Web 2.0 and education: best friends or worst enemies (Ken Price)
Janet Hawtin
Ken Price keynoted a recent edna workshop. The powerpoint/presentation
is a ripper:
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/workshops/Web2_Price.ppt
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/workshops/Web2_Price.odp
Janet
Leigh Blackall
Janet Hawtin
> Thanks J.
> My response here:
> http://learnonline.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/ken-price-on-web2-in-schools/
What I took from the presentation was the questioning.
I thought there were interesting questions re the teacher filming
other teachers and the implications of being always potentially
online. I thought it was useful because it was a step beyond the
binary web2 is good for you v web 2 is the end of quality and safety.
I didnt see the managable and safe phase as an end game. I saw it more
as a normalising of web 2 with the implicit expectation that society
or technology would do something else or want something else which
would again require us to make pearls of problems.
The risk I see at the moment is the strategy of using fences as solutions.
I think this generates a polarising of views around established
structures and the joy of rebelling. Those positions make it hard to
unpack the issues in a practical sense and move forward. Fences are an
organisation's answer to risk, they externalise the risk, but it is
not a social answer to risk. Fencing off the challenges is a head in
the sand process. The issues still exist. I think we need to look more
at the how of resolving freedom, signal, noise, safety, control, room
to learn and explore, transparency, privacy and I think the
presentation asks some useful questions.
Perhaps the answers will be people having a go and finding the ways
which are a good fit locally. I think it is this kind of hands on
vision or pragmatic working through the issues which we lose when the
structures lock things out. I think there is also a kind of challenge
for those of us who love distributed networked space to talk about
scaling and how we keep the personal and useful when we are the
filters.
Janet