Digital fridges, analogue laundry

As my colleague Kees Winkel already pointed out we’ve recently started a fascinating course on new media theory at the University of Utrecht. While many interesting concepts, ideas and discussions have past in the first few weeks there is one specific topic that triggered me: technological determinism versus social constructionism. While it is a really academic discussion that stretches far beyond the domain of just these new media studies it somehow got me to think of my grandma’s washing machine?

Tagged with: technology, digital fridges, determinism, innovation,

Innovation in education

Do you have any idea why higher education is still mainly delivered as classroom teaching? Most lecturers know that a lot more is possible and some of them even enrich classroom teaching with innovations such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and iTunes U. But knowing it is one thing, applying this knowledge is another thing. Why?

Tagged with: digitizing, csikszentmihalyi, blended learning, innovation, education,

Coffee and battle

The BeMoved coffee-machine is a great idea! This apparatus does not only dispense coffee but also supplies you with information from internet, it helps you to know your colleagues better and it makes it possible to lose calories instead of gaining them. Imagine: a cup of coffee with minus 5 calories! It is an advanced coffee-machine, with a touch-screen and a camera. The result is quite similar to a multi-touch table, but you can’t put your cup on top of it, it serves your coffee. The next step could be that you drink your coffee with your colleagues in India and Brazil; plus share photo’s and synchronize agenda’s etc. 

Tagged with: public space, gatekeeper, journalism, innovation,

How big is your idea, and does size matter?

To be able to survive in a global market we need innovation. We need a creative industry, and most of all we need ideas. Preferably good ideas but just a whole bunch of ideas would do for now. Let’s start by having a look at the word "idea”. What is an idea? And what makes one idea a good one and another one bad? It's mostly circumstantial so there is no easy way to sepa-rate the good from the bad and the ugly. What we can do is look at the scale of an idea. I think we can divide the world of ideas and concepts into three different domains; there’s great inventions, big innovations and small improvements.

Tagged with: creative industries, innovation, ideas, experience,