Barking at ants

On Wednesday 3rd February I gave a presentation to staff at the University of Brighton, on an invite from my old mate Asher Rospigliosi. His blog on learning using the Internet is worth a read. Below is the abstract of my presentation to staff in the Brighton Business School:

New Pedagogies for the Digital Age

The rapid emergence of new, participative and social media in higher education has caused teachers to question what they have previously believed about university teaching. Students also have different expectations when they arrive on the university campus. The proliferation of handheld and mobile devices, smart phones, ubiquitous computing and broadband networked technologies, interactive whiteboards, touch screen and wireless technologies is bewildering, and on the back of these developments, many academics also find it difficult to come to terms with the new digital cultures and values their students bring to the lecture room. In this presentation I will explore these tensions, discuss the potential and actual applications of new technologies, and examine how they are changing and challenging our traditional notions of pedagogy. I will speculate on how the digital age is causing us to reappraise and re-examine our own personal and professional values, and approaches to the business of learning and teaching. I will offer some simple, practical examples of how to integrate new social media into formal learning contexts and provide some insight into these processes from my own reflections on professional practice in teacher education.

Here is my slideshow:

New Pedagogies For The Digital Age

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

It has been a long time since I was in Brighton. When I was last in Brighton I was an undergraduate student of psychology. I studied at Lancaster House, the cognitive science centre of the University of Sussex. I remember vividly visiting the funfair on the end of Brighton Pier one evening, and took a ride on the waltzers. I had just enjoyed a rather large dinner at a local Tex-mex. It wasn't a smart thing to do. Spicy food, cider and fast whirling things is not a very comfortable combination. The inevitable happened. I experienced a technicolour yawn - I won't go into any more details. I managed to avoid barking at ants again by steering clear of all the fast whirling things when I was there this time.

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Unleash the anarchy

There has been fallout from my fringe presentation at ALT-C on Edupunk, and it's all very positive. Word has got out that Edupunk - the idea that self-organised learning is possible using digital tools that aren't sold by big companies such as BlackBoard - is relevant to the world of education, no matter how you package it. The assistant editor of Campus Wide Information Systems, one Simon Shurville (an old mate of mine) has got wind of the growing interest in this idea, and has invited me to guest edit a special issue for the journal on Edupunk. The journal's editorial advisory board boasts a number of other people I have rubbed shoulders with lately including Asher Rospigliosi (it was he who let the cat out of the bag - he attended my F-ALT rant, and told Simon), Steven Furnell, Mark Stiles, Scott Wilson, Rob Koper and Ken Fernstrom. Quite a galaxy, eh?

So there you have it. No going back now. I'm going to do it, but I need help from those who are interested in arguing for this thing we call Edupunk, or providing a searing counter-commentary against the idea that we can go outside the walled garden to unleash the anarchy of the web, and still remain this side of piracy.

So here is the call for papers - send your proposals and 300 word abstracts into me in the next couple of months. Don't pull any punches. No quarter given - say your piece. This is edupunk we're talking about! Summon up the blood.... and let slip the dogs of war!