Bazaar sounds again

Noises off... and now it's live. Just in case you forgot, Emerging Sounds of the Bazaar, recorded live during ALT-C last week, was a great event. More good news - it's now available for download on the Pontydysgu site. Hosted by Graham Attwell and Josie Fraser, and featuring interviews with Scott Wilson, George Siemens (pictured with Josie) and a host of others, the programme is fast paced, full of pithiness and humour, and features great contemporary music. There are even some poetry performances by George Roberts and me, so it has a little of everything, for everyone. Thanks to Joe, Graham, Cristina, Dirk and the rest of the Bazaar crowd for putting this together.

For me, it is simply a case of listening to it all over again, so that I can relive the very entertaining and thought provoking hour over a hundred of us spent beside the JISC stand at the conference in Leeds last week.

ALT-C 1921 Gala Dinner and Dance

Success has gone to James F. Clay's head, I am sorry to have to report. On the back of his hugely popular and now world famous Hood 2.0 workshop (well, 60.5 people attended), he has decided to throw his hat into the world of cinematography by directing his first feature film. (What next, a line in perfumery??)

The Gala Dinner and Dance for the first ever ALT-C conference, which took place at the University of Bognor Regis in 1921 has been recreated by his illustrious camera, and is shown here in glorious monochrome, complete with virtuoso piano playing by Mrs Mills. Watch out for the Learning Technologist of the Year award ceremony (won by Josie Fraser's Grandmother, the Hon. Josephine Montague-Fraser, DBE), the disgrunted Vulcan diner, the chocolate postal order for 12 shillings and 6 pence ha'penny, and of course, the cold coffee... Oh, and by the way, the picture above is of a formation ball-handling team known as the 'Slam-Dunk Virgins', who won team prize for best research paper at ALT-C 1921.



That's it. I've had enough. I'm going to sleep this off now....

The meme-ing of Edupunk

Nice to see that Jim Groom has picked up on my presentation yesterday at the Fringe event of ALT-C 2008, in Leeds. Jim has posted a version of my slide presentation up on his blog bavatuesdays and comments that he views Edupunk as more than just a meme that went awry. Jim agrees with my idea that we need to unleash the true potential - the 'anarchy' - of the web. This to challenge the restrictive structures (or should that be strictures) of institutional control so that learning can become truly student-centric.

What ever you think of the term 'edupunk', (and there was some opposition to this nomenclature at the F-ALT yesterday) there is a strong set of underlying principles that cannot be ignored - and do it yourself learning is here to stay. (Picture of Multi-me by Emma Duke-Williams)

A tough act to follow

As Paul Simon once declared: 'Gee, but it's great to be back home.' I'm glad not to have to worry about paying £5 each morning before 09.00 so my car could avoid the 'clamp', climbing 5 flights of steps to get back to my shoe box of a room in the Henry Price Building, at the University of Leeds, worrying if I have any shower water, trying to find a power socket to recharge my laptop battery, etc... But ALT-C this year, to echo the sentiments of one Thomas Franklin, was probably the best I have attended. Here are my own personal highlights:

An excellent opening keynote speech by Hans Rosling left the audience buzzing, and seemed to inspire just about everyone I talked to. His incisive wit and insightful perspectives on world economic, social and health trends, his use of eye catching software and memorable madcap antics, his masterful melding together of all these elements with e-learning to produce something that was meaningful and resonant with all delegates, was one of the highlights of the conference.

The ad hoc, disorganised, crazy and yet totally relevant and (b)leading edge debates, discussions, conversations and fiery toe-to-toe stand up arguments of the ALT Fringe (F-ALT), were unmissable. In fact I feel a little sorry for those who couldn't be there because they had to be witnessed to be believed. The F-ALT badges were much in evidence everywhere I looked, yet there were only 40 in the limited edition. Coupled with this, another highlight was taking part in the live radio podcast of Sounds of the Bazaar, hosted by Graham Attwell and Josie Fraser.

Several workshops, including James Clay's "It's a Web 2.0 World out there..." and Frances Bell et al's "Digital Divide Slam" were enjoyable on every dimension, and some very interesting and valuable artefacts were created which will serve the Educommunity for some months to come. Our own humble contribution on the digital gender divide "It's not for girls", is already a popular YouTube video and it's less than 24 hours old.

Crowdvine triumphed as the online success story of the conference, and at the close of the event, 441 members had registered and created profiles (there were a total of 700 delegates this year). Crowdvine was used prior to the conference, and during it, to enable delegates to connect, converse, share and compare. And talking of online resources - if the photos in this blog post are not enough for you there is a veritable treaure chest of images on the Twemes ALT-C Site, and also even more in the personal Flickr photstreams of James Clay, Sam Easterby-Smith, Helen Keegan, Josie Fraser, Emma Duke-Williams and Cristina Costa, and my own to name just a few.

The final highlight for me was the Gala Dinner held at Yorkshire County Cricket Ground - Headingly. The iconic surroundings, delightful and passionate company of so many delegates, and the almost immaculate presentation of the 5 course dinner by the young people from the catering colleges, were... well, unforgettable.

The organisation of the event was, as ever, superb, efficient and friendly, so our thanks must go out to Seb, Marion, Mark and the ALT team for their almost hurculean efforts to hold everything together. The programme committee must also take their share of the limelight. Here's to next year's event, which will have a tough act to follow...

Sessions, slams and serious fun

It's been an interesting and varied day here at ALT-C Day two, at the University of Leeds. A somewhat controversial keynote, and several morning papers and workshops kept us all busy. The Digital Divide web slam event was engaging, fun and jam packed full of ideas about how we are all using technologies to either bridge the digital divides (yes there are several) or to perpetuate them. Several slams were performed, including one by myself, James Clay and Joss Winn (collectively known as the Slam Virgins - don't ask). We actually received the most votes from those present, surprisingly, so we were the winners on the day. The video of our slam 'It's not for Girls!' can be viewed here on Youtube. (Picture by Helen Keegan).

I later spoke at a F-ALT fringe meeting in the middle of the dining room at 3pm, on the subject of Edupunk. There was fertile and passioned debate about whether edupunk exists or is just a fad, and whether the name actually does the concept justice. Thanks to all those who took part - it was another enjoyable and captivating session. (Picture here)

The cream on the cake, literally, was our evening ALT-C Gala Dinner, which was held this year in the executive rooms of Headingly Cricket ground - the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the scene of many fascinating Test matches between England and the tourists. The turf was being dug up as we arrived, which was a disappointment, as I wanted to see the ground in it's full glory. Never mind. It was still pretty spectaculr, as was the food, brought to us by two local catering colleges.

Highlight of the night was watching Josie Fraser receive the prestigious award of Learning Technologist of the Year, and a substantial cash prize, presented by in-coming ALT president Steve Draper (London School of Economics). A splendid time was had by all. Look out tomorrow... last day, here we come.

Safe Hans

The weather here yesterday in Leeds was appalling. It poured down from the start of the day until the evening, but were our spirits dampened? No they were not, because we enjoyed an excellent first day here at ALT-C 2008. The day started with a rousing keynote speech from Professor Hans Rosling, who soared to new heights when he suddenly decided to climb a step ladder half way through his speech. Mark van Harmelen (ALT Director of Development) rushed to grab the ladded to steady the speaker, and through his white knuckle anxiety, we could all see the health and saftey risks and potential litigation flashing through his mind (photo from Helen Keegan's Flickr stream). Hans was safe however, and proceeded to wow the assembled delegates with a virtuoso performance, and opened our eyes to demographic statistics of birth and death rates, economic rises and declines and carbon emissions across the globe, using a new piece of graphic animated software he and his son had developed. Known as Gap Minder, it reveals statistics in a way never before seen, except perhaps in a more simplistic way by the likes of visual search engines such as Quintura.

In a style reminiscent of that other great Scandinavian, Victor Borge, Hans Rosling made some pithy omments that had the audience both laughing and questioning their previous take on life. Encyclopedia Brittanica, he said, is read by people who believe it to be true. Wikipedia is read by people who know it is not true, and that is its value. The main global trend now, he declared, is convergence. And still the gems kept coming - 'TV stations use graphics and animation to brand rather than to inform, he told us'. 'Ignorance is the best friend of the teacher'. And finally.... 'there is no digital divide - only a continuum'.

For those who missed this most excellent keynote, the video on demand is now available on Elluminate here. Now for day two of ALT-C....

Looking forward.... to ALT-C

So many things to look forward to next week at ALT-C 2008 at the University of Leeds, although I don't relish the long drive up from Plymouth. The conference promises to be the best yet, if the pre-mailed abstracts and research proceedings books are anything to go by. I'm looking forward to the workshops in particular, including the sessions on Web 2.0 - 'It's a Web 2.0 world out there' (James Clay) and 'Learning about the Digital Divide' (Frances Bell, Helen Keegan, Josie Fraser et al). From such presentations come a host of new ideas, and better still, an energising to go off and try out some new things you hadn't considered before.

There are already success stories before ALT-C has started. Take a look at the Crowdvine site the ALT team set up and you will see that there are already over 340 members (well over half of the 600 plus delegates who are booked into the event). I have already made contact with a number of people I am intending to meet, including one of the keynote speakers, Itiel Dror (Southampton University) and Mark van Harmelen (ALT Director of Operations).

Then of course, there is the Fringe ALT-C event - or F-ALT, as it is being called. There are a limited edition F-ALT badges designed by Josie Fraser that are being given away to the first 50 people who sign up to the F-ALT Wetpaint wiki site. When I looked just now there were already 36 people registered, so be quick if you want a badge! Yes, there is plenty to look forward to....

Slamming about again

At ALT-C 2008 next week there will be several workshops, but one of those I will not miss is the one entitled 'Learning about the Digital Divide', run by Frances Bell, Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan (remember them doing the illustrious Web 2.0 slam at ALT-C Nottingham last year?) joined this year by Cristina Costa (the pocket dynamo of Web 2.0) and Frank Theissen. Out of last year's workshop came a number of interesting artefacts including the cult website Hood 2.0 - which incidently has a workshop in its own right this year! Last year was not only great fun, but also innovative and challenging. I chaired the session, and it was one of the most enjoyable workshops I have every presided over.

This year they have gone one step further and have created a Digital Divide wiki using Wetpaint in which they are inviting everyone and anyone to submit a 'Digital Divide' slam. I have sent one in already - it's a poem entitled 'Hooked' - about the digital divide between immigrants and natives. Check out the site and contribute if you have something you want to get off your chest.... oh, and see you there, I hope.

I heard it on the Crowdvine

It's immensely enjoyable, and quite addictive this Crowdvine thing. My Twittering is suffering, I can tell you. ALT-C 2008 has set up its own space on the social network tool to enable people to discuss, organise, schedule and generally get together prior to the event next week at the University of Leeds. As I write this blog entry it already has 260 members, and more are joining every hour. There are already several threaded discussions on eclectic and diverse topics, and everyone is building up their own little networks of people they want to meet, talk to, have a beer with, etc.

As James Clay commented on Crowdvine yesterday - 'How things change'. Two years ago, only 6 people participated in the ALT-C wiki, and last year saw the first surge of interest in blogging from the conference, with about 15 of us regulalry posting. This year, social networking is de riguer, and we can expect a lot more blogging, tweeting, flickring and other digital jiggerypokery going on as the conference takes off. To join in go to the ALT-C Crowdvine site here.