Alan, we are looking forward to your visit and the event here in Sydney .  There is a large team of us here, working in NSW with the Flexible Learning Framework - Lynne, Robyn, Alex, Shane, Donna and myself (Jeff).    I will let them know that we have opened this space and get them all contributing and building on ideas for the best event we can deliver in Sydney.   

 

Based on discussions with Robyn and Alex, here is a rough draft at a description....

 

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Given my severe allergy to lecture mode presentations, these sessions will be designed to mix display of my own ideas and examples, to bring in remote audiences/colleagues, and to engage in a few small group activities in two segments:

 

1. Being There... in that Unevenly Distributed Future

Oft-quoted, and for good reason, writer William F Gibson's line that "the future is here, it is just unevenly distributed" is so apt, relevant, and obvious that we can almost overlook its meaning. We expect a "Future" to come crashing on us from far away, when really it is evolving all around us right now. As an unabased optimist, through examples and activities, I will try to encourage you to face this ever increasing onrush of "new stuff" with a sense of curious wonder rather than dread. And most importantly- we cannot draw our conclusions by looking in from the outside-- in our organizations, we need to support, provide, and engage in this future. The "how" we work with risk is not a recipe I can pull off a shelf, but the implications of not doing so are to waste our organizations most valuable and renewable resource- the creativity, innovation, and passion of our people within. This is not going to be a fire hose of web 2.0 technologies and more an examination of the values of our extended networks, social software, virtual worlds, and serendipty can offer.

 

2. The Technology Horizon

For the last four years, my organization, the New Media Consortium, has produced The Horizon Report,  a concise scanning of the horizon of technologies that, given where we are at th emoment, project which ones are going to be widely used in the arenas of education and creative expression. This is not about being "right" or predicting, nor is aimed at what terchnologies are viable to those in the field. With a review of the process, a discussion of how past horizons have landed (and fallen), we will peek behind the curtain into the process that will be mid way through refning the list for the 2008 report (to be relased in January), and to engage in a conversation with colleagues and students who are researching the impact of this work. We will try and see how these horizons do or do not map onto the education and tech landscape here  in Australia, and probe the larger questions of -- what do we do with this look at a future.