Last night a truly amazing series of events took place publicly in 140 characters or less.
The Spark
Seemingly out of nowhere, the inception of and groundwork for an online event that may ultimately involve staff from several institutions and levels of education emerged in the space of an hour. It was, and is, discussed and organised publicly and late at night in 140 characters or less. It’s also one of those crazy why-the-heck-not sort of opportunities you’d expect me to be involved in.
Dean Groom from the Learning & Teaching Centre at Maquarie Uni has suggested a series of 10 x 5-minute long presentations – since christened SpeedTech – to take place online in Adobe Connect.
At this point the proposed date and time is 8 pm Sydney time on 26 March. Location still to be determined.
At this stage we’re slim on details and strong on enthusiasm. If you’re interested please let me know. A collaborative planning space will be set-up and I’ll post the details here.
I see this is an opportunity that should be embraced – especially given the completely UNsanctioned UNconference I discussed here (also only just being explored), which at this stage is due to occur in mid-April (e.g. 17th). So it might be a nice lead-in to the longer event.
Lithification and Silos
Above and beyond the opportunity to work with some really cool, innovative educators, what makes this event so fascinating to me is the speed, efficiency, goodwill, openness and willingness that has permeated the whole discussion. This notion is particularly salient in light of two, very different discussions I had yesterday.
Firstly, at the bus stop a local academic I spoke to openly lamented the lithified silos that had developed within and between staff in several of the schools. Traditional outdated views are clung to; teaching resources hoarded and protected; transparency and openness feared; change rallied against.
Secondly, even closer to home I was told of comments made regarding a large project from someone who said she “wouldn’t allow others” to write open blogs detailing their experiences and reflections. This statement is all the more ridiculous in light of the fact the project seeks to model and demonstrate innovative and inspiring approaches to learning and teaching, and above all to be VISIBLE to others.
A point was made in response to her that people could quite easily circumvent the project and create their own blog in spite of the attempted moratorium – personally, I encourage them to. In my view, these sorts of pointless barriers are based on out-dated dogma that seeks to preserve power and ownership over information and access but for the hands of a few people. It undermines valuable collaborative activities that can serve to propel and empower learning and teaching and facilitate the sorts of serendipitous opportunities and network-growth that thrive in openness.
Implications and Culture
In my mind the above examples drive home a very important point – that culture is what facilitates or inhibits collaboration and openness, not technology. As such, any aims to nurture growth of networks and establish a culture within which this is able to occur must first and foremost address the holistic cultural elements. This includes, in particular, long-standing obsessions about intellectual property and border skirmishes over silos.
When openness and participation are deemed positive things, people seek out ways to make it happen.
In the case of the SpeedTech presentations, it’s critical to emphasise that this event isn’t the product of a particular platform, but of a particular mindframe and culture that recognises and values openess, participation and collaboration.
