E-Learning 3.0 Resource Task

After becoming completely frustrated with the MS-DOS command line I walked away and bought my first Mac in 1985 – the computer for the rest of us – with its point and click substitute of the command line and a What you see is What you get (Wysiwyg) user interface.

This weeks Resource task brought all that frustration back in vivid technicolor. I hid in Jenny’s reflection when she recognized that she had reached the point, “where it was ‘too difficult to get my head round’ all this and gave up on the task.”  Me too and I gave up!

The nice thing about connectivism is that you do learn from others in the network. In my case- Jenny Mackness, Laura Ritchie and David Moloney- all Mac folks. David’s #EL30 – Resources Task saved the day but not without a struggle with the Mac’s Terminal command line which I have avoided like the plague all these years. Her is my IPFS link and Beaker webpage

Ok having relived CCK08 dive into Web 2.0 and having mastered the mechanics of those tools e.g. blogging/WordPress, I now can assert that I built two of the Web 3.0 tools for a distributed network – a Beaker website – Frank’s Doin’ Stuff and a distributed IPFS content management site.

I am still trying to get past the mechanics and think about the implications beyond Stephen’s use case for openly sharing’resources” through a distributed network vice a centralized network. Sharing resources is one thing. But finding “the” resource in the context of your intended use is still a problem. There are possibilities by using machine learning and AI introduced at the start of Elearning 3.0  but the issue of security and privacy are in the way.

Some of this is taking me back to the days when I first got access to ARPANET and was confronted with figuring out the mechanics of Usenet. Naive and ignorant is the best way to describe me at the time. No thoughts of a network virus or a scam. No particular notion of having my Mac hacked or the necessity for password security. Certainly no concerns about identity theft or issues of privacy. Did any of us at the time imagine a day when something called Facebook would be used by a foreign political actor to influence the outcome of a US Presidential election?

When I started the Resource task and opened the download URL for Beaker, my first thought was can I trust this site or will I inadvertently download a virus of some sort. I closed the site and thought about what I was going to get into with Beaker and IPFS. Was I opening up my computer to a set of unintended consequences?

Not so naive today but I trusted Stephen and after downloading Beaker I ran my Malwarebytes app.

Both IPFS and Beaker are in very early days. Beaker is in the alpha stage and not even in beta which reminded me of the early days with ARPANET its beta feel and my naivete and ignorance of the issues and concerns to come. I think those concerns of trust, security, privacy, virus, scams, etc. are issues that are not just applicable to a centralized or decentralized but to the future of a distributed network. The issue of or a lack of a trusted governance framework in a distributed network is an issue for me.

Mentally I have moved towards the idea of reclaiming my internet identity when I took the first step by signing on with Jim Groom and Tim Own’s Domain of One’s Own where “Doin’ Stuff” is hosted on. Here is a slew of example on the OU site of how faculty and students are reclaiming their internet identity, and sharing and creating innovative “resources” within their network.

Trying to understand the mechanics of Web 3.0 and distributed networks is just the next part of the journey started with my first Mac. But as part of that journey, I would like to hear some thoughtful conversation about security and privacy for a start.

Thanks, Frank