Education.au Seminars

Last night, Wednesday 21 March, on Australia Talks Paul Barclay interviewed Jimmy Wales. As Paul indicated in the introduction Wikipedia summons up a lot of passion - both positive and negative. It was really interesting to hear the range of responses, questions and the callers - teachers, academics, parents and even an ex-governor general. One caller, a 9 year old from Sydney, rang in just to let Jimmy know what a big fan they were of Wikipedia and how they used the site for research - their latest research included finding information about frogs and dingoes. Some rang to say they thought Wikipedia was a great resource; read it, contributed to it and some wanted to know how to contribute. Others were critical of its accuracy and also questioned the criteria and model of editing Wikipedia used. Whatever the response, Paul Barclay was right about how Wikipedia could summons up a lot of passion, the Australia Talk phone lines ran hot.

You can access the podcast of the interview at: http://abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2007/1876878.htm

Paul rounded off the interview with a discussion with Tony Walker the Manager of ABC Digital Radio. Tony highlighted the importance of being aware of the indicators of the changes coming our way in the near future. This includes dealing with the implication of students increasingly going online to access a range of points of view.

The education.au seminar, Challenging How Knowledge is Created,being held in four locations (Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne) provides an opportunity to continue the conversation with Jimmy Wales about the democratisation of knowledge.

For further information about the seminar go to: www.educationau.edu.au/seminar/challenging or to register go to https://secure.educationau.edu.au

deebo-Deanne Bullen-education.au