Tuesday, 4 September 2007
ALT-C Day #1
I certainly picked a mixture of different topics at ALT-C today. There are so many sessions it is really difficult to choose, and as I'm changing jobs at the end of this current project I don't really know what subjects will be most appropriate! So I picked some topics that I didn't know anything about and some that I did.
Michelle Selinger's keynote confirmed a lot of my opinions - such as the fact that the age-dominated approach to learning is not appropriate for the digital generation. Her descriptions of the chasms between formal and informal learning, between school and HE and between HE in the developed and developing world really rang a bell. She went on to say that it's not a "Knowledge Society" that is needed but a "knowledgeable society" to bridge those chasms.
It was a real shame to see that Creativity was so low on the list of traits that employers want in their new employees - only 22% mentioned it in job specs in the study Michelle cited.
I wasn't so sure about her insistence on podcasts replacing lectures. I think lectures are a format that has worked well and will continue to do so. Podcasts are an addition not a replacement. Personally I tend to prefer lectures - so long as I can actually get to them. Still, Michelle did, in reply to a question, amend her comment to "don't put lectures above everything else, consider the other technological possibilities" which is fair enough!Labels: ALT-C2007, altc2007, beyond control, keynote, learning technologies, michelle selinger
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:32 PM
