An autopsy to biohacking #edcmooc

Quantified self and biohacking - this is the fad today. What is it all about? Biohacking means constant (or close to) follow up of a variety of bodily functions: heart rate, sleep quality, stress level etc. The amount of instruments available to do these measurements is wide and broadening rapidly. It is possible to follow up many things taking place in your body. It is also possible to evaluate what may happen in the future, e.g. through dna analysis and recognition of hereditary diseases.

The mental mindset related to biohacking seems to be an issue to observe. Biohackers are seen to indetify themselves with transhumansit ideologies, an belief that it is both possible and desirable to so alter the human condition funfamentally through the use of technologies in order  to develop a superior post-human being. Biopunk mindsets are also involved, emphasizing do-it-yourself ideologies. Non-hierarchial (medical) science i.e. personal and individual science seems to be in focus too.

Measuring is one thing. It may be of interest (and fun) to follow up whatever seems to be relevant in relation to individual mind and body. Developing a new narcississtic religion around beliefs of super-human abilities to influence anything and everything inside your body sounds unrealistic and - well - a bit boring.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohacking 

Is internet making us stupid?

There seems to be reason to be worried concerning the issue of what the net does to our brains, our ways to handle information, our ability to focus on the systemic complexity of our realities. Being online means, mainly, being in relation to short texts, short video clips, pictures. Many of us, like myself, find it difficult to concentrate on long complex narratives etc. Think about it, when was the last time you heard someone tell that s/he had been absorbed into the texts of Dostoyevski or Tolstoi. We just do it any more, (practially) nobody reads long complex narratives with a variety of protagonists and anagonists involved.

Is it so that our culture, our media, and our net do their best to make us stupid? Obviously there is something we need to consider and do. By this I don't mean not being in the net. Such an idea would be naive and irrational. What we need to thing about is how to be in the net in a way that helps develop ability to complex thinking, to understand the systemic nature of - well - systems we are immersed into, to be able to deal with unavoidable complexities and paradoxes in human life.

My idea is not to draft the solutions, just one approach here. Internet is by its nature short-termist. This means that everything we do there takes usually only a short time. Then we do something else etc. What might help are ways to slow down the natural speed from one issue to another topic. One way to do this could be through tempting ways to serve novels, short and long, through internet. Thereby Kindle may be one relevant way to approach this issue.

P.S.
According to Kidd & Castano reading literature seems to have relevant influence. For example literature in the 16th century seems to have boosted humanitarian revolutions like anti-slavery and anti-torture movements. Readers were able to emphasize with people in different situations through reading. An important question arises concerning how the prevailing practice of no-longer-reading-anything-longer-than-what-can-be-seen-on-screen influences us.

Sources:
Carr, N. (2008). Is google making us stupid? The Atlantic. July/August.
Kidd, D.C. & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science.

Fukuyamas idea of the end of history makes no sense #edcmooc #edcmoocw3

I had the pleasure of listening to Henry Minzberg in Montreal last summer. He referred to Fukuyama’s idea – not by mentioning his name, but whom else could he have meant – by saying that the idea of the end of history would also mean the end of thinking. Fukuyama’s idea is obviously based on the triumph of capitalism and this as the final and highest form of human existence. Minzberg said according to my notes that this idea is something dead wrong. I had thought that there is something out-of-place and wrong with Fukuyama’s history related thinking. Minzberg helped me see where this distortion lies. Shortly it is related (my interpretation) to an omnipotent, self-centered notion of “our present way” being the best, most advanced and highest form of existence. There have been similar ideas in various phases of history before, and the sustainability of present western life-form is for many reasons something that cannot last. Well, having now said what I felt important I can focus upon Fukuyama’s new ideas. Orwell’s and Huxley’s dystopias certainly seem to have been realized in the present day realities. NSA surveillance may be the most far reaching violation of intimacy. 

To be continued ...

Mixing a full network course approach with a blended learning approach #edcmooc

I am reflecting here some recent personal experiences related to the implementation of a university course utilizing a network learning and a blended learning approach. This open university course is available in a network version. This means that the participants can access all the course contents fully through net. The course is also utilizing a blended learning approach with live meetings in a classroom delivered in real time to net too.

The picture above is from the genuine setting from Thursday evening. The session takes place in external (i.e. not own university) facilities. What has been a technical challenge is access to internet. Therefore the connection was built here through my own laptop and through alternative connection. In the backpack I also carry a reserve video cannon; not needed this time. A good quality video camera stands on a tripod (front left) allowing various angles to the lecturer as well as the audience.

Course delivery takes place through Adobe Connect (AC), that seems to be a solution that is only partially reliable. Nevertheless having now developed a relationship with this solution everything seems to be running quite smoothly. Net participants express though frequently  some voice as well as picture delivery related problems. The course materials are shown through AC, and there is a one-direction voice connection from the classroom to the net. The net participants do not use their own audio, but interact by means of writhing in the chat area. This is because having audio on through all participating PCs in AC would cause a cacophony that could not be handled.

The real challenges in implementing a network course this way are related to the pedagogical as well as didactical practices. Handling an course with interactive real-time discussions with participants on site as well as with online participants is something that demands very good beforehand thinking. Running the course and discussing the topics with the students in the classroom (in this case some 30 of them) takes all the focus of the teacher. Simultaneously there is a lively discussion going on in the net chat (with a group of 30 participants there) that demands monitoring and interaction too. Our solution here - in this pilot course - was to bring in another person as chat discussion facilitator. His role is both to follow the classroom discussion as well as the chat discussion. The facilitator takes part in the chat as well as brings some topics from there to the classroom discussion. Such a two teacher model seems to be functioning, but is naturally not the most effective way to act. 

Whether a mix of a network course and a blended course makes sense is an issue that needs to be thought over after gathering some more experience. There are though good reasons to try to implement both approaches in the same package.

Quantified self and biohacking (vol 2)

 

Some personal reflection on biohacking, and this in relation to physical activity. I have utilized heart rate monitor, pedometer and recently a cardiac readiness measurement tool. Omegawave is an instrument that according to the product information "gives you an overall summary of your body’s training readiness; telling you the status of your cardiac system readiness on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 indicates full recovery from your previous workout." I have had this tool as well as phone application for it for a couple of months. This instrument measures a large amount of information through a two minute heart rate follow up.

The left side of the picture above shows overall cardiac readiness before a hard exercise. This consisted of some 14 km of running with a group of athletes. Cardiac readiness was on good level before training and is on a fair level a day after. Makes sense, but this can also be felt in the body without any extra information. You may ponder what is the extra value of it.

Of course this is not all the information the system provides. There is a lot more available. The question is whether the user is willing (and able) to dig deep into all data available. What could make sense is a change to provide all the heart data gathered to your physician for him/her to analyze when time comes. Whether this is possible or not is not known to me, but could be an additional feature of the system.

I am still probing the tool as well as the results. This all looks very interesting, but will I be able to find real use or not remains to be seen.

Quantified Self and Biohacking #edcmooc

 Leonardo da Vinci: The Proportions of the Human Figure (Vitruvian Manek) (1490; Pen, ink and watercolour over metalpoint)

The topic of ”Quantified self and biohacking" is of relevance from the point of view of digital culture, and probably also from the angle of future e-learning potential. Paradoxically there is simultaneously something extremely appealing in this approach, and something that gives you shivers.

Well what is this phenomenon then all about? As far as I understand it, quantified self is all about deepened self-knowledge through numbers. Biohacking contains the means and instruments utilized for acquiring information about physical states. Practical and well-known measurement instruments are for example pedometers and heart-rate monitors. The array of various tools to measure what happens inside is expanding rapidly. Applications that help to analyze measurement results are available and can be utilized to define actions to be done based upon measurement results received.

What is new in new measurement possibilities is the potential of gathering deep going information in real time and continuously about human physical states. The measurements combine mind and body. Everyday actions and their physical counterparts can be observed simultaneously. Bodily information in various situations becomes visible. (Ruckenstein, 2012)

The shivers part of this short comment is related potential outcomes of expanding self-control in a narcissistic individual focused culture. A god-like belief in our ability to monitor and manipulate our own existence and experiences contains risk factors. These obviously exist both on individual and on social level. An easy to see individual level risk is addiction. Our life may turn out to monitoring it through intelligent gadgets. In this process we may forget to live.


Sources

Quantified self & biohacking Finland. Main event Nov. 5, 2013.
http://quantifiedself.fi/2013/10/28/quantified-self-biohacking-finland-main-event-5-11/
 
Ruckenstein, M. (2012). Mittarein kuvattu elämä: arjen analytiikasta biopoliittisiin pyrkimyksiin. Kuluttajatutkimuskeskuksen vuosikirja. http://www.ncrc.fi/files/5706/07_mittarein_kuvattu_elama_vuosikirja2012.pdf (Nov 6, 2013)