ULearn06: Moebius strip conversations

I am suffering from that sense of ennui, a world weariness that comes from realising that I am trapped in a moebius strip conversational loop that is never going to go away

One of the problems with keeping a blog is that it is hard to pretend that you are in a new feedback conversation with Chris when a simple post search reveals a near identical conversation held the year before, and if I was brave enough to look further most likely the year before that

A response for Chris
ULearn06: Ludium or Conference

In this years conversation Question 3. requires me to comment upon aspect(s) of the Key Questions at ULearn06 which I think could be done differently

Now to really think about doing stuff differently ... requires some careful unpacking ..

At one level I can look at the the Key Questions as an interesting way of dealing with the excessive choice of workshops at a conference this size.  But there are other ways of grouping for learning, other filters I could use to group registrants as any classroom teacher knows. 

But at a deeper level before I can understand the question I need to challenge and clarify the sense of what a conference is for, and what a conference might be. 

I need to look at Camille Paglia’s critique of conferences with reference to doing stuff differently at Learning@School and ULearn06.  We can all identify edubloggers whose writing seems just a constant stream of education/ICT conference hopping, their posts chronicles of long range junkets, and airport lounge musings supported by endless name dropping and photos of edu_celeb standing in front of seated audiences.  When you look for substantial new thinking from these conference junkies,in the posts themselves or the readers comments,  it seems that all that conference attendance adds very little to the professional learning of themselves or others.  And if all the talking head presentations are then vodcast and podcast you have to wonder why we need to attend these events in person any more.

I’d like to look at the budget for ULearn06 and calculate/ estimate how much money schools/ clusters spent on sending delegates to the conference and compare this with other ways of enhancing the learning of staff in schools.  With the many other ways of sharing and connecting available today do we still get bang for bucks from sending large groups of educators to a conference?  For example if the key to the experience is the "going away together stuff" then would we be better sending staff away to a thinking retreat with more tightly focused questions and a thought leader?  Or if the key is time to connect with others and think about teaching and learning would we be better putting the money into release time for teachers to visit other teachers or simply release time that lets teachers play with a new idea on site .

I’d like to consider whether by meeting only with other educators (involved in e learning) we too easily perpetuate and reinforce the myths surrounding ICT, and that we need to diversify the topics and the audience to force new synergies and connections.

But most of all what I’d like to look at is all the other ways in which people gather together to learn.  What learning in a group requires.  (Un)conferences,like the FLNW and open space conferences interest me but ludiums like the one held at Indiana University in 2005  continue to fascinate me. 

It makes me realise that I’d like to be part of a design team looking at how to structure a ludium to develop participant understanding of things like the Key Questions. How to design a ludium for knowledge building about knowledge building in education.

“a new form of academic conference, the ludium. A ludium collects experts in a field and embeds them in a dynamic game of information exchange. While similar to workshops and charettes in form (for example, by breaking participants into groups), a ludium differs in that it actively deploys game design to motivate participant behavior. Most especially, a ludium recognizes no boundary between play and work, but rather mingles the two so thoroughly that productivity and entertainment become equally significant outcomes of the process.” IGDA

The very best learning conversations about knowledge building I had at ULearn06 were the small group 3 wine Sidorkian dialogue that happened at the end of each day – it is hard to build these into a conference of this size when you are thinking keynote speaker and audience of thousands – but just imagine the conviviality, and conversation that might ensue across a city with small groups of Key Question themed educators sitting around a table sharing food and solving a game designed edu_challenge together.

Time shift - and imagine a potluck dinner as a potluck learning collaboration, and a pubcrawl as a edu_crawl - now merge the two ideas. Educators who signed up for the Key Question Ludium would be given a time and location in the city where they could meet for uncertain conversation with others, and attempt to resolve their Key question learning challenge using any resources available in the city and or the networked world.  The results of these conversations and collaborations could be presented (entered into the game) and evaluated at the end of the day/s work and play.

Now that would be fun, a gathering of curious educators with "no boundary between play and work". 

A ludium approach to Learning@School or ULearn would be faithful to Lefstein’s dialogue concerns, would enable David Squires sense of subversive use and volatile design and would allow educators to experience the unique ways in which ICT can connect us with ideas and people to build knowledge all in one hit.

Better tag this ULearn07 Arti’ in readiness for next years feedback to Chris

Comments

[Tony Forster]

The best parts of conferences are always those chance conversations over coffee or lunch. But if the big name keynote speakers weren't there, all the other interesting people wouldn't turn up and there'd be nobody to talk to over coffee.

Indiana University is holding an ongoing Ludium, its the Kuurian Expedition guild on Silver Hand server on WoW. I haven't played for a while but it was good to play with researchers and teachers.

[Artichoke]

Ahh Tony ... you need to get rid of that conference thinking - check out the advertising for pub quiz nights - you will not find any mention of celebrity talking head keynotes as draw cards
E.g.
Do you make bold claims to your friends and family that you're a New Zealand music guru? Are you one of those indie rock wankers that can't help but spiel off dozens of useless facts about obscure kiwi bands from the 1980's? Are you so competitive that you often get into fisty-cuffs during monopoly over Free Parking protocol?

Well, have RDU got a night out for you!

On Tuesday the 17th of May to celebrate Some New Zealand Music is Shit month, RDU 98.5 and The Dux de Lux will be holding the first ever Great New Zealand Music Quiz Night.

When the learning is presented as a collaborative gaming opportunity that is both play and work - I reckon our interest in "hyped to the point that they are bound to disappoint" keynoters will disappear -

What will attract educators to a ludium will be the collaborative competition - the new learning - and perhaps the fabulous prizes (made up from the keynoters professional fees and costs that the organisers will no longer have to shell out).

And the context for the new learning does not need to be irrelevant - it could easily be designed to have an outcome that would improve the community in which the ludium was based - it could well be knowledge building.