A belated review (is there any other kind??) of Stephen's presentation last week during the Microlearning conference. I had the pleasure of meeting many individuals from diverse backgrounds and interests (see speaker list). Stephen delivered an excellent keynote on the second day of the conference: elearning 2.0: Platform, not Medium (.ppt). His message centered on how the internet has created a fundamentally different mode of organization for not only organizations and individuals, but for knowledge itself. He presented eight different principles to consider in designing for this new environment...roughly paraphrased, these principles specify how networks differ from traditional learning…these shouldn’t only inform your decision when designing, but when planning for technology – use these principles to evaluate whether something is a good technology. He then provided an exploration of informal tools with potential use for learning (the capabilities of the tools themselves are becoming known as "personal learning environment). Stephen did some of his best work in the Q & A session of the presentation - responding to and interacting with audience members...displaying his background in logic and philosophy. His talk was very well received (one presenter later in the day felt that Stephen's eight principles were sufficiently strong to validate work he was doing in developing a new elearning tool (as the presenter put it "now I have proof that I'm on the right track"))
As with any conference, some of the best learning happened outside of the formal sessions (there was very serious talk about a Bob and Doug McKenzie elearning tour :)). Sebasien Fielder had extended an invite to present to the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna (the invitation came a few days after I had booked my flight, so I wasn't able to attend). Stephen did attend, and presented on Learning Networks and Personal Learning Environment (.ppt)