education

I'm of to the Social Media Mafia MCL2 on Saturday, you coming?

If you are, please do make sure you introduce yourself to me, this is how I look (I'm in the middle):

Yes, I'll probably be surrounded by nurses just like this too.

The "learning-workshop" (mediacamp) is at 297 Kingsland Rd, Hackney, London E8, UK (full-disclosure: my clients).

More MCL2 text here.

Oh and grab my moby number from the top there and SMS me, might be handy on the day/eve, if you get lost in a bar somewhere.

I've decided to re-publish some of my older work from the 90s and early parts of the 00s. I was Blogging, like many of us were, before Blogging existed.

It seems to make sense to put things on this central blog now.

Today I re-published a paper I wrote in 2001 which is an evaluation of a pilot course I ran for my company Audiocourses.com. As I re-read the text it amuses me how much of what I was saying in 2001 is brand new to a lot of people today in 2008, why is that? I'm not sure exactly, possibly I will claim I am pioneering, possibly I will claim I adopt VERY early, before ideas are born, whatever it is I'm not sure.

Here is the paper: Course Evaluation

Note one interesting and amusing aspect is that I mention SAE, the largest provider of media education in the world, which is now a client of mine.

Funny how things work out.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about the paper, through comments.

I am chairing an Edu panel at Podcamp NYC April 26 with the title of "Web 2.0 in Edu - Strengths and Issues"

We have Hilary Mason and Joyce Bettencourt joining us and we are looking for another two or three academics/support/admin/manager types, hopefully people with some opposing views and in various roles within a large institution, or operating within strict IT policies, or cultures opposed to change.

The event is informal with the panel being an interactive conversation with the participants (audience), where we will dig into positive and negative experiences with the aim of sharing good practice.

If you are interested please do email me.

I have a head full of both issues and strengths but let's use this space for anything that immediately springs to your mind, in terms of the title. So what do you think the strengths are and what do you think the issues are? What can you share about this that I can take with me to NYC?

UPDATE : 18.04.06 - Christine Cavalier is also now joining us on the panel.

UPDATE : 18.04.08 - I was directed to a large collection of lWeb2.0 inks on shambles, which I have also listed here as some of these are so good I wanted to ensure they were in my site's database links tables (I can use them site-wise). In addition I will more than likely update this list from time to time.

• Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training
• Web 2.0 : Videos and PowerPoints
• Web 2.0 Presentation at Jordanhill College
• Rise of the Participation Culture
• Flat Classrooms
• Teachers Teaching Teachers
• 100+ Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators
• A Day in the Life of Web 2.0
• Wiki, Blog or Moodle?
• Podcast from Alan November and Will Richardson
• Google Earth Lessons : List on Shambles
• Will Richardson's presentations
• Wiki used in Mathematics Teaching
• Applied Math
• Pre Cal
• AP Calculus
• Photo-blogging for peer assessment
• Tell a story in 5 frames (Visual story telling)
• Miles Berry :: Weblog :: Flickr@School
• Teaching and learning with Flickr
• Podcasts by Students
• School Librarians Blogs
• Student Blogs
• Teachers Blogs
• Podcasts used for teaching/learning ESL / EAL
• Wiki Uses in Education
• Examples of Students Podcasts
• Google Mashup Example - Exeter College Campus
• Podcast uses in Education
• Art History using Flickr

Photo Credit

It’s been a while since I reflected on my education, but the conversation came up recently over lunch with friends.

I have a friend who is considering a career change (let’s call him Charlie). Charlie is an instructor, and an instructor in every sense of the word. He works in an environment where training or instruction takes place in a way one manner. It’s the classic “sage on the stage” approach, the “font of all knowledge” where the primary task is to transfer a package of knowledge to the audience. “I have this knowledge and I am an expert, and I will now transfer it to you”.

Excuse me while I stop smirking, due to understanding various other far more empowering methods.

Now Charlie is not necessarily an advocate of the instructor led approach, it just so happens that is the environment he works in, and in fact he would make a diamond educationalist in a more liberal, or open environment.

But what does “open” mean here?

Many years ago I used to “train” or “instruct” just like Charlie, that’s the system we grew up with, that’s what we thought “education” was suppose to equate to. When we go to a conference, that’s the experience many of us still expect, we expect to be talked to by an “expert”. Well guess what? That approach is so old school and educationally limiting it’s time we changed our values, or our beliefs on how education can be delivered, and general information.

I’m speaking as a convert mind, if you read my blog a bit you’ll know that I am primarily an educational technologist, ok so one who has had to learn online marketing, branding and SEO through running a successful online business, but at the heart my core is one of an educational technologist.

Sometimes we reach milestones in our lives, or crossroads where significant experiences change our direction forever, and one of those crossroads for me was completing my Masters of Open and Distance Education way back in 2000, abbreviated to MA ODE (Open).

I studied that programme with the IET over three years part time, and in an online mode. So back in 97 we were a buzzing virtual community located globally and sensing something big was coming, and of course it did. We studied concepts years ago concerning social networks and knowledge nodes, we read material which challenged the very notion of what education should be, we debated social interaction in cyberspace (as it was known then), we enthused about the transparency that technology can yield, and the changing dynamic of teacher and student, the power shifts in a learning relationship.

We did so much brain buzzing that it had a fundamental impact on me which changed my outlook forever, and more importantly enabled me to “give-up” the notion that I had to be an “expert” delivering knowledge. We invested brain energy and practise into words such as “constructivism”, and “heutogogy”, all beautiful words which place the learner at the centre of discovery and the teacher as a “guide on the side” a person who creates scaffolding for the learner, but never “spoon feeds”, never has a notion of having to transfer HER opinion, NO the learner must construct their own learning and assumptions.

It is with background that I enthused to Charlie, in the hope Charlie will also find great richness in “giving-up” the teacher power struggle. It is with this background I tell you that study is a good thing, providing you find an “open” approach.

Have you experienced the open approach, maybe you do it every day of your life but just never assumed it was open education?

I’m designing a New Media course module which will sit inside an under-graduate degree, at the final year stage, so typically analysis, dissemination, examination, reflection, future visions etc would be considered.

I envisage a heavy emphasis surrounding the future of content distribution, both in terms of the shifting cultures we will operate in and also the converging technology coupled with wider accessibility.

A friend of mine Sean McKay suggests the following pointers:

• theory: rss, rethinking content, relationships, story, and human interaction
• practical: tools for audio, vid, text, & images + mashing it all together
• ethics: issues of identity, integrity, character, and intellectual property/copyright... questions like, who are you, really?

Whilst this is a good basic list as a start point for discussion, how would YOU embellish it, what would YOU add to the list, or how would YOU expand it, what challenges are YOU facing right now, what is missing in your knowledge, what techniques or skills shortages are not in your current tool box?

If you had to consider “outcomes” what outcomes would you want, how would you personally find yourself better equipped to monetise your new media activities?

Need you on this.

Well it has been well over a week and I’ve decided that now some time has passed I’d unload some of my thoughts into my blog, after all remember my blog is the same as you’d get from me in the pub, so join me in a drink while I mention my personal highlights.

The ACHUB MediaCampBucks07 was the first if its kind for Bucks, in fact the first of its kind for many areas in UK, the slant of this event was enabling an interface of sorts between people working in the commercial sector and academia, and you know what, we all certainly achieved that.

On the day we had three broad themes running:

• Education/Web2.0
• Audio & Music
• HR/Policy/Community

Therefore three sessions were running simultaneously in order that a variety of choice was constantly present for all the participants, it was a cracking atmosphere with everyone checking out the schedules posted-up on the session room doors, and deciding if the current topic was for them, or not.

The event started for me on Friday morning by collecting Kris Eliasson from Heathrow who was representing Sony Ericsson. This guy is an ex-student of mine who studied with Audiocourses.com the distance learning school I am CEO of. Kris started as a student and then became a Production Advisor for the school and then since those days we have become good friends, and this was the first time I got to shake his hand in real-life and move onto serious discussion about the future of mobile content distribution, was awesome.

The event also saw another ex-student of Audiocourses.com in Mike O’Hara who has gone on to make audio his main income stream having set up a thriving business around podcasting, again what a buzz to see these connections firing.

On the Friday evening many of us met up in a local venue for a couple of drinks and a chat, this was the first time most of us had met and it was a real buzz seeing the next character walk in and introduce themselves, finally putting a real face to names was amazing. Observing different groups of people with wide ranging backgrounds and jobs getting social together was a thrill.

I met some amazing people on the day too numerous to mention, you know who you are and how we interacted, and let me just say thanks so much for giving and sharing, YOU made the day a success, and I’m excited to see you again soon.

I want to personally thank a few people for making the day happen, firstly Asha Treacy for driving me to the venue first thing Saturday morning, (I had abandoned my car the evening before following 4 pints of beer). CJ for being very organised and “calling time” with 10 mins to go in the sessions, this was awesome and not planned, she just took control of that and I need to thank her for it, we needed that structure. Eaon Pritchard the talented Scott who put together the logo for MediaCampBucks07 and also came up trumps with some direction boards and banners (sponsored by Weapon7) which we placed around the campus, smart man is Eaon, though he did have me worried as he had been out on the pop the night before and was missing in action for a while. Mike for getting a serious Jam scene going on in the Glasshouse on Saturday evening, sadly I missed most of it but checked out the repeat on Ustream.tv.

ACHUB MediaCampBucks07 was a success without a doubt, we had about 60 participants throughout the day all told. I’m humbled by all of this and I feel a sense of something great, we have created a brand which has a sense of expectation attached to it, all the participants now know what to expect from an ACHUB event.

Looking to the future of the ACHUB we plan to have a virtual event take place in SecondLife before xmas, probably music heavy, and also plan to host another real-life event for some time in the new year which may be similar to MediaCamp, or may be something different completely, in fact if YOU have some ideas about that I want to hear from you, I’m keen on using the momentum we have with ACHUB to continue hosting has we have done since 06.

Just to conclude ACHUB exists in two places:

ACHUB Facebook
Wiki

Recently we have secured the domain ACHUB.ORG which will likely become the main portal before too long, and yes, with user accounts so you can participate with the content, after all it is YOURS, this is YOUR group, your brand, your dynamic to embrace and share.

As a closing statement I’d like you to continue the growth of the group by bringing someone in, a stranger someone “outside” of this web2.0, someone who needs it most.

I’m keeping this short but let me know your highlight of the weekend with a cheeky comment.