As a presenter and correspondent, I feel I have a unique position. I am able to take what I have seen and heard at the 2014 New Media Consortium Summer Conference and create a story that ties into the work that I have been doing with Bible Center’s Oasis Project and Remake Learning’s Digital Corps.
So,I could outline each of the sessions I attended…. (you should have came) or I could talk about how the lessons I learned are being synthesized…..
I think I will do a little of both.
I attended 4 sessions prior to Advancing Digital Learning in a Connected Community: Developing Partnerships Beyond the One Night Stand, Emerging Technologies: Accelerants for Deep Learning, Idea Spaces and ‘Drones, 3D Printing & Project Based Learning’.
Without words in them, they are pretty unimpressive. This is just like an awesome space or technology without the people to use them. This is the problem that the facilitators of Developing Partnerships from Case Western University’s Active Learning Initiative meant to address. They took a vision of a space that would foster collaboration and breakout groups, combined it with institutional connections to faculty and assessed the results. As Bible Center embarks on create an expansion site for its out of school time programs, all these factors have to be considered and metrics instituted to capture the successes and failures.
However, there is an important point to consider. While an ecosystem that leverages the physical space, innovative facilitators and tracking metrics seems great, when viewed alone they miss the point. Even emerging technologies, such as software-hardware integrations that create natural user interfaces (NUIs) which account for human variation and provide more naturalistic approaches to control, miss the mark when they are not included in the greater conversation of purpose. What is the purpose and the goal? The goal is not the best curriculum or space or most advanced technology. The goal is the garnering of applicable knowledge. Everything else is just a tool.
This is why integrated solutions are necessary. One equation from the Idea Spaces breakout succinctly summed up my feeling.
So what is this goal? As stated in the Emerging Technology breakout, effective programs must meet a need. What is the needs of the communities being serviced? One of the most overlooked areas in many discussions on the forefront of leveraging new media are accessibility and engagement by low income and disenfranchised communities. What are the things that are needed to design programs that help leapfrog communities suffering from economic gaps and infrastructural biases?
These are the questions that need answers. As New Media broadens its scopes and increases its depth, it is our duty to structure our spaces, technology, faculty and assessments around goal centric concepts. We must take the time to shape our programs with flexibility in mind. Rigidity and rote processes and spaces will not help us reach our goals.
How does a river become an ocean?
This chart is adapted from "The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration."
As you can see in the figure above, there has been a substantial change in the fabric of our work ecosystem. Creativity & adaptability are the future. This is why expanding programs like The Maker’s Place and Remake Learning’s Digital Corp are so vital. They are programs that are engaging students where they are,
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