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Back from EdMedia 2011

Posted by Daniel Schneider on July 5 2011 at 10:42 a.m.

EdMedia '11 included the usual mix of various paper genres. Most belong to what I would call "mainstream topics in technology-enhanced education". I had the impression that both attendance and proportion of younger people was lower than usual. I truly enjoy the openness of EdMedia. Anyone that has a good idea or did create a nice design (and can write) is allowed to present. In that respect, EdMedia continues to play an important role in the landscape. I also found the PhD track interesting, although it might be improved by adding more difficult and more technical subjects.

The big topics of the keynote talks were the social, open content and mobile apps. I got various problems with all three of these as I shall explain below a bit.

My Mediawikis for research, teaching and learning paper got an award. I first thought that there was a mistake in the program, but the person in charge of the program told me that she double checked. Well, if I got an award for everything I did with MediaWikis, i.e. the stuff described in the paper, then I can accept it. I won't further investigate :)

My embroidered shirt didn't work at all and that's ok for a first version. The problem was that people did not "see it". Most interviewed folks told me that they did notice some strange and maybe intriguing colors but they did not look closer. A next version must have a big text on top to attract the eyes, e.g. something like "EdMedia '12" or "Better EdTech". However, after pointing out to people that I was wearing conference embroidery, the idea was liked and GillianP on twitter gave me a "best shirt" award :)

My problems with some of the trendy topics:

(1) Social media, while useful, tend to divert people's attention from doing and constructing. Knowing about and sharing something is not the same as knowing and as co-constructing knowledge. On a related issue, I feel the same about so-called personal learning environments. Having a webtop-like widget manager doesn't really guarantee that students will learn anything. It just may help to manage multiple "spaces" a bit. Similar issues for e-portfolios. Read Martin Weller's Eportfolios - J'accuse.

In addition, and that even makes me angry, some presenters have this naive idea that the young generation knows how to use digital devices. Of course, a kid can use a Smartphone and play games and upload/download artifacts. Some adults can't, but they are able to repair a bicycle instead or remember how to play with a pinball machine. Kids can't use SPSS, Illustrator, or even a Wiki, i.e. can't create knowledge from data and other information, can't design anything with a moderately complex design software. That's not a drama since that stuff can be taught. But please stop confusing digitalization of bronze age social practices with knowledge working. Read Doug Holton's The Digital Natives / Digital Immigrants Distinction Is Dead, Or At Least Dying or ED-MEDIA Helps Put the Nail in the "Digital Natives" Coffin via (Paulo Simões)

As far as I am concerned, the most spectacular innovation in the social area is e-science and more simple derivatives that target high-schools and citizens. No talks about that, I believe.

(2) Open content often boils down to creating repositories financed by charity funds and large politically driven programs. You then - if everything goes planned - will find some so-called learning objects inside, mostly syllabi, slides and some IMS CP/SCORM menu-based courseware. Not much effort in this community is spent on creating truly useful contents, e.g. good quality textbooks. E.g. initiatives li

Original Post: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Blog:DKS/Back_from_EdMedia_2011

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