Cooked On Education

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May 16th, 2008 by Mark Spahr

Last week, I attended the penultimate eMints training session for this school year with Jim Moulton. In the course of our conversation, Jim mentioned something he calls “Google mem” (for Google memory). The idea is simple. Looking for something that you read, but can’t quite remember where you found it? Just check your “Google Mem” by searching for it. I have been doing this for years now without really putting a name to it. This has been improved with sites like del.icio.us, Diigo, Evernote and many others. Still, these tools are not perfect, and on more than one occasion I have looked through every resource I have and still not found what I am looking for. Now, I have realize that I have one more memory tool in my arsenal: Twitter.A few days ago I saw this tweet from Richard Byrne:

I remembered reading this post. In it, Jon Becker compared the edublogosphere to a closed, elite cocktail party. The post created quite a sensation and spawned all sorts of responses and comments across the edublogosphere. I went to my Google Reader, did a quick search, and in a matter of minutes, responded on Twitter:

Byrne responded:

Maybe I am just saying the obvious, but has the internet and the connections we make using it become a type of collective memory? If this is true, the geek in me can’t help but to think of the Borg Collective from Star Trek. Now I am not saying that we are all becoming a set of mindless drones with combined consciousnesses, who exist only to serve the larger group. But things do get forgotten quickly and easily. Tools like Twitter allow me to access the shared memory of the people that I follow and who follow me. Here is another example, where I was able to access the collective internet and help out Jenny Luca.

Is this much ado about nothing? What do you think?

Here is some Borg goodness for you to ponder!
[youtube]NuqzGOt8H6Q[/youtube]

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2 Responses to “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”

on 16 May 2008 at 12:15 pm1Harold Shaw

Mark - You know something - I believe you really have something here. There is almost a collective memory that you can access, when you need to or are too lazy to find it yourself. It is funny how this is developing, but it is also a bit scary too, where will we be in 20 years - implanted bionics that are wirelessly connect to the rest of the “hive” internet. Harold
on 25 May 2008 at 4:40 pm2Jenny Luca

Hi Mark,
I missed that tweet that you sent on to Richard Byrne. I am realising that this edublogosphere is a much smaller world than I originally thought. The elite cocktail party analogy maybe not too far off the mark! Originally, before I entered this world, I thought there were vast numbers of people exploring the possibilities - I now realise that is not the case. We are the early adopters - what does this mean for us in 10 yrs time -how far ahead will we be and where will it take us?? Things to ponder in the wee hours!!
Jenny.