The Random Connections blog post “The New Shape of Knowledge” by Tom Taylor describes David Weinberger’s June keynote address at NECC 2005. Some great points here.
1- Our challenge as educators is to make learning for our students more complicated, ambiguous, and real-world. Because that is the way life outside the bounds of the traditional classroom really exists. Most problems do not have simple, one-line answers. There are lots of choices, tough decisions, and often not a single choice that is 100% “right.”
2- Traditional media have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, so it should come as no surprise that they have portrayed the blogosphere as a questionable environment that should be ventured into warily, if at all. This perspective is shared by many in higher-ed too, I think. This came through in the July 8, 2005 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, in the article “Bloggers Need Not Apply.” I previously posted some thoughts on this , focusing on the limited perspective of folks who share the opinion of that author (who wrote the piece anonymously, interestingly enough.)
As Tom and David point out, many bloggers have a writing style that includes MANY hyperlinks, encouraging you to venture offsite in a quest for additional information and perspectives. I think blogging naturally lends itself to a condition of ideological transparency, which from academic and teaching/learning perspectives can be extremely valuable.
3- I would comment that while I agree “One reality = one knowledge” is fiction, I do not accept a correlate (which is not directly mentioned in this post) that “there is no truth.” This, in fact, defines me as NOT being a “postmodern” thinker / philosopher / theologian. Lots of people today most likely would accept that correlate without batting an eye, however.
Great thoughts from what was clearly a superb keynote address. Thanks for sharing Tom!
On this day..
- The Hobbit in Five Minutes [Video] - 2011
- Look for innovations which change the script - 2010
- A delicious facelift, skypecast drawbacks, and a new Flickr site - 2008
- Drupal versus Ning for Learning Community Websites - 2008
- links for 2008-07-31 - 2008
- Drupal dabbling begins - 2008
- Glimpsing the future of television - 2007
- Whitelisting websites - what a pain! - 2007
- Quick iTunes Backup - 2007
- Striving to encourage natural learning at School - 2007
