Knowledge Bank Online Conference Session 2

Steve Hargadon

The keynote speaker today was Steve Hargadon from the USA.  These are some of my notes that I took from the presentation but for more info, do have a look at Steve’s blog because he explains it much better than I do.

He thinks that Web 2.0 is as powerful a change agent as the phone or the car because it involves a new publishing revolution.  We are no longer recipients of information on the web as we were.  Web 1.0= recipient mode; whereas Web 2.0 = the read/write web  involving contributing,  collaborating, & creating.

Steve identified 10 trends in education – and I took beaut notes about his ideas, pasted them in here – and somehow lost them, so now all I have is my headings…

Trends

1. Ability to create content
2. Tidal Wave of Information – imagine when everyone is contributing to Wikipedia, eh?
3. Culture of openness
4. Culture of participation – Amazon reviews (and travellers rating hotels on Trip Adviser)
5. The age of the collaborator – the wisdom of the masses?  (I’m not so sure about this.  Who needs reality TV and tabloids anyway?)
6. An explosion of innovation
7. The World Is Getting Flatter and Faster
8. The Long Tail – this means that if the cost of something is too high, it’s not worthwhile for a retailer to sell it.  But if somehow the product does become available, an audience emerges for it.  50% of Amazon sales are for things that are never stocked in shops.
9. Social Learning Moved Toward Centre Stage
10. Social Networking – it’s not just My Space, Facebook and Orket, but social networks touch an emotional chord and bring us all together.

 What should we as teachers be doing?

• Learn about web 2.0
• Lurk – to familiarise yourself with what’s going on, until you feel confident
• Participate
• Digest This Thought:The Answer to Information Overload Is to Produce More Information.
• Teach Content Production
• Make education a new discussion
• Help build the new playbook