Category Archives: Networked Media

Network Literacy

Literacy, by definition is regarded as “competence or knowledge in a specified area”. Although often considered solely in reference to print (reading and writing), literacy can refer to one’s knowledge of almost any given subject matter or activity. Network literacy, as highlighted by Adrian Miles this week is the ability to participate and engage with knowledge networks. This has well and truly become embedded within internet culture. It is important to break down contemporary ‘taken for granted’ human activities, in order to understand the depths of such implicit knowledge. Basic instances such as recognising: types of media on the internet; the format of blogs or forums; hyperlinks; comment fields and tags are all necessary points to ponder upon in the discussion of network literacy as a term. Wondering off topic slightly, I really appreciate how both in writing and the symposiums, Adrian challenges many aspects of contemporary day to day life that we commonly accept as given parameters. For example, in the symposium in week 2, he hypothesised one’s ability to receive knowledge from a book by breaking down the practice into its basic qualities that we happily accept as a given. Thus, Adrian demonstrated the importance of evaluating network literacy in the same way.

It seems network literacy, in contrast to print literacy is heavily focused on the advantages of group participation and collaboration. The ability to easily comment on the work of others, share knowledge with one another in a flash and control how material is located, allows users to learn from each other and receive feedback in real time, 24/7. So to engage with such notions of the sharing process of network literacy (and to gather a couple of sneaky marks), here’s a shout out to Kenton Reeder, who’s blog you should definitely check out for a cynical giggle.

Stay tuned.

Nate

Where I Would Rather Be

It’s late. As my clock slowly clicks over to a new day I sit collapsed at my computer and attempt to delve into the readings for this week, absolutely shattered from 3 days of snowbaording. My concentration wonders as I recall the excitement of the previous few days. The weather and snow conditions at Mt. Buller this week were outstanding and I had the greatest time both on and off the snow, surrounded by mates. Such experiences can cause one to forget (even just momentarily) about the stresses of work and study life and just live in the moment, which definitely happened to me this week. Here’s one pf the favourite snaps!

Snow Panorama

BMX riding in the sun… soon to come

The last couple of days have featured lovely sunny weather and I can’t help but look forward to the coming summer. I enjoy BMX riding and I can’t wait for the summer and daylight savings to return allowing me to ride BMX with my friends in the afternoons after Uni. The following image is a photograph I took last summer of my friend at St. Kilda skatepark.

tyler t-bog

© Nethaniel Rochester

Creative Commons Licences

Creative Commons Licences allow creators to give automatic permission to anyone to use their creations. This enables a creators work to reach more people throughout the globe through the fast paced distribution network that is the world wide web. Creative Commons Licences are made up of licence elements which are each associated with a recognisable symbol in order to easily mark content with rules of distribution, decided upon by the creator. The Creative Commons Licence Elements are as follows:

 

          BY

Cc-by_new_white.svg (1)Attribution – Meaning the user must acknowledge the creator of the content when they publish the work.

 

          NC

NC.svgNon-commercial – Meaning none other than the creator can make money from the content.

       

             ND

Cc-nd.svgNoDerivatives – Meaning the content cannot be modified in any way without the creators permission.

 

 

          SA

2000px-Share_Alike.svgShareAlike – Meaning new creations of the original content need to use the same licence as the original content.

 

Every Creative Commons Licence includes the attribution (BY) element, however the other elements are optional and a Creative Commons Licence is formed through the combination of as few or as many elements as the creator wishes, allowing more or less freedom for others to use their content. Although I somewhat understood the copyright terms of digital media, I was unaware that these licence elements existed and I value learning about them as I can use these licence elements to distribute my own work throughout the internet under clear distribution terms.

(Please note: all images in this post are distributed under permission from the creator – how ironic if they were distributed otherwise)

Do We Really Understand Tacit Knowledge?

As I exit the theatre from wherein my first symposium for Network Media was held, I am pleased to admit that my brain is firing as I attempt to reiterate notions of tacit knowledge and implicit knowledge. The former, a quantitative source of information based on ‘know what’, whereas the later, a qualitative source of information based on ‘know how’. Adrian Miles exemplified this distinction by explaining that we ‘know how’ to ride a bike, however find it difficult to explain; to identify ‘what it is’ to ride a bike. So since tacit knowledge is by definition; understood or implied without being stated (Oxford Dictionary), then how can one acquire tacit knowledge? Surely tacit knowledge must be instigated through explicit knowledge. Dr. Stephen Little and Tim Ray explain “tacit knowledge is acquired on its own: it is not made out of explicit knowledge. Prior to being generated, one form of knowledge does not lie hidden in the other” (Little & Ray 2005). I disagree with this statement because all tacit knowledge, no matter how implied, must be based on an explicit foundation within the mind; previous encounters and experiences associated to the new knowledge. For example, language is considered a tacit knowledge, however, although extremely difficult to explain the rules of language, the ability to speak it is still based explicit understanding of how it functions as a communicative tool. This also means that the only way to modify tacit knowledge is to establish new methods of social interaction, completely changing how society functions.