[iDC] Invitation to Moderate

[Trebor Scholz]

Dear all,

After a few weeks of little activity on this list we¹ll now start to
focus on education for the next few months. 

The discussions will be broad enough to also interest those who don¹t
identify closely with the topic. 

This coming week I will outline key issues in (media art) education and
hope that you¹ll join in with your comments. 

MODERATORS

After that, invited moderators will take over the iDC list for two weeks
at a time to tackle one of the identified core issues. They can invite
others to join them for this two-week moderation period. 

Please send proposals to idc at distributedcreativity.org


Tiffany Holmes (chair of the department of Art + Technology at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago) 

and 

Ulises Mejias (Ed.D. student at the Communication, Computing and
Technology in Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University
and research consultant at Cornell University)  

are already scheduled for 2007.

METHODOLOGY

The proposed methodology for these moderated sessions is to work from
practical examples to theoretical reflections. This can include
literature reviews, comparative studies of educational technologies,
media art programs, curriculum, the use of social software,
collaborative work on a bibliography of new media (as temporary
guidelines, surely not as attempt to create a book canon), etc. I
believe that the subscribers of this list are ideally placed to discuss
this important topic.  

What do YOU identify as core topics?

Some of the key points that I identified in my Hamburg presentation were
inspired by Henry Jenkin¹s research paper ³Confronting The Challenges of
Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century² but also
my travel to media departments all over the world and, of course, the
³Share, Share Widely² conference last year crystallized many topics for
me. 

<http://newmediaeducation.org>
<http://tinyurl.com/ydvcvo>
<http://tinyurl.com/y7lsm9>
<http://tinyurl.com/ylhlgc>


KEY ISSUES

EMPOWERING STUDENTS FOR PARTICIPATORY CULTURES
The ability to use the instruments that are necessary to collaborate in
the commons. The ability to make sensible use of educational
technologies.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING VERSUS  LIBERAL EDUCATION
The ability to shape curriculum that balances vocational training versus
liberal education.

FOCUS
The ability to recognize and fight ³continuous partial attention.²

JUDGEMENT
³Judgment -the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility 
of different information sources² (H. Jenkins)

PLAY
³Play -the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a 
form of problem-solving² (H. Jenkins)

NETWORKING
³Networking - the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate
information² (H. Jenkins) The use of networked games for education.

CRITICAL CONTEXT AWARENESS
The ability to critically assess the environment to which one
contributes
(Why do people work for free in the service of Amazon.com?)

OPEN ARCHIVES AND JOURNALS
The ability to understand the importance of open archives as well as
free & open journals

FLOSS
The ability to meaningfully implement Free Libre and Open Source
Software (Floss) into the daily work  flow.

STANDARDS OF RECOGNITION
The ability to establish standards of recognition in new media
(e.g. tenure)

PROGRAMMING
The ability to meaningfully integrate programming into media arts
curriculum 
(i.e. teach a basic understanding of the principles of programming) 

>Further topics:

PRACTICE-BASED PHDs

INTERDISCIPLINARITY

CORPORATIZATION
The ability to remain cognizant of the corporatization of the academy
and critically respond to it.

DESIGN FOR COLLABORATION
(design of labs to accommodate collaboration -screens & keyboards only)

HERARCHIES IN EDUCATION

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF STUDENTS

SCIENTIFICATION OF THE ARTS

I look forward to the discussions.

Best,
Trebor 

http://collectivate.net