Social Media and Unconventional Warfare

[Bill Moore]

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Posted by Max161

I like to think of myself as a pretty good teacher. I've been doing this for more than 15 years, and while I've dabbled in the fancier technologies, I've concluded that the meat and potatoes of podium, lectern, chalk, and blackboard have worked the best.

Dave,

Please check out the link above, and actually take one of the math modules to get an idea of how it works. It has been updated since I last checked it out, and now they have quite a few history classes (haven't checked those out yet), but I can vouch for the math modules. I was able to use them to refresh some skills so I could assist someone, and then got them hooked on the KhanAcademy.

Agreed you're a good teacher, but now imagine instead of teaching a class of 20-40 students, and like all people they only hold their attention to one topic for so long, and they're attention may have drifted when covered a critical point. Hopefully they'll pick it up in their reading assignments, or when conductinga group study. This method has worked for years, still works, but now imagine the future and the future is now.

You're an internet star teacher, you're still using your blackboard, but it is a digital blackboard, and students can replay your teaching modules/lectures repeatedly until they feel comfortable with it, and by the way you now have students around the world. The military is experimenting with this, but most of their classes in my view are overly dumbed down and not challenging or progressive in nature, but more of a check the block training requirement. If you buy into the argument we need more disruptive thinkers, and that higher education that challenges your current perceptions is what helps develops those disruptive thinkers, and we're getting people into those classes too late in their careers, well here is another venue to expose all our soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors to challenging higher education. They can pick the topics they like, the goal isn't a degree, but developing a crtical thinker.

In some respects this does relate to UW. There was a relatively recent study on public places and social mobilization. Most revolutions used public spaces (schools, churches, mosques, public squares) to mobilize people to their cause. In areas with repressive governments a revolutionary had to carefully develop a clandestine network whose communication was very channelized, encrypted and security was more important than transfering the message (protect your clandestine organization at all costs), at least until you can generate a popular uprising. While I think you still need a clandestine body (perhaps a shadow government that is pulling the strings), now you can anonomously communicate with the masses when the masses have access (or access to those who do) to the various forms of media. You can reach out to them, make a convincing argument (equivalent of Anwar Awlaki messages reaching out to a global audience), and provide instruction on they can do for the cause. You wouldn't know who was doing it, it would be a nightmare for security forces to disrupt, and their actions in themselves could gain enough momentum to achieve your political aim, if not they'll provide a major distraction for security forces while your more formal organization undertakes more decisive action. There are hundreds of ways this can play out. I hear all the warnings that the government can shut it down, but I don't think it is that easy, and of course there are ways a savvy operator can continue to work. They won't shut down this means of communication for any length of time in a high tech socieity without doing serious damage to the economy.

Just some thoughts on the potential, while not dismissing the challenges.

[max161]

Bill,
That is Dan Drezner's quote from the article not mine!

[Dayuhan]

You're an internet star teacher, you're still using your blackboard, but it is a digital blackboard, and students can replay your teaching modules/lectures repeatedly until they feel comfortable with it, and by the way you now have students around the world.

The problem that nobody's yet solved with this, relative to a physical classroom, is that the teacher can't see the students, can't see if their attention is drifting, can't see if someone looks confused, can't alter the pattern of the lesson to suit immediate verbal or non-verbal feedback from the class. The teacher can't ask questions at key moments to see if the message is getting across, can't respond on the spot to student questions, can't get students to engage in discussion among themselves, guiding and observing that discussion to determine the extent to which the students are "getting it".

We've all seen how the inability to use non-verbal cues results in misunderstanding in online discussions... that's as much a factor, potentially more, in online educational environments.

[Bill Moore]

Dayuhan,

That isn't a problem, it is a challenge. You're living in the Philippines, so you may be out of touch with the reality of our education system. In many of our schools, especially in economically depressed areas the teachers are subpar, work in dangerous conditions, and the kids who desire to get an education can't (parents can't afford to send them to private schools). At a minimum this allows students to "augment" lessons in the classroom.

I saw a special where one school was using Khan Academy in the classroom. Obviously not a depressed inter city school, because every kid had a tablet and was taking math classes at their own pace, with the teacher monitoring their progress on her tablet and assisting students who were still struggling. She said it revolutionized teaching the results were outstanding.

As you well know a lot of people are self-educated, they key to learning is the desire to learn, then the environment. I'm not arguing your point, but simply pointing out that doesn't make this technique anymore obsolete than reading a book.

[davidbfpo]

A superb headline and title on FP Blog, with a focus on the response of the Syrian state electronically and the recent Executive Order on supplies to Syria:

President Obama is on the right track with Monday's executive order, but the United States needs to get tougher on the global digital arms race.

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ance?page=full

I shall leave aside the clear and present danger at home for weapons of mass surveillance.

[davidbfpo]

CWOT, a SWC member, has this intriguing post 'On Twitter, It’s Content, Not Contacts That Matter', which refers to a research finding:

“Influence” doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it does. In the age of the social-media celebrity, a glut of Twitter followers or particularly pugnacious sampling of pithy updates are often the hallmarks of an influencer. But new research suggests that influence is situational at best: as people compete for the attention of the broader online ecosystem, the relevance of your message to the existing conversation of those around you trumps any innate “power” a person may have.

The cited research:http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/1203...srep00335.html

For CWOT's comments:http://selectedwisdom.com/?p=620

[Bill Moore]

Posted by davidbfpo

CWOT, a SWC member, has this intriguing post 'On Twitter, It’s Content, Not Contacts That Matter', which refers to a research finding:

Content has always mattered, that isn't a change, but so has getting your message out, and in modern times that may mean getting it to go viral. An empty message going viral won't accomplish much, a message that resonates that isn't received won't accomplish much either, so in fact both are important.

There are always those that cling onto the past until there is nothing left to cling to. The hundreds of comments on the blogosphere downplaying the impact of social media is not only ironic, but comical.

[Dayuhan]

I do think people overestimate the actual impact of "going viral". The question is staying power: something else will be viral next week, and today's sensation will be gone. How many people will remember "Get Kony 2012" at the end of the year?

Reaching a million or ten million or 100 million eyeballs doesn't mean much if the only action taken at the other end is a click on "like" or "share" and the material is forgotten within hours or minutes.

I'd think building a small but committed network that stays together and keeps coming back is a more effective use of social media than generating a viral sensation that's here today and long gone tomorrow.