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Invited Speaker
Blurring Roles: Participation Trends in
Media and Education
George Siemens
Associate Director, Research and Development, Learning
Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba; founder and
President of Complexive Systems Inc., Canada
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Abstract:
Ours is an era of active involvement
and participation. Technically, tools are now readily available for
increased engagement in media and learning. Participation opportunities
allow for greater closeness: readers to authors, gamers to game
creators, the “masses” to the experts, the governed to the politicians.
Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band enable the current generation to
experience and participate in music from previous generations. Sites
like Ohmynews enable a populace to create and filter news. Sites such as
Many Eyes allow amateurs to explore and visualize enormously complex
data sets. The promised revolution of democratic access to, and
participation in, information and the tools to make sense of that
information now appears conceptually possible.
While the potential for increased participation through
technology is generally acknowledged, the impact and educational use are
less often a focal point. This session will explore the blurring roles
of content creation and consumption, exploring points of impact, future
trends, and likely impact on education as a whole.
Biographical Information:
George Siemens is a prominent writer and
researcher on learning, networks, technology and organizational
effectiveness in digital environments. He is the author of Knowing
Knowledge, an exploration of how the context and characteristics of
knowledge have changed and what it means to organizations today. Siemens is
also Associate Director, Research and Development, with the Learning
Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba and founder and President of
Complexive Systems Inc. (
www.complexive.com) , a learning lab focused on helping organizations
develop integrated learning structures to meet the needs of global strategy
execution. He is an international speaker and consultant, detailing the
changes universities, colleges, and corporations must make in order to
address the challenges of an increasingly complex world. Siemens maintains
www.elearnspace.org
,
www.connectivism.ca and
www.knowingknowledge.com . Additional background information is
available at
www.elearnspace.org/about.htm.
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