5.1 Wikieducator: memoirs, myths, misrepresentations and the magic  (Page 10/21)

However, I’m very exited about wiki technology - this is one of the most significant social revolutions of our time. A wiki is not a technology. It’s a self-organising community that by some magical way functions in mass-collaboration environments. I am very excited about the potential of collaborative wiki environments to make a real difference in reaching 4 billion of the world’s 6 billion people - who educationally speaking are underserved. See for example my preparations for the Tectonic Shift Think Tank next week in Vancouver.

I take your point about the analogy of the LMS with the classroom. It is useful in communicating the concept of eLearning and LMSs to the uninitiated. Paradoxically - at the same time is the barrier to innovation in the design of asynchronous learning systems, given the structural differences in pedagogy. Resources designed for asynchronous learning migrate pretty well into the face-to-face classroom. The reverse isn’t true.

Thanks for post Richard - I feel as if we’re chatting in my office.

4. wayne mackintosh - april 5th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

In response to Ken

Ken wrote:>

Ken - I think that you’re right on this one. There are obvious differences between computer code and content. For one - its far easier to author content than writing a piece of software code. Incidentally - this is why I think we will achieve a free curriculum in a shorter time when compared to the Free Software Movement, which took about 22 years.

The link between free software and free content is very important. We have the benefit of experience from the free software movement. In my view - the link is not in the fine print of the Open Source Software definition - but rather in the philosophy which should underpin the development and use of free content development. This is a philosophy entrenched in our understanding of modern democracies - namely “freedom of speech.”

As educators, I think we need to spend to ask ourselves: What are the essential freedoms we associate with free content? If we’re unsure of what freedom is - How will we defend it? If we go through history we see that freedom is easily lost.

There are folk who have spent some time documenting what free content is - and I subscribe and support the Free Cultural Works Definition .

If anyone is interested in exploring what the Wikieducator community mean by free content - we have a Newbie tutorial available .

Cheers

5. richardwyles - april 5th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

Yes it does feel as though we’re having a continuing chat, sometimes in person, sometimes in forums like this. Thanks Ken - a great initiative. I like the Leatherman analogy - the thing is in certain circumstances a Leatherman is a highly useful thing. What is happening now though is that with protocols like XML-RPC, SOAP and the like is that the tools in the toolkit are getting more loosely coupled. Mahara has been built to be pluggable. Drupal and Moodle are other examples of these evolving architectures and they’re getting better and more flexible all the time. A terrible acronym it makes but I see LMSs like Moodle evolving to a Learning Operating System with a kernel of pluggable and highly useful tools. It’s already a long way there which is why I get frustrated when folk bang on about SOA as though you have to scrap everything that exists and start afresh.