Last month, the Personal Democracy Forum conference held their annual conference to discuss the “intersection of technology and politics.” The organizers have made a number of the presentations from the conference available online and they are well worth watching. While not directly related to education, the ideas being discussed are no doubt relevant. Here are three of the presentations that I would recommend:
Michael Wesch – PdF2009 – The Machine is (Changing) Us
This presentation really is a must see. Not only does Professor Wesch artfully weave together ideas from Huxley, Postman and McCluhan alongside quotes from Kartman and Bart Simpson (how many professors could pull that off), he makes some important statements about the impacts of media on youth culture and explores how participatory media might possibly change things.
danah boyd – PdF2009 – The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online
Are offline social divides being replicated and reinforced online? As educators explore the use of social media and online communities with their courses and institutions, it is important to be mindful of assuring that these tools don’t serve to widen existing socio-economic disparities.
Marc Pesce – PdF2009 – Sharing Power (Global Edition)
Pesce explores the dissonance that occurs when communities formed around web based networks (“adhocracies”) attempt to interact with hierarchical organizations and predicts that these interactions will form a major point of conflict in the coming years. What happens when educational institutions and web based networked learning communites collide?