CONIECTO

A place where stories, thoughts and ideas come together

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Our own way of looking at the world...

Few months ago, I found on a discussion list a reference to Knowplace, a Canadian website providing training and supporting "a world wide community interested in all the aspects of online learning". This is how I found out about their Open Weekends - regular online meetings dedicated to various online teaching topics. This week-end, in her Tools Potlock Open Weekend, Helen Kershaw pointed to an interesting article of Stephen Downes, titled Principles for Evaluating Websites.It doesn't refer to usability matters, but to content evaluation and reliability.

Here's a section that draw my attention:

9. Motives and Frames Matter

Most content on the web is trying to convince you that something is true. That’s why it’s on the web in the first place.

Usually, what they want you to believe isn’t just some isolated fact or data, but rather a whole collection of facts and data. They want you to see the world in a certain way. In philosophy, this is sometimes called a ‘world view’ while in linguistics this is called a ‘frame’.

Here are some examples of frames:

  • It's a dangerous world and we have a lot to fear
  • Microsoft products cannot be trusted
  • Our country is the best (most free, most democratic, most advanced, etc.)

Think about all the sorts of things that could lead you to believe any of these three statements. Think about other sorts of things that might also be frames. Think about the way you look at the world – you probably view it from a certain frame, whether or not you recognize it.

That's not bad in itself – we all have to have a way of looking at the world. But we need to choose this way of looking at the world for ourselves. That’s why we need to understand what frames other people believe, so we know when we are being persuaded to look at the world one way or another.

That's why motives matter. A person’s motive is the frame or worldview he or she wants you to accept. You need to know why somebody is telling you something as well as what they are telling you.

The way we look at the world - from a certain frame, whether or not we recognize it...

How often are we really aware of the existence of our own, personal frame? How much of it is personal, and how much was induced by our family, our group of friends, or by the society as a whole? How it affects the way we are able to learn, to adapt in unpredictable circumstances?
|| Gabriela 10:02:00 PM
| permalink

Back to blogging

Looking at my Blogger account, I realised I haven't posted a word in the last 4 weeks. I have a lot of drafts, some of them with photos and links, but I never found the time to finish them.
I guess I'll give up blogging forever if I'll continue this way.

Well, first it was an anti-procrastination strategy. I told myself I'll be allowed to blog at the end of the day, because I have to put work on the first place - and this is how I ended with all those drafts. Now I realise I'm procrastinating blogging too - I can't find my motivation to refine a post after weeks!

I guess the best thing to do would be to forget about the drafts. They were all interesting, but they are "old news" by now. And wipe out the guilt - looks like I'm the only one who can absolve me of this sin!

Of course, I have plenty of excuses. I'm working on this new project. I moved into a new apartment(it's literally brand new!). I had a dear guest from Germany and we spent time together driving through the South of the island. I gave my "house warming" party. I am connecting to new people...

But none of them is good enough for having neglected my blog for such a long time. I repent, and I'm back to writing and posting!
| permalink