Communication R Us … Or Is It?

“The more we elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

… so says Joseph Priestley

Priestley was enough of a liberal to have his house burned to the ground by an angry mob in 1791 because he dared to publicly admire the French Revolution.  King George III was apparently not amused.

More importantly for us, Priestley foretold our modern digital age.

We used to have letters, telephones, and talking to someone face-to-face.  Now we have more.

We have multiple channels of communication, including email, texting, blogging, microblogging, podcasts, videos, slide programs, and probably many others that I am just not aware of.   We can choose to communicate in one, several, or all of these methods.

We can tweet, we can blog, we can comment, we can broadcast, we can publish.

We can talk to one, we can talk to many, we can talk to our friends, our tribes, our groups, or our circles.

At the flick of a virtual finger, we can send our message to millions.

We can organize and automate all of these, so we are actually kicking back and swigging margueritas while we communicate.

We can communicate at whatever hour of the day or night we desire, from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world, pretty much.

We can aggregate, curate, and collaborate, all while creating a virtual junk pile of our communication that cannot be touched, but apparently will exist forever.

I am worn out just typing all this …

So, what do you think?  

Are we communicating better … or just more?

Tempest in a “Tweetpot” Under the Arch . . .

Those of us who live in the metro area are familiar with an ongoing theme of “We’re Not Worthy” played by various folks in the city and the county.  My personal perception of the basic scenario for our urban  inferiority complex is to bemoan not being bigger, more prosperous, or attractive to outsiders, while defending staunchly our right to be parochial, narrow-minded, and small-town.

Here’s our latest entry in this ongoing scenario:

THE TITLE:  St. Louis gets a Twitter scandal to call its own

Top Ten Learning Tools . . . According to Me:)

Jane Hart is the founder of the Center For Learning Performance Technology (C4LPT), an author, blogger, and recognized expert in the field of adult learning.  She is also one of the best known thought leaders, especially when it comes to such cutting edge topics as social learning, online learning, and so on.

Every year since 2006, Jane has asked those who use learning tools to name our top ten, which she compiles into the 100 Top Learning Tools List.  This annual global survey of the state of learning tool usage is both a fascinating history and a fairly accurate predictions of things to come.   Most importantly, Jane’s Top 100 list provides a snapshot of the variety of learning tools that are available now to enhance and speed up learning in a great many ways.

Many learning tools launch and disappear without making much of a real difference.  The ones that float to the top of Jane’s list tend to be those which are “sticky”. So, without a lot more fanfare, . . .

John E. Smith’s Top Ten Learning Tools List (annotated):