Well its been a long time between drinks!! But given that we have announced Jimmy Wales pending trip to Australia (‘Challenging how knowledge is created’ - seminar) I thought I’d take the opportunity to give you more information about the seminar.
The seminar is not really about Wikipedia but the enormous impact that something like wikipedia has/will have on education and the workplace. I hope we can pick up some key issues about how to move forward in education rather than get bogged down in the accuracy of authoratitive vs peer production content. The evidence is that for many parts of wikipedia the content is as good if not better (see my last post) than many authorative sources of content. I have had many a conversation with researchers over the past two months who say the first place they start is wikipedia. But still I am hearing that schools and systems are banning wikipedia, youtube and the like. Oh well, they’ll only go home and use it!!
For me one of the real issues for education at the moment is how to understand and make the most of the opportunity that exists today that didn’t exist say 5 years ago. People have at their hands technologies that capture their world in audio, pictures, movies and text. It allows them to very quickly connect, capture, contextualise and publish. What a great educational tool and soon it will be all in one!!
The seminar then should also address issues such as what prevents us from sharing the massive amount of information that we now capture and publish. Issues such as access, intellectual property, new business models for content and services, collaborative/connected learning, and how to navigate and filter content is becoming so important. See George Siemen’s Connectivism blog.
Our panel sessions in the afternoon will be an opportunity for Jimmy to understand the picture from an Australian point of view and should be interesting and provocative. We are also hoping to have some live bloggers at the conference too.
Well enough of self-promotion!! But looking forward to seeing you there!!
4 Comments
Gary, in the interests of self-promotion I’d be happy to do some live blogging when the seminar hits Adelaide except I’m not shelling out $300 for the privilege. I did go to and blog about Marc Prensky in 2006 but by doing a little digging, I have already virtually heard and seen Jimmy Wales four times already. What will the seminar provide and enable beyond what I can already access online and discuss via the blogosphere?
I recently blogged about hearing a woman scream to her kids at the beach: “You are not going anywhere near the water until you can swim”
reminds me of your lines - But still I am hearing that schools and systems are banning wikipedia, youtube and the like. Oh well, they’ll only go home and use it!!
Dunno about you but I learnt to swim in the ocean with sharks and stingrays - not a bathtub.
Fang
Hi Graham,
We have tried to keep the price as low as possible and I can assure you that we would like you to participate as a blogger.
What you will get I hope is Jimmy’s latest view about a number of key issues and their potential impact in education. This includes peer production, new business models for content, who has the knowledge these days and a number of other issues. We will also be having a panel session where we want the Australian view to be told and debated and finally then an opportunity for the seminar particpants to develop key ways forward for the major issues discussed on the day. There really are some very puzzling decisions being made in our institutions at the meoment re new technologies. We hope that this will include industry issues as well.
Finally, given that we are planning for 240 people then you may even have the opportunty to meet him during the day!!
Cheers,
Garry
Thanks for the clarification, Garry. There are a few big name edtech gurus around who seem to deliver the same presentation time and time again - as a couple of the Wales presentations I saw seemed to be similar in style and content (maybe it’s because of the target audience?!) I feared that this might be the same. All of the issues you highlight are ones that are long overdue for discussion in the education arena so if Jimmy’s visit helps to foster that, then that is a significant way to get key people talking and deciding about what online resources we want our students to be interacting with and what constitutes a expert or authoritative source in the 21st Century.
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