Comments on: Summary: Week 8 http://edc11.education.ed.ac.uk/danielg/2011/11/13/summary-week-8/ part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:27:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Daniel Griffin http://edc11.education.ed.ac.uk/danielg/2011/11/13/summary-week-8/#comment-107 Daniel Griffin Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:36:40 +0000 http://edc11.education.ed.ac.uk/danielg/?p=6136#comment-107 Cheers Jeremy, Your comments always prompt me to pause and consider my thoughts more deeply, thanks!!! Thanks also for the link, interesting stuff. And a great question. Certainly I'd agree (with Chomsky and many others) that language is the primary medium which allowed intelligence, culture and organisation (and therefore distributed cognition) to evolve, so in that sense it is a very real tool. Media theory tells us that meaning is constructed in the mind of the receiver; so we could claim therefore that natural language can be an inaccurate communication tool. But there are many types of languages. As a web developer, I use a variety of different languages (as tools) every day. Symbolic languages (be they code or otherwise) can allow for far greater precision of expression and therefore accurate sharing of meaning or semantics. Its interesting to think how this sharpening of precision might be affecting us individually, and it has obvious consequences for humanity as a whole. Much to think about as always, thanks Jeremy! Cheers Jeremy,
Your comments always prompt me to pause and consider my thoughts more deeply, thanks!!! Thanks also for the link, interesting stuff. And a great question. Certainly I’d agree (with Chomsky and many others) that language is the primary medium which allowed intelligence, culture and organisation (and therefore distributed cognition) to evolve, so in that sense it is a very real tool.

Media theory tells us that meaning is constructed in the mind of the receiver; so we could claim therefore that natural language can be an inaccurate communication tool. But there are many types of languages. As a web developer, I use a variety of different languages (as tools) every day. Symbolic languages (be they code or otherwise) can allow for far greater precision of expression and therefore accurate sharing of meaning or semantics. Its interesting to think how this sharpening of precision might be affecting us individually, and it has obvious consequences for humanity as a whole. Much to think about as always, thanks Jeremy!

]]> By: Jeremy Keith Knox http://edc11.education.ed.ac.uk/danielg/2011/11/13/summary-week-8/#comment-89 Jeremy Keith Knox Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:37:23 +0000 http://edc11.education.ed.ac.uk/danielg/?p=6136#comment-89 Its great to see a discussions of 'cognitive prosthesis' and distributed cognition emerging Daniel. Where you bring in the example of mobile phones and memory, I was reminded of Viktor Mayer-Schönberger's book 'Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age' (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8981.html), which warns against the excesses of an unrelenting digital memory. You might also find this paper interesting, which combines a kind of distributed cognition perspective with the posthuman: Yakhlef, A. (2008). Towards a post-human distributed cognition environment. Knowledge Management Research and Practice 6. pp. 287-297. www.esc-pau.fr/documents/cahiers%20recherche%2008/cahier-10-art3.pdf Your post also reminded me, in some ways, of the 'multimodal' and 'transliteracy' discussions in weeks 3 and 4. Language, and signification systems in general, are often given much emphasis in discussions of prosthesis, being considered a technology that has radically enhanced our cognitive abilities. Would you consider language a technology? Its great to see a discussions of ‘cognitive prosthesis’ and distributed cognition emerging Daniel. Where you bring in the example of mobile phones and memory, I was reminded of Viktor Mayer-Schönberger’s book ‘Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age’ (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8981.html), which warns against the excesses of an unrelenting digital memory.

You might also find this paper interesting, which combines a kind of distributed cognition perspective with the posthuman:

Yakhlef, A. (2008). Towards a post-human distributed cognition environment.
Knowledge Management Research and Practice 6. pp. 287-297.

http://www.esc-pau.fr/documents/cahiers%20recherche%2008/cahier-10-art3.pdf

Your post also reminded me, in some ways, of the ‘multimodal’ and ‘transliteracy’ discussions in weeks 3 and 4. Language, and signification systems in general, are often given much emphasis in discussions of prosthesis, being considered a technology that has radically enhanced our cognitive abilities. Would you consider language a technology?

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