Tu, Feb 22, 2005

Wikis in Libraries

Here is some interesting stuff I came across on Wikis: "I'm gathering up links and ideas for my upcoming "Wikis @ Your Library" presentation at the CIL Conference in a few weeks, and I want to make sure that I'm not missing any good stuff" http://www.weblogg-ed.com/2005/02/22#a3156 Posted by Robin Brooke-Smith on 22/2/05; 5:27:34 PM from the Gifted and Talented Education dept.   #  Discuss  Comment [0]   Trackback [0]

Blogging and Knowledge Building

Steve has triggered some intriguing lines of thought (see news story below, Sat Feb 19) and I want to continue some thoughts about how blogs can play a powerful role in helping folk with creative thinking especially in schools and universities. An important part of blogging is the freedom to express yourself without the fear of censure or assessment. In other words there is no formal standard against which you are being judged all the time. This can cause students to become frozen like rabbits caught in the headlights of a car.  Rather blogging provides a place of permission, where first wobbly steps in the world of thought and communication are not too threatening and can be profoundly affirming. I will share with you over the next days and weeks some of the work of Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia with whom I used to work at the University of Toronto where I was principal of the University of Toronto Schools. A power ful technology for Knowledge Building can be found at http://www.ikit.org "Knowledge Building In what is coming to be called the “knowledge age,” the health and wealth of societies depends increasingly on their capacity to innovate. People in general, not just a specialized elite, need to work creatively with knowledge. As Peter Drucker put it “Innovation must be part and parcel of the ordinary, the norm, if not routine.” This presents a formidable new challenge: how to develop citizens who not only possess up-to-date knowledge but are able to participate in the creation of new knowledge as a normal part of their lives. There are no proven methods of educating people to be producers of knowledge. Knowledge creators of the past have been too few and too exceptional in their talents to provide much basis for educational planning. In the absence of pedagogical theory, learning-by-doing and apprenticeship are the methods of choice; but this does not seem feasible if the “doing” in question is the making of original discoveries, inventions, and plans. Rather, we must think of a developmental trajectory leading from the natural inquisitiveness of the young child to the disciplined creativity of the mature knowledge producer. The challenge, then, will be to get students on to that trajectory. But what is the nature of this trajectory and of movement along it? There are three time-honored answers that provide partial solutions at best." I will present the three "time-honoured answers next time" Posted by Robin Brooke-Smith on 22/2/05; 11:59:45 AM from the Gifted and Talented Education dept.   #  Discuss  Comment [0]   Trackback [0]