Internal:Speakers/PC1

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PC1 :

Title: Open source content: Open source development education (ID PC1)

  • Language: English | License:
  • Room size: Medium
  • Category:
  • type: Workshop
  • Budget requirements: {{{budgetrequire}}}
  • Budget priority: {{{budget}}}

Author[s]: Paul Caplan.

  • Contact: [OTRS]
  • Contacted by:
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Abstract

There's not much that frightens Microsoft but 'open source does'. A rival operating system is eating into the Redmond giant's massively profitable server software market - and the software is free.

And it's not just software. The media and music businesses are also fighting rearguard actions against bottom-up content. 'Citizen journalists' are reporting live from the scene of Tsunamis and wars with content more relevant, real and alive than that from professional hacks in their hotels. Garage bands are sharing their music, collaborating and even making money outside the control of the top-down structures of music scouts and execs. The Internet is shifting the focus of content from top to bottom and redrawing the power relations. And there are glimmers that the same is happening in education.

I'm currently contributing in small way to that revolution by creating an Internet space for young people about 'global citizenship'. What is new is that I've created the space and now I'm letting the young people create the content and in a very real way drive the project.

this World is Our World (tWiOW) consists of two websites. Each participating institution has a Weblog where the young people can post their thoughts, ideas, comments, links to stories they found online or off, or... anything they want. Each participant can also comment on entries in this rolling Blog, whether to agree, disagree, add new information or simply to acknowledge the idea. This is news from young people's own perspective, written in their own voice, prioritised according to their agendas and concerns - content from the bottom up. A discourse of 'global citizenship' built by those for whom it is not an academic exercise or political ideology but a reality and a future. As project co-ordinator, I - or any of the teachers involved - can add comments or even post material but we are equal players not teachers. Our entries are just ones among many.

The other site takes this network perspective even further. The tWiOW Wiki is a site which allows anyone to create content, edit pages, add links and build the information architecture any way they like.

The tWiOW Wiki is open. The young people are not told what to post or where. If they want to create a section on global warming, they can. If they want to spin off a section on the UK election, it's their choice. And those sections can be in any form. They can be rants and raves or considered arguments. They can be links to material or news. They can be personal observations or local comment. They can be creative responses... whatever the community wants.

Again, teachers can play a part but even in its early days it is clear that the community is more than capable of running its own show. [T]eachers may offer comments but our contributions like any others are not the last word. On a Wiki or a Blog, there is no 'last word'.

And here lies the radical potential and yes, the problem. This Open Source learning repositions education, the teacher and the pupil and reconfigures the power relations that are at the heart of traditional and progressive approaches to global education. The challenge therefore is how to play my part, where and when to jump in and when to back off.

But this is not just a problem for those of us working in wiki/blogspace. It's your problem too because your students are using the real Internet out there - not just the Big Web of the BBC and MSN but the small web of their own Blogs, peer-to-peer sharing and micro networks. They are already doing it and they'll be bringing that open source perspective into your classroom.

Longer abstract: details

About the author[s]: Paul Caplan is a journalist, Internet consultant and teacher. He is currently working with a school in Essex, UK developing an open source global citizen project (http://www.theinternationale.net/twiow). He can be reached via the site or at praxis@theinternationale.net.


Status information in the templates is not up to date. Please see Internal:Speakers/Categories for final status information.


  • accept:
  • reject: EM (the goals are laudable, but I'm not too impressed by TWiOW content and technology -- the first thing the wiki does is ask for a password. I don't think this really will give Wikimedians relevant new info or perspectives -- we already are a global project.), AB, Elian
  • status:

Abstract seems focused on educational conferences... on the upside, this means perhaps some experience presenting. On the downside, may need to be encouraged to add content relevant to wikipedians. Sj 01:29, 31 May 2005 (UTC)