Oliver Quinlan: Live Blogs

PELeCON 2012 ended with a panel discussion chaired by conference chair Steve Wheeler and featuring contributions from Alec Couros, Helen Keegan and Leigh Graves Wolf.

Our first question was about Helen Keegan’s use of Alternate Reality Games, how could we maintain the excitement? It is clear that delegates were excited by the concept, yet sorely felt the ethical issues. Perhaps this is the point- educators taking risks with their students are highly engaging.

‘What are the biggest barriers to learning?’ asked Steve Wheeler. Couros said the big challenge is the movement of education to life, and he said we need to look at the ‘de-educationalisation’ of learning. Some of this could be achieved by dismantling some of the accreditation involved in our education systems currently. One of the big reasons for Universities which have not been usurped by modern technologies is the credit, and he thinks we need to look closely at this.

Graves Wolf said it was the fear which causes learners to stick to the things they know they are good at. Teachers need to be empowered to push against this and challenge their students. Keegan felt an imposed curriculum, whilst curricula are important we need to give learners more agency with their learning journey.

Bex Lewis asked about the problem of those who use social tools for learning and don’t get great answers, how do we stop them being disenfranchised. Keegan said it was important for teachers to share their own failures, to model that it is OK to make mistakes and make them comfortable to do so themselves. This was linked to our PELeCON confessions booth where people have been confessing failures and what they have learnt from them.

“If you were to offer a present to a child that helps them prepare for your vision of the future what would it be?’

Couros followed up his arguments for documentation of learning by saying a camera. Whether contained in another device or not it allows children to tell a rich story, something he thinks is under appreciated now. This doesn’t have to be shared on the internet, but from an early age children need to be able to tell stories that have meaning and resonate. He didn’t have a camera for his high school days and sorely feels that hole in the documentation of his life. Children need artifacts to think about their own stories and develop the skills to re frame the world.

Documenting learning and developing skills to re frame the world; we ended on a note which pulled many themes together from Facer’s ‘Future Building’ to Keegan’s excited story of her own learning whilst developing her ARG, and many more from the last three days.