This weekend sees the Learning 2.0 conference at the Concordia International school in Shanghai. The focus of the 3-day event is ‘Communication, Collaboration, Connection’ and how web 2.0 will affect learning. This Ning site offers lots of information and insights from the event.
I went along with ChinesePod sound engineer, David Xu, who recorded the opening session (Fri evening). You can listen to it here. here This was a lively, if at times unwieldly discussion that took the form of a round-table with 9 experts and questions from the attendees. It is well worth the listen.
The first part of the audio is fairly lengthy intro to the event with thanks to the sponsors and so on. These are done by the hardworking organizers John (don’t know his surname) and Jeff Utecht. (Michael Webber worked very hard behind the scenes to make this happen, too). These guys brought the spirit of web 2.o to the proceedings by enabling blogging, interaction, and Twitter comments posted on a big screen as the discussion proceeded. I was truly impressed by the level of thought and organization they brought to it. As Will Richardson pointed out, this stuff tends to attract passionate people and this was plainly visible.
If you want to skip the intros you can go straight to the panelists - they introduce themselves and take a question from the audience – beginning at approx 23:30. Here is the order in which you meet them:
- Gary Stager
- David Elliot
- Laurie Hekkila
- Jamie MacKenzie
- Alan November
- Sheeryl Nussbaum-Beach
- Chris Smith
- Wes Fryer
- Will Richardson
There were too many insights to detail here – you can go to Ning to see them, but I’d like to offer a few impressions.
First off, it’s clear that these are early days. Even fundamental principles have yet to be described. And a full and easily actionable description of of ‘learning 2.0′ would require the grand unification of elements from pedagogy, technology, psychology, and sociology, and more. We’re a long way from any such unification. This is what made the discussion interesting, but as I mentioned, a bit unwieldly. Is Web 2.0 the right fit for schools? Maybe, maybe not. (We don’t know if it is right fit business, politics, or anything else for that matter). Will it even affect schools? Probably, but not in the short term – Alan November suggested that could be decades before it is accepted. For the most part, it seems that learning 2.0 will indeed happen but outside of the school walls. Therte is even the possibility that a discussion on learning 2.0 is irrelevant to schools and school learning. Ouch!
This state of confusion is not surprising, and this is exactly why we need such conferences: David Elliot suggested that we could only hope to keep up with the changes through collaboration and I think that he hit the spot. Everyone on the panel knew different stuff but bringing that together to form a coherent picture is hard. The good news is that the teachers have become the learners, the ‘learners in chief’. Very notably, the discussion was all ‘learn’, ‘learn’, ‘learn’, and not ‘teach’, ‘teach’, ‘teach’. It’s as if some of our best teaching minds are taking on the role of learners to collaborate on a web 2.0 basis and figure out how we might deal with learning in a post-networked world.
I could say a lot more about the session, but I have to go back right now for Day Two.
Ken Carroll
Jon P. Zurfluh
2 years ago
Special thanks to you for recording this. It was as exciting to lead as it was to listen today to how it emerged. That’s hard to know when you are in the center of it. Overall, this was a great way to set the stage for the weekend.
The surname is Zurfluh – just thought you would like to know.
敦禮
2 years ago
Webber, David Elliot, and Lambert were all at HKIS in the early 90’s. Great to hear that you are rubbing shoulders with guys like that Ken. I hope you are able to share some of your thoughts with them.
Dave Rittman was a great Headmaster. Concordia International with suffer from his loss:(
Have you given any more thought to using Mandarin textbook series, like K-6, to form a podcast system/series to teach poddies to read, listen to, and write Mandarin but also enhance teacher tools for Mandarin education in schools?
Thanks for posting the recording. I am really enjoying listen to it.
敦禮
2 years ago
Who is your Yoda? Cpod is on of my Yoda figures:)
敦禮
2 years ago
From what I heard(the first hour and five minutes), not a person articulated the potential of 2.0 web and 2.0 learning for language acquisition. If the world is going to grow up together, we need to be able to communicate with each other. We need to learn more than just one language.
This is one of the many reasons you are there Ken. These people need to hear it. They need to go home and move their schools and communities toward bi-lingual education and all it has to offer children. Children are the world’s future.
A thought is—— how can 2.0 enter the traditional school setting? Language acquisition. Two new ideas and bring them in together. They both support each other making a good team for success. From there teachers can learn how to utilize 2.0 in other subject areas etc, etc.
Bob Mrotek
2 years ago
敦禮, I agree wholeheartedly. Not long ago the point was brought home to me in a startling way. I was out in a very rural area in a poor village that was alongside a railroad track. The village had no electricity or phone lines. There was a work crew digging a ditch alongside the railroad right-of-way and installing a shiny blue fiber optic cable that was about an inch and a half in diameter. Obviously the village would have no access to that cable and even though the cable beneath their feet will link to the entire world they will remain locked in the dark ages. I am reminded that there are millions and millions of people on this planet who have yet to use a telephone for the first time and have absolutely no knowledge of computers. Somehow we need to find a way to include everyone if we are to transform mankind into a true brotherhood. I applaud teachers everywhere who are aware of this and who are trying to make the world a better place regardless whether or not they can do it at a profit. I hope that is what “Learning 2.0″ is all about. If people can learn to communicate thoughts and ideas across language and cultural boundaries then it is well worth the effort. However, if it turns out to be just another new way to make money then what’s the point? I am anxious to see what happens next. Thanks, Ken, for bringing this to our attention.
Mexico Bob
敦禮
2 years ago
How did the conference go today Ken?
Ken Carroll
2 years ago
I’ll try to write something up later today.
Meanwhile, there has been some discussion on this topic over at ChinesePod.
http://chinesepod.com/connecti.....nnect/Must read articles on ‘learning 2.0′
Ken
敦禮
2 years ago
Thanks Ken. This conference is truly amazing. I sure wish I could be there. Are you planning on posting more podcasts of the conference?
Man2toe
Rick Stace
2 years ago
Ah… great dialogue and great thinkers! Bringing up questions and thoughts like…
How does the information age and computer literacy improve learning?
Maybe it will take a while for all the data to come in, but there is no doubt that the technology and tools are already here. We must continue to learn to use these tools to our utmost advantage.
We are all connected- and we have this opportunity to learn the best things from each country, curriculum (both digital and ‘Practice’) and each other.
Personalized learning – that we all can set-up our own personal learning networks – like ‘Mathletics’ online.
We are learning to take more control of our learning – both as students, and as teachers!
Let’s all learn from each other with these new tools available to us, both with computers as tools, but also with-in the online community.
Sorry for the brevity, but inspiration doesn’t need to be lengthy.
-Rick
goulnik (郭力毅)
2 years ago
Apparently, the government of India has decided to make *free* wifi available across the *whole* country. How’s that for ‘including everyone if to transform mankind’?
Bob Mrotek
2 years ago
goulnik,
That is great news! On the other hand, the cost of the proposed one hundred dollar basic computer is now approaching two hundred dollars. I am wondering if that will reduce by half the number of children to whom it will be made available or will nations and corporations pony up to make sure there are enough “bootstraps” with which the disadvantaged children of the world can pull themselves up.
kmk
2 years ago
Goulnik,
As anybody could answer to the question “Is wi-fi 100% safe ?” , who knows if it’s good for India or not ?
If it’s not safe, who knows if the decrease in population wouldn’t be good for India ?
…
In politics, decisions could come up with an underhand trick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6677051.stm
Chris Smith
2 years ago
I’d suggest the language comment above is spot on …. the ‘web’ is still English dominated … but it does not have to be, and times they are a changing.
There are more tools evolving almost daily to improve accessibility.
In my very first session in the conference I introduced some of these tools … ones that enable anyone to add subtitles (closed captioning) to videos online in ANY language … easily and quickly … with the videos being hosted online and also downloadable.
The site I focussed on was http://www.dotsub.com and we were even joined by one of the co-founders, Michael Smolens, from the USA by Skype.
Some of the class members blogged/commented during the presentation and their posts can be seen at
http://learning2cn.ning.com/fo.....Topic:1972
Also one of my passions at the moment is Second Life (http://www.shambles.net/secondlife) and I’m investigating the use of auto translators for chat and I.M. … all very encouraging …. especially as they are supporting many Asian languages.
Interesting times.
.. and while I’m here …. “ChinesePod.com … you rock” … am I too old to say that?
goulnik (郭力毅)
2 years ago
kmk, that’s an entirely different discussion. wifi, cellphones and the constant electromagnetic waves we’re bombarded with aren’t a good thing.
But computers equipment, laptops, smartphones, mp3 players and the likes aren’t clean either, they require considerable energy and chemicals to produce, end up in dumps with their batteries, use up all sorts of metals…
Alan November » Learning 2.0 conference kicks off
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[...] Ken Carroll wrote an interesting post today on Learning 2.0 conference kicks offHere’s a quick excerptProbably, but not in the short term – Alan November suggested that could be decades before it is accepted. For the most part, it seems that learning 2.0 will indeed happen but outside of the school walls. … [...]
Alan November » Comment on Learning 2.0 conference kicks off by Alan November »…
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[...] Socyberty wrote an interesting post today on Comment on Learning 2.0 conference kicks off by Alan November »…Here’s a quick excerptLearning 2.0 conference kicks offHere’s a quick excerptProbably, but not in the short term – Alan November suggested that could be decades… [...]