Future of Education Conference

 Here are some “musings” from George Siemens about the forthcoming future of education conference. To register for this valuable and free event click the link. http://umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies/conferences/foe/

“Few modern institutions hold the shape of history as faithfully as schools and universities. Rows of learners, segregated classrooms, subject specialization, and “the expert on stage” form images and stories of education over the last several hundred years.

Yet it was not always so. Ancient Greek academies based their educational activities as exploration and pursuit of truth. While it could be argued that less of the world was known in that era (though today’s nanotechnology explorers would suggest a future of greater yet to be charted worlds), a spirit of inquiry and the passion for learning dictated open spaces of dialogue and boundaries of learning imposed only by the mind, not the temporary containers of “courses” and “programs”.

The often repeated claim of “our world is changing” falls on ears immune due to frequent exposure. Yet teachers, professors, and corporate trainers are adopting tools which threaten (promise?) to shift the shape of education. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, globalization, user-generated content, information growth, corporate research, flexible accreditation models, for-profit education, and international partnerships boil in the cauldron of change.

What will education look like in the future? How will we educate our children? Our employees? What will be the shape of scholarship? Of art? Of research?

Over the next week, we will begin to explore these issues with a combination of insights provided by our speakers…and with dialogue we shape ourselves. “

Develop the Developer 2007

Here’s an opportunity for everyone who is involved in developing others to take part in a valuable on-line survey.

“A lot of research has gone into looking at the skills people need to fulfil occupational roles. Little has been done to explore the skills required for people who develop others but are not in the role of teacher or trainer. Even the role of trainer and coach has changed dramatically.

Developing the developers is a project with an aim of researching the current and future needs of people developers. As the business world progresses so does the role of people developers. At one time this was the remit of the HR or training team. Now with an increasing pace within the world of business, most of us have some responsibility for the development of others. But do we have the necessary skills? What skills do we need and where can we get them?

This project sets out to answer these questions. So if you manage, mentor, coach, train teach, educate or develop people in any way we want to know how you develop these skills and most importantly how you learn new skills, just when you need them”

http://www.developthedeveloper.com/index.htm

Lettuces and Space

 A lovely thought from Eve http://everd.wordpress.com/

“I learnt that although it’s hard to thin out my lettuce seedlings, I know in the end I’ll get better plants.  I guess we all need our own space.”

Goal Meme

I’ve been tagged by Don Taylor http://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/bike-rides-and-the-goal-meme/ for the Goal Meme. The idea is that you outline your goals and then tag 5 more people. My difficulty is so many goals and so little time!!  Here are a few;

Grasp every opportunity to learn

Share, Listen and Collaborate

Aim for balance in all I do

Make time to reflect in order that I value planned and emergent learning

Try not to be too intense (at least once a week!)

My tags are to people whose blogs I value and visit regularly;

George  http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/

Karyn  http://karynromeis.blogspot.com/

Janet  http://brandon-hall.com/weblogs/janetclarey.htm

Kelly http://kwhobbes.edublogs.org/

Richard http://www.brandon-hall.com/weblogs/richardnantel.htm

Future of Education Conference

This looks worth participating in. Here’s an extract from George Siemens newsletter.

“I’m quite pleased to announce that details for our upcoming Future of Education Conference (free registration, completely online) are available. We have a wide range of speakers confirmed (and many more to still confirm), including: David Weinberger, Dave Snowden, Stephen Heppell, Rene Barsalo, Sugata Mitra, Jay Cross, Brian Lamb, Chris Sessums, Vicki Davis, Mark Oehlert, Cheri Toledo, Dave Cormier, Teemu Leinonen, and MaryFriend Shepard.
Our last online conference (Connectivism conference in February) attracted over 1200 registrants, with excellent discussion in moodle with conference participants. We effectively managed to, in my humble opinion, shift the conversation from the pulpit to the conference floor. For this conference we have added a variety of 20 minutes presentations in addition to daily keynotes. This will hopefully extend the conversation…and (due to different presentation times) enable people in other time zones to participate for the live sessions. “