I am pleased to be involved in the organisation and creation of the Working Class Academics Conference in July this year. I first met the educators who are the engines behind the vision several years back when an academic in Manchester felt that I had something to contribute as well as something to learn in the area of digital inclusion.
The language of failure is a tricky one to use without creating unhelpful tensions which can compartmentalize the spirit and function of education and social projects. When walking through the surreal world of policy-town, phrases take root and oblige people to think and act in ways which conform to the language that is giving shape to their thoughts. Policy and it’s language has come to possess people’s practice. Read more…
What is learning? This is the question I have been exploring through the development of Community Open Online Courses (COOCs), where anyone and everyone can contribute to the curriculum and decide how and what they want to learn. Initially, answering this question from an institutional perspective, seemed easy enough to do – there are a plethora of accreditation routes, standardisation measures and statistics that can be used as evidence. But, we all know that the structure of formal education can leave people as diminished by their experiences as it does enriched. Read more…
This is an interview with Peter Shukie who works at Blackburn University Centre teaching Lecturing in Education Studies.
Peter is working with peers to help create and share innovative approaches to teaching and learning. He works from the perspective that diversity and individually held skills help generate a diverse landscape in which educators and learers can be supported, encouraged and celebrated. Read more…
This is a podcast of Peter Shukie sharing his philosophy of what lies behind the Community Open Online Courses vision. Community Open Online Courses is a vision which takes the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and flips the model making the community the creator of the content. This innovation in education and learning is important in that it values the inherent knowledge of individuals wherever they are situated.
The idea that the internet is changing everything, that all levels of living are now undergoing transformation, that we are in the midst of a revolution, is nothing new. Are we blasé about significant and widespread change? Is transformation and revolution the new everyday and normal?
