This is just the first of what I expect will be a series of posts exploring the subject of hyperconnectivity and what constitutes healthy levels of usage of technology, and what the implications of this are for professional development and cultural change brought on by the emergence of social media.
Background
One of the many interesting conversations that emerged in the last week surrounding the topic of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft was that of overuse.  Several people mentioned this as one of the core issues …

[There are a heap of typos and grammatical errors in this post, which I'll clean up as soon as I can.]

Yesterday was a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of day.  The Learning and Teaching Forum brought roughly 150 staff together for the purposes of discussing the theme of “Engaging the Learner, Recognising the Teacher.”
My hat goes off to the organisers of the event – of which I was only a marginal contributor. The event ran quite smoothly and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves, with a fair amount of lively discussion taking …

This clip of Kseniya Simonova from “Ukraine’s Got Talent” is absolutely phenomenal. Simonova ultimately won the competition, and in my view it’s clear why she did. The description on the embedded YouTube clip indicates she “uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.”
After having watched this video literally half a dozen times (misting up each time I did), I began to recognise some important implications. In addition to the artist’s stunning creativity and …

Pew Internet and American Life Project currently has a survey available that seeks to enable people to determine what kind of tech user they are.  I just finished taking the survey and was identified as a “Digital Collaborator,” which Pew defines as:
If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a …

Image: cc licensed flickr photo shared by bgilliard
I’m sick today and more grumpy than usual, so forgive the diatribe.
There’s no faster way to tune me out of an application demonstration than to couch it in slimy PR tactics.  I literally made it 7.5 minutes into the Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 video before I just couldn’t stand anymore. I’m truly saddened by this, because by all accounts Google has an impressive offering in Wave that I’m still very interested in taking a look at when it …