of the bias in cable TV news, notably in Fox (the YouTube clips should suffice as explanation). Now, Seth talks about how Cable TV News' attitudes can be seen in any board room around the world:

1. Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
2. Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
3. Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
4. Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
5. Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
6. Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
7. Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
8. Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
9. Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
10. Confusing opinion with the truth.
11. Revising facts to fit a point of view.
12. Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.

From Seth Godin's Blog

I'd say there are a good few educational and Governmental establishments where at least 11 of these hold true in day-to-day practice. Shouldn't every organisation, public or private, check itself on a regular basis against these statements? If you did it on your own one right now, how many statements can be seen in your work?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Pic: Bush takes responsibility. Jon looks shocked.

Simon Cowell's letter to his younger, cocky self

In an age where celebrity is held higher esteem by tweens and teens than ever before, Simon Cowell has emerged as an unlikely superstar: old enough to be most teens' dad, appearing to have the Midas touch where everything he touches turns to gold, the evil-turned-soft record label mogul.

In the last week, he's written a letter to his younger self which every admiring fame- and money-obssessed youngster should read to gain a worthwhile reality check.

On the eve of his 50th birthday last week wrote a letter to his younger self (A letter to my shallow, reckless, cocky younger self). It charts the rise and fall and rise and another fall of the boy who thought he had it all when, in fact, his bank account read zero:

"Look at you. You look like a complete idiot. Could you be any worse? You are about as bad an example of Eighties' excess as you could possibly be.

"You are overconfident, far too cocky and dressed from head to toe in expensive designer gear. Armani and Versace. Oh, nothing but the best for you Simon! It hasn't dawned on you yet, you idiot, that you can't afford any of this stuff.

"You believe that everything is just going to get bigger and bigger and that you are an intrinsic part of it all. You are up there, riding so high, that you cannot see what is really happening.

"What the hell is that outside your interior designed, four-bedroom house in Fulham? Please don't tell me it is a Porsche? Doh! Of course it is, what else could it be? You are driving a Porsche because everyone did in those days."

Read more of it over on the Daily Mail, and, if you recognise the cocky youngster about to lose it all (for the first time) sitting in your classroom, maybe send them the link.

Where Do Good Ideas Come From?

If we all knew the idea we'd not be writing blog posts like this, reading them or doing workshops on the matter. We'd be busy pulling that limitless supply of creativity out of its hole to see the light of day and bring us riches, joy, learning and new friends.

However, given that we're not, over the next month or so (or however long it takes me to splurge out those thoughts) I'll be summarising on this here blog some of the best online and offline reading and viewing that has attempted to answer that question, throwing in my own unresearched but tried and tested notions (and a few that haven't even got that far). This post will change to reflect the updating posts that will take a peek at:

1. Why it's important to (want to) know Where Good Ideas Come From.
2. Stand There And Do Nothing: Designing beautiful solutions rather than solving ugly problems
3. Creative Genius. Man At Work: Arguments for not working as a team
4. Getting Creativity Done (GCD): How to get productive and clean down the mental decks
5. Nurturing creativity: Worrying about "Tanya's Bow" or the Dinosaurs: Some arguments for caring about the team, not pissing them off and really understanding what failure is
6. Finding your tribe
7. Creating visions, not missions

As they're posted, please leave comments, disagree, add your own links, videos and pictures. I hope that by the end of it we'll have a resource to which we might come back with the stories of how the works, thoughts and attitudes of others have changed the way we operate.

Bookmark this post and come back to it for updates, and subscribe to the blog to get a daily email or RSS feed in your reader every time there's a new post. Take a look at my instructions on how to subscribe.

Brill pic from Chris Metcalf

X Factor's Alexandra Burke not sorted online... yet

In about five minutes the PR machine is likely to kick in as Alexandra Burke wins the X Factor. But it's amazing to see how little her online profile has been managed over the past twelve weeks of finals live every Saturday night on the telly box.

Her Facebook profile is currently her real one, with some 25 friends, one of whom is fellow contestant Laura White. It's a far cry from the huge number of fan sites that appear when one searches boy band competition JLS's Marvin. It's also far from what things will be like later this week once the security, PR and superstar status apparatus kicks in.

In other news, I'm delighted Alex has won, netting me loads of dosh (virtual dosh, that is) on Hubdub.com, a wee Edinburgh-based site making waves across the entertainment and news worlds at the moment. On the other hand, condolences to JLS, whose member Marvin is close to the hearts (and stomachs) of us at Channel 4 - his dad is the catering manager.

So what's the conclusion of all this? Well, social media can't trump pure talent, and tools and platforms don't make up for creativity and genius.

Cross-posted at 38minutes
Pic of Alexandra Burke

National education agency on YouTube, Blip and GoogleVids

My employer, "the main organisation for the development and support of the Scottish curriculum", has this week launched its own YouTube channel.

OK, it only took a few minutes to do, but the will to do this in the first place, coming from Scotland's national education agency, should be a powerful message to all education authorities around the world: you can and you should be looking at how all technologies might provide an opportunity for learning and teacher development.

We've had GoogleVideo clips since last September, although most of the material is for proof of concept and is from the East Lothian area. We've also just opened a Blip.TV channel which should be more accessible in schools and which, I think, has a nicer interface than anything else - just need to fill that one up a bit. Once again, we're avoiding that big project, big launch thing. We just hope that we can get some even more interesting video out there over the next year - it's not like events such as the Learning Festival don't provide enough ;-) When we've got that we might make a little bit of a song and dance about it (we'll video the song and dance, of course).

The advent of TeacherTube should mean that we get in there, too, and we probably will. But part of me also thinks we should be engaging with 'real' tools first and foremost, not slightly phony 'safe' schooly curricular ones, where the quality of content is just as debatable as on non-schooly versions and doesn't seem to be kid-friendly. Judy's got a resounding silence to people who use it successfully in lessons, and I don't think it's really helping answer the real question: do teachers know how to exploit video online in a safe way? The answer, as Leon Cych hints, is probably not: how many of those kids in the videos have written sign-off from their parents, as East Lothian teachers have now been empowered to do? In the 21st century informal learning, not the formal stuff, will become the way the vast majority of lifelong learners will get their fix. Is creating a new silo of information which is deemed more valuable because of its 'safeness' worthwhile?

Clearly I don't think so, and, for once, we've got a public organisation making a very public statement on its intentions and desires with new technology: use what the kids use, use what engages them, and educate them about it in school.

In the time it takes Local Authorities to get this you can still capture YouTube videos from home to 'takeaway' into school. And innovative teachers like Neil Winton are realising that if you can't beat 'em with cool (and still highly useful and entertaining) school trip blogs, then join 'em in their Bebo pages as they discuss what happened on the trip. The discussion is on the same thing, just in a different place.

Meanwhile, what kind of videos would you find of interest from your (inter)national education provider? More of the same? I'd hope that we might also have some new ideas to bring to you through the box, but maybe the next big idea is from you. And, yes, we will see you on Bebo soon ;-)

DayZLoop: Enterprising, creative social networking for girls

We often worry about providing good role models for our teenage kids. For girls, I think DayZLoop provides a great, healthy online community where they can explore some serious and not-so-serious issues.

DayZLoop combines Habbo Hotel type social spaces with Bebo profiling, but best of all is its basis in online television shows which cover inspirational teen role models, teen reporters covering issues such as anorexia or how to make some great food for your next sleepover (OK, their next sleepover).

There are plenty of examples, too, of where girls have taken a hobby and turned it into a cottage industry, whether it's interior design for their friends' bedrooms or bespoke fashion accessories.

Have a look yourself and see whether it's the kind of site you would recommend to your teenage students.

CBBC SecondLife for weans

Weans are 'wee ones' or children, and the BBC is going to launch a SecondLife type thing for them so that they can navigate through the superb kids' content on the CBBC site. Why am I chuffed about this? Because it was the very thing that Stephen Heppell and I were suggesting, with our edu-consultancy hats on, that they might do way back in a Learning brainstorm in May last year.

The other main thrust of our eight-hour sesh was that they might also consider launching a MySpace type personal publishing platform for mobile pics and vids. After grumbles about the BBC's position and moderation, that, too, seems to be an idea that might be in the offing, using the service which does it well already: YouTube.

The BBC, for me, continues to be one of the most innovative mainstream media groups in the world, despite the criticism to the contrary, and still makes that license fee worth paying.

As Hannibal would say: "I love it when a plan comes together".

Shootout! Learning through TV and gaming

The History Channel shows you a documentary covering one of the biggest battles in history such as Okinawa or the Afghan conflict - and then puts you into that battle in a first-person shoot-em-up game you can download to your PC.

As a Mac user I've not had a chance to follow through with the gaming part of this learning experience, called Shootout!, so don't know how dubious it all is. But The History Channel has in the past proven enjoyable and informative as a TV learning device and I can only imagine that the game will attract more youngsters (if they are, indeed, the intended audience) to learn about history.

Is this simply glamourising war or is it a genuine learning opportunity? Let me know - I think Shootout is on the TV in the UK on Tuesday nights on the History Channel (via cable).

Prediction No. 1 coming true: IPTV is on the way

  mach deinen fernseher kaputt 
  Originally uploaded by Eris23.

I didn't really make any of those New Year predictions about the future of the web in 2007, other than Internet-driven television services would launch and start making it big (IPTV, for short). Apple TV is not what I meant, although it's part of the way there. Something like Joost is, though.

For the past month or so the ad/marketing/techie blogosphere has been alight with excited talk of The Venice Project, the code name which is now the net's coolest-to-be IPTV service, Joost. Basically, when it's launched soon, you will be able to watch an infinite number of channels (not just the 480 you currently have), anywhere (no need for a digi box, just some wifi or hardwire connection) and at any time. Linear broadcasting is dead, as Emily would be proud to hear me say (I do learn something from that podcast, btw, but you do need to get yourself your own blog).

You won't have to watch the telly when Aunty tells you to, you won't even have to wait for the repeat at 10pm on BBC3. Tourists in the States trying to cram the latest 24 into their suitcases can use the space for Bourbon instead. Hurrah!Is it going to work? Is it going to last beyond next week? Well... um... yes. It's produced by the two guys who invented Skype, including Niklas Zennström who was given top polling at LeWeb3 last month when he hinted at what was to come.

I have one, small ambition for this service and others like it this year: that education might not muck up the use of telly in the classroom for the second time round. Embrace IPTV: it's the 70s all over again but without the bad flares.

Play MacWorld Stevenote Bingo

Every January the geek world gets all excited just like the Christmas Eve three weeks previously as Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer, gives his 90 minute Macworld keynote speech (or Stevenote), outlining the cool new features and technologies Apple will be releasing that night and later in the year. It's how the iPod, the MacBook Pro and iPhoto etc were all launched.

You can watch the speech online after the event (I'll follow the text updates live on MacRumors MacRumorsLive) and join in John's Keynote Bingo. Just how many times will Steve say "And just one more thing..."? Will Apple release a new Apple TV, the iTV? Or will there be a new mobile phone iPod cross-breed? Find out and tick off your card (available as a PDF on John's blog).