http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/index.html
One of the needles in my bonnet is how we use tools to organize and manage information. I am convinced [with a stubborness based on a complete lack of theoretical knowledge or much in the way of empirical examples] that we are in the same stage of tools development that auto manufacturers were when they put buggy whip sockets in their original models -- we have not wrapped our minds around the fact that the tool is *new* as thoroughly as we might.
From Vannevar Bush onward, there have been suggestions concerning methods and modalities to amplify our minds through cognition prosthetics in the form of hardware and software ["cognition prosthetic" is simply professor-talk for a devive which aids our minds in doing something -- say a notepad on which you write a 'to do' list] -- none of which are "there yet".
Indeed, I am not sure we are going to get "there" any time soon, if only, in part, because we don't know *where* "there" is [but we will know it when we find it], but to prevent myself from waxing epistimolgical [as contrasted to waxing my car, a genuinely useful and rewarding pursuit], I will merely note that continuous coverage of tools to expand the reach of our mind will be a permanent feature of this blog.
And the above link is an entry about an ongoing research project which is looking into an aspect of such tools, thus worth reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting. This is something which I consider vital and crucial to the teaching/learning enterprise as we continue to drown in the information deluge.
Posted by jho at June 4, 2003 05:25 PM