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Announcing a Breeze Session with Stephen Downes...Thursday April 8, 2010 |
| Wednesday, April 07, 2010 |
Thursday night (tonight) April 8, 2010 at 7 pm EST, the one and only Stephen Downes will speak in my Web 2.0 seminar class which I am teaching online this semester. Stephen was gracious to accept my late request to speak in my class. We decided to make this session open for others to sit in on. The details are below.
Time and Date: Thursday April 8th at 7 pm EST, 6 pm Central
Your Time (per the World Clock):
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=4&day=8&year=2010&hour=19&min=0&sec=0&p1=105
Course: R685 on the Web 2.0 (The World Is Open With Web Technology); see syllabus:
Department and Instructor: Instructional Systems Technology, Curt Bonk, Indiana University
Guest: Stephen Downes, National Research Council. Institute for Information Technology, in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. He specializes in online learning, content syndication, and new media.
Location: Adobe/Breeze link (date now passed).
Audience: My Web 2.0 class though anyone is welcome—students, faculty, brothers, sisters, grandparents, friends, etc.
Quote from Stephen's Homepage: “I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle. Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be. This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward.”
Topics to Perhaps be Discussed: Stephen will cover Open Educational Resources (OER), OER models, Edupunks, DIYU (Do It Yourself Universities), and perhaps educational blogging and Personalized Learning Environments (PLEs), among other things.
My Personal Praise for Stephen: I met Stephen nearly 10 years ago on a very bad day (November 8, 2000). That was the day George Bush was elected president over Al Gore (though technically that did not come for another 40-50 days). I was in downtown Toronto and had to absentee ballot. Expensive to do but important. I remember telling some people during break time that the election would all come down to Florida. So when I got home later that evening and found out that Gore had (supposedly) won Florida, I was relieved. I did not anticipate the shenanigans of the next few weeks and of course was unaware of what had already transpired that day.
Anyway, Stephen was on a panel with me that was addressing adoption of Web-based learning (or lack thereof) at the TeleLearning Centres of Excellence conference. It was supposed to be a Everett Rogers link--diffusion of innovation. It was a wonderful group to be on a panel with. I think Ron Owston from York University was also on it as were people from the University of Waterloo. Stephen does not likely remember my talk (nor does anyone else) but I fondly remember his. Stephen has an highly unique persona when presenting and it definitely showed that day. Perhaps he was mindful of the election since he was not in a particularly happy mood if I recall.
Since that time, I have realized that Stephen Downes reads pretty much every article written around the world on educational technology and e-learning and attends nearly every ed tech conference humanly possible. He is a man on a mission. Later tonight you can listen in on his talk find out what that mission actually is.
You can read more about him at his Website.
His Old Daily blog where he summarizes events in the field is read by millions of people each year (if not each month). Hec, that might be per day. Suffice to say, his writings and reflections are highly thought of and sought after. His ability to distill the mammoth amount of daily news related to learning technology is a skill few have and one that is highly prized this century. His consumption capacity is at a ridiculously high level. He should perhaps be studied by Carnegie Mellon memory researchers. The Canadians should be proud to have him. Of course, after the election of 2000, they were not worrried...there was little doubt he was there to stay.
Here is the link for the session on Thursday:
Reminder of Adobe/Breeze link: (anyone is welcome).
Hope to see you online with us. Please share the link with your friends and colleagues.
I head to Saudi Arabia Saturday for a few days followed by 2 day trips to Monterrey. Mexico and San Francisco. I will present at the ISPI (International Society of Performance Improvement conference at the downtown Marriott in San Fran at 4 pm on April 21st followed by a presentation at San Jose State University from 10:30 to 12 noon on Thursday the 22nd and Stanford University from 3:15 to 4:30 (in CERAS 100B, Center for Educational Research at Stanford) that same day. Perhaps I will see some of you there. |
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I hate the spammers.