Mob Rules
In reading the post on Phaedrus about the mob , I found I had to keep reading it over in order to understand what was being said. Basically, I had trouble figuring out what the mob was. I think, though, that it means a mob of people who are all using the network. I wrote a comment on the post, but didn’t submit it because I wasn’t sure if I knew enough to even comment. I’m sure no one else felt that way, but I just couldn’t get a handle on it.
Basically, I think he is saying that when there is a need, people find a way to fulfill the need. Technology is the answer in many cases, such as the fishermen in India who used the mobile handset to figure out what market needed their fish. More and more the network of people (mob) are going to get what they want and will use the web to do it. As far as the hierarchy that is education, change is happening. It is going to take place whether the powers that be are ready or not. The tools are there. We have been exposed to them in this class and have seen what is being done and what can be done with them. If the current educational system is not meeting the needs, there will be a way around it.
I was thinking that we (in the United States) are going to be left behind. Many people don’t see the need and we have become so complacent and comfortable that we fail to see how things could be different.
November 18th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
The “mob” is everybody else. It’s a catch all term that he’s using to talk about any particular mass of people.
What he is saying is that when we focus on content, we’re losing sight of the meaning. The purpose of the network is to connect you to other people, not to content. Google connects you to content. A textbook connects you to content. The value in the network is that it connects you to people. The degree to which the network helps you connect to the person you need to connect to at any point in time will govern how valuable that network is to you.
School is a failure of the network. The network has been routing around it for more than ten years. What’s the implication of that?
November 19th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Thanks for clarifying. I think we focus too much on content in schools. We’ve talked about that before and how everything is centered around a test. It’s true, I think, that the connections we make are more important than content. When you make connections, you can always get the information you need. Students make use of the network all the time for their own purposes and schools try (and fail) to keep them out during school. I think the implication for education is that we are going to have to change and encourage connections globally.