Not usually.

Sure we do a survey here and there but do we have any other way to figure out what impact the conference or meeting is having on people who attend?

Yes we do thanks to technology, home videos!

This is not a new idea BUT it is a far easier idea to activate today.

Check out this TEDx idea.

I would love to see this happen at every event I go to, this is a great way to create yet another degree of engagement!

Here is a sample of what they got.

Imagine if we took it to the classroom and actually had students make the educational videos of our classes?

And at some point in the conversation the issue of quality is brought up.

The the issue of funding is tossed into the mix.

The conversation ends with a debate about distribution and we go nowhere.

I honestly find it shocking that every single student I teach is not creating their own little bit of UAE media content!

My thinking is that as we move well beyond the old media framework into the new social media paradigm there are no rules that constrain us.

Yes there is morality but the rules of the media environment today are being created as I type!

Yet students across the UAE sit on their hands and believe that they don’t have the equipment, ability or creativity to create compelling media content today!

Maybe what students need today is an example?

Where do you turn to for an sample of new Emirati media?

DJ Bliss and YouTube!

This is a great story.

In retrospect even Bliss will suggest he could have done this or that better.

But you know what?

Bliss got off his hands and did it!

This is the 1st, second and 3rd steps toward the New face of UAE media.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would love to see every CCMS student at Zayed University making their own piece of New UAE media!

Why? More often than not it is a wonderful clearinghouse for ideas that, like TED, make you sit back and scratch your head.

But don’t confuse things TED and BoingBoing are very different types of sites.

I stumbled upon this today on BoingBoing and like the Uniform Project talk at TEDxDubai the question I had was what could I do and record for a year?

This particular YouTube video is cool and makes me wonder what we can do and record.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What can you do? Ready to start? I am going to try doing a piece of advice a day. Not that this is a visual activity BUT maybe I can video it.

Your turn, and lets start!

Last night I asked the UAE how they felt about the growing global phenomenon to use video surveillance,  whether it works or not, in public and private environments.

The response was very interesting.

While all were in agreement that public surveillance is a good thing there was not a resounding cry against private space surveillance.

Is it possible there is so much watching going on that we have just come to accept it?

Or are we not tuned into how much of our daily activity is being watched and recorded?

Listen to what the UAE had to say.

What do you think? Is it a question of safety or is it a question of privacy?

The real issues comes down to what is media today and what will media be tomorrow?

Content is pretty much the same BUT the delivery has changed and because of the new delivery the length of exposure to content and environment where consumption is taking place is rapidly changing.

But, and the but is big, are we as educators listening to the ceo’s like Mr. Sultan and retooling what we are doing to not only meet the wants but the needs that are just now beginning to be demanded by content consumers?

Watch part 5 of 6 of the Osman Sultan presentation.

Here is the last 3 minutes!

I 

I ask again are we as educators ready to meet the challenge and are our students ready to rise to the challenge?

Again I hope so.

Really! I cannot imagine it would be pretty.

But what would result was a profound re-thinking of higher education from both stakeholders.

Too little time today is spent by professors imagining the environment students are coming from (don’t forget professors were once students and their professors did not care so why should they).

Students on the other hand give little thought to the road traveled by the professor assuming they are their to make life miserable.

But we are on the crest of an amazing education revolution one that will allow both the student and professor to be one in the education process and a big piece of this is collaborating via technology as opposed to employing or utilising technology.

I have used the term WEB 2.0 before and you will hear it again.

Danny Munnerley passed on this link to a YouTube video that begins to put the whole issue into perspective and hints at the wave we are beginning to ride!

So what is stopping both students and professors from simply doing things differently?