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This is a comment to my previous entries about driving while talking on the cell phone. This weekend I took the bus to my mother’s (about a 3 hour ride), and all the time the young male bus driver was chatting away with the young female passenger in the front seat. They apparently knew each other from before and there was lots of romance and flirting in the air. Maneuvering the bus on the snowy roads, he was telling jokes and stories, while I was grabbing on to the handle on the seat in front of me. He did not seem very present, and I did not feel very safe? This made me wonder, is it really more distracting to be present in a distance conversation than to engage in conversation with a passenger? If not, maybe we would have to forbid any type of interaction between the driver and other people, present or distant, and not just focus on the distraction of cell phones?

Here’s an article presenting research on cell phones and driving (carried out in a VR application), an issue which I previously discussed here.

Via the Presence-L list.

Last week Howard Rheingold visited HUMlab. I especially enjoyed taking part in the seminar in which he talked about Smart Mobs and made some predictions into the future. One of the highlights, in my view, was his brief discussion on the new type of literacy that comes about as a result of mobile technology, both depending on the characteristics of the devices used and on the fact that multiple channels of communication are used simultaneously. Another interesting observation from my perspective was how the emerging global youth culture might result in greater

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For a class in Academic writing I have been reading and reviewing The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition, by David Block. In this book, Block criticizes the predominant views in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) by reconceptualizing the notions of Second, Language and Acquisition respectively.

One thing which is discussed in the section on Language is how instead of focusing on interpersonal communication the main focus in SLA has been on Negotiation for meaning, mainly concerning information exchange. Block suggests that research should also take into account negotiation of face and identity when considering factors which might influence second language acquisition. I

Wow, I found this impressive list of articles and resources concerning online/virtual learning environments via Stephen Downes. One article which I definitely will have to read is FINDING YOUR VOICE ONLINE-An Inquiry into the Use of Online Voice Applications in Higher Education by Michael Coghlan.

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