kathleen.johnston

It is Sunday night and I have at last recovered from two amazing days at the Scottish Learning Festival.  Mind you, I had September weekend guests and a nine year old daughter’s birthday party in between!

I wanted to cram as much in as I could on the first day and started off with ‘A Curriculum for Excellence in Action’, presented by May Sweeney and Maggi Allan. This was a great presentation which was based around exciting and innovative examples of projects in schools – Pre5, Primary , Secondary and Special Needs. For me the presentation reinforced the principles of A Curriculum for Excellence and set the scene for the next two days.  The cross sector aspect was emphasised throughout the presentation, with May Sweeney stating- ‘Good ideas from different sectors can be used across sectors’.

However, the highlight for me was quite surprising – it was a seminar by a guy called David Weinberger and the subject of his presentation was knowledge. It followed the ministerial address and I had read the summary of the seminar and decided to stay – and I’m glad I did! It was called ‘Everything is Miscellaneous’ – a strange title and quite an abstract start- to be honest I was completely confused for the fist 10 –15 minutes, but then he got me hooked. My understanding of the seminar – and it may not be correct – is

• The process of storing knowledge has gone through four processes so far –1^st order was finding a place for storing what is known, not necessarily in any order, just collecting it. The 2^nd order was to categorise knowledge – eg. Put it into order, like a library. The 3^rd order was to link knowledge systematically – making connections about what is known – like a tree diagram. The fourth order  is where we are now – he called it unknown order, where our knowledge has many connections , many random– like the internet.
• We are moving away from the traditional way of learning knowledge – we no longer have to restrict our storage of knowledge as we can store vast quantities of it through technology – think of your digital photo library –probably hundreds of photos which you can keep, yet you can refer to it whenever you need it. However, we do have to be more selective about what knowledge we use.
• Compare Wikipaedia and Britannica – You can’t believe everything that is said in Wikipaedia as it is constantly able to be edited – and this is a good thing. By using wikis people are using evaluative skills and critical skills. Wiki warnings about inaccuracies remind us that things may not be accurate. The creator of Wikipaedia has said that things are only neutral when people stop editing them.  Britannica is non editive. There are no warnings of inaccuracies in factual accounts.
• The traditional expert who will not partake of discussions will be temporarily locked out of Wikipaedia. To be a true expert now takes skill to justify his/her actions.
• Whilst using MSN/texts children are engaged – even whilst doing homework, using it to reassure or to ask questions. David Weinberger states – “Learning is social”, (I like that). He also states that testing is individual.  – “ Regimes confuse the measurement of that which is being measured”, ( I like that too)
• We are entering a time when knowledge is not seen as the ultimate goal –rather, the process. We are aiming for the meaning now, a connection of ideas.
• Find out more on David Weinberger  – www.evident.com  , self@evident.com

SETT was fab. If only every teacher could get to go, I wonder what difference that would make to learning and teaching in Scotland? As the guy says, Learning is social…