Hi Dave – I was really fascinated to hear what you had to say about South Korea and Hangoorrorooooah (just to give you an idea that I have tried to scratch the surface of this wonderful culture!) In fact, my OD is a Hangooksarahmi. (Now you could call me illiterate for not being able to spell that out in Korean lettering. But I suspect you will not!)
Let’s get serious about literacy and illiteracy. You brought up some interesting points about the similarity in people’s understanding between literacy and skills. The fact is that we are literally hidebound by the English language, and, just as it is a wonderful vehicle for poetry and all that is allegorical, we still get tripped up by its contextual, and connotational meanings, to the extent that this causes frequent serious misunderstandings.
If English is a problem, think about this: there were many of us on this course who are not native English speakers. Some were francophones, others Italians and a large proportion, Spanish speakers. This made it very interesting indeed and certainly proved the global capability of connectivism. Both George and Stephen spoke in Second Life, their words translated into Spanish for the benefit of the Spanish speakers, and this was another enormous leap across the language divide.
If nothing else, the new technology provides us with a platform where we can develop further technologies for communicating with each other without the problems we run into in conventional debates. I am excited about all the developments in emerging technologies which assist the learning of languages other than our own. (E.g.: Language Labs like la Ciudad Bonita and other language learning facilities in Second Life.)
Of course, this whole thing could end up being a permanent fixture if it didn’t have a finite end point (twelve weeks), however meantime, on reflection, it was a shame that we didn’t really have any representation from Africa, China, Korea or Russia on this course. Agreed this would have protracted it still further and we might never have reached any of the points along the way because of all the additional details encountered.
Thank you for your input to the course and good luck with all your future endeavors for the furthering of connectivism and connective knowledge!
As a footnote, I have really enjoyed spending time with you and all the other people on this Connectivism course and wish you George and Stephen the very best in taking this to the next level…!