Friday, April 16, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
The big picture plan for this project
The Future of Everything
Below you will find the fundamental components of the educational enterprise that collectively define the ways and means of how we 'do' higher education. The profoundly disruptive forces of new technologies, networked information, new business models, the new economy, and the practices so enabled, challenge our conventional notions surrounding nearly every single one of these components, which in turn, complicates our understanding of adjacent components.
The 'Future of Everything' project proposes to interview leading theorists and practioners about these core concepts, and to explore the connections that exist within this ecosystem that collectively comprises the enterprise that we call higher education.
Residential colleges pour millions and millions of dollars into facilities, with the idea that the physical space where education takes place matters. How might our ideas about space change, and how might we design new spaces, or renovate existing spaces, given the changes in information/technology on the one hand, and pedagogy/practice on the other?
Below you will find the fundamental components of the educational enterprise that collectively define the ways and means of how we 'do' higher education. The profoundly disruptive forces of new technologies, networked information, new business models, the new economy, and the practices so enabled, challenge our conventional notions surrounding nearly every single one of these components, which in turn, complicates our understanding of adjacent components.
The 'Future of Everything' project proposes to interview leading theorists and practioners about these core concepts, and to explore the connections that exist within this ecosystem that collectively comprises the enterprise that we call higher education.
Practice/Policy
We organize our spaces, our information, and our technology in support of a set of evolving educational and scholarly practices, and in the context of our institutional policies and structures. All of this takes place in a social environment, with an ever-changing cast of characters. How might some of our practices, our policies, and our institutional structures change given the changes in space/information/technology on the one hand, and in the demographics of the people working at our schools?
- the course
- the lecture
- the seminar
- the lab
- tenure
- the college
- the academic department
- the curriculum
- liberal education
- reading
- writing
- assessment
- copyright and intellectual property
Information/Technology
With the advent of the web, in the past ten years we've seen an ever-accelerating set of new approaches to scholarly communication, to providing access to resources, for organizing and visualizing nearly all types of information. What does the future hold for the various types of information and information management tools that we rely on to teach, learn, do research, and publish our research?
- the monograph
- the textbook
- the journal article
- the encyclopedia /reference
- maps
- video
- audio
- the course management system
- the library catalog
- educational games
- virtual worlds
- the web
- data visulization
- enterprise technology
Space
Residential colleges pour millions and millions of dollars into facilities, with the idea that the physical space where education takes place matters. How might our ideas about space change, and how might we design new spaces, or renovate existing spaces, given the changes in information/technology on the one hand, and pedagogy/practice on the other?
- The library
- The lecture hall
- The computer lab
- The seminar room
- The reference desk
- The museum
- the dorm
- the science lab
- informal study space
The Library and the Future of Everything: Hard Choices in Uncertain Times
Here's the blurb I just wrote for a talk that Clem Guthro from Colby has asked me to give next month:
The Library and the Future of Everything: Hard Choices in Uncertain TimesWhat is the future of the library? Does the library have a future? In the face of a rapidly changing technology landscape, the library finds itself increasingly having to justify its own existence. The good (or bad) news is that it is not alone in this. The educational landscape in general finds that the challenges and opportunities of new technologies, new business models, and new demographics are forcing a re-thinking of many of its core institutions and practices. This talk will place the question of the future of the library in this broader context, arguing that the entire system of teaching, learning, research, and scholarly communication must be understood as a complex, interdependent system, and that we can expect the changes in one area to impact all other areas.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
NERCOMP Meeting to Rehearse/Flesh Out Project
May 19, 2009
Norwood, Massachusetts
We have the day of May 19, 2009 to hold a meeting in Norwood, MA to engage the NERCOMP community in this project. We need to think of ways of engaging the audience in this conversation, both leading up to, during, and after the event.
My thoughts include:
1. providing a reading for each session
2. including a back channel mechanism for use during each session
3. establishing a set of tags for sharing web resources via delicious
4. using the academic commons wiki space for sharing notes/comments for each session
Initial thoughts for panels during the day include:
Norwood, Massachusetts
We have the day of May 19, 2009 to hold a meeting in Norwood, MA to engage the NERCOMP community in this project. We need to think of ways of engaging the audience in this conversation, both leading up to, during, and after the event.
My thoughts include:
1. providing a reading for each session
2. including a back channel mechanism for use during each session
3. establishing a set of tags for sharing web resources via delicious
4. using the academic commons wiki space for sharing notes/comments for each session
Initial thoughts for panels during the day include:
- introduction/context
- future of attention (gordon/bogen)
- future of the book/sophie (stein)
- future of the journal (wittenberg)
- future of the library (schoenfeld)
- future of the cloud (katz)
- future of content and course management (mackie)
- etc.....
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The process
1. Pick topics for issue
I'm proposing that we focus our efforts on three large topics: space, information/technology, and policy/practice . We can haggle over whether or not those are the right topics, and what the right set of sub-topics ought to be. (The actual sub-topics can be driven both by our original ideas, and by the ideas/contributions of the editors and contributors of each issue.)
2. Recruit editors for issues
I propose three linked issues: space, information/technology, and policy/practice, and for each of these issues, we'll need to find an editor to help select pieces, refine the topics, and (once the material is produced), synthesize/write an introduction.
3. Develop content for issue
Once we've settled upon the topics for the issue, we'll need to find pieces that we want to include. Ideally we would pick only pieces that are in the public domain, published under a creative commons license, or otherwise open available. For those that aren't, we'll either just provide a citation or try to negotiate rights to reproduce.
4. Linking the issues
Once the three issues are complete, we'll want to create and promote linkages and conversation among the various pieces. We'll encourage the authors of all of the pieces, and the respondents, to read and react as subsequent issues come on-line. We'll also want to find someone bold enough to attempt to synthesize all of the materials in all three of the issues.
I'm proposing that we focus our efforts on three large topics: space, information/technology, and policy/practice . We can haggle over whether or not those are the right topics, and what the right set of sub-topics ought to be. (The actual sub-topics can be driven both by our original ideas, and by the ideas/contributions of the editors and contributors of each issue.)
2. Recruit editors for issues
I propose three linked issues: space, information/technology, and policy/practice, and for each of these issues, we'll need to find an editor to help select pieces, refine the topics, and (once the material is produced), synthesize/write an introduction.
3. Develop content for issue
Once we've settled upon the topics for the issue, we'll need to find pieces that we want to include. Ideally we would pick only pieces that are in the public domain, published under a creative commons license, or otherwise open available. For those that aren't, we'll either just provide a citation or try to negotiate rights to reproduce.
4. Linking the issues
Once the three issues are complete, we'll want to create and promote linkages and conversation among the various pieces. We'll encourage the authors of all of the pieces, and the respondents, to read and react as subsequent issues come on-line. We'll also want to find someone bold enough to attempt to synthesize all of the materials in all three of the issues.
Practice/Policy
We organize our spaces, our information, and our technology in support of a set of evolving educational and scholarly practices, and in the context of our institutional policies and structures. All of this takes place in a social environment, with an ever-changing cast of characters. How might some of our practices, our policies, and our institutional structures change given the changes in space/information/technology on the one hand, and in the demographics of the people working at our schools?
Who might we convince to be the editor for this issue? Is this the right list of topics? What's too broad? What's missing? Who might we convince to either write or respond for area? (Should it be broken out into two sections: practice and policy?)
- the course
- the lecture
- the seminar
- the lab
- tenure
- the college
- the academic department
- the curriculum
- liberal education
- reading
- writing
- assessment
- copyright and intellectual property
Who might we convince to be the editor for this issue? Is this the right list of topics? What's too broad? What's missing? Who might we convince to either write or respond for area? (Should it be broken out into two sections: practice and policy?)
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