Hapgood

Mike Caulfield's latest web incarnation. Networked Learning, Open Education, and Online Digital Literacy

Leigh Blackall: Teaching is Dead, Long Live Learning

So Leigh Blackall is my new favorite edublogger (Sorry Jim!).

If you want to know why, you can listen to this podcast.

Favorite thinker? Not sure. Thinker? It’s odd, but I feel these observations are just so obvious. I’m not sure I ever had to think them up, or that Leigh had to think them up, or that Jim had to think them up, or that Jon had to think them up or that even Roger had to think them up.

So it’s really unfair, but I don’t think of this stuff as shockingly brilliant. What I’m shocked by most often is why it’s not just obvious.

I mean, I put all this Web 2.0-speak on top of my explanations, but what I want to say most often to people is — so have you ever tried to accomplish a real world goal? Yeah? Well, it’s like that.

All the same, when ideas become so obvious that you can’t remember when you first got them, it’s very often because history is hurtling towards an inevitable change. So a historical frame is useful. Leigh does a nice job with that. If you haven’t check out his stuff, I highly recommend it.

You can start with this if you want:

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mikecaulfield

The infolit guy.

3 responses to “Leigh Blackall: Teaching is Dead, Long Live Learning”

  1. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    Oh, how fickle you Web 2.0 fanboys are! 🙂

    Yeah, I began following Leigh through Stephen Downes and Brian lamb’s blogs and he’s been thinking through so much of this for a long while now with that whole subversive crew. I was blown away by his recent post on “It’s not plagiarism, it’s an easy essay”: sharp, funny, and framing a new way to think about some of the things that we all have formed so many assumptions about.

    I think that alludes to so much of what you are talking about here, it’s not so much about being a genius thinker (for what is a genius? or a thinker?) as you suggest -it is a matter of making connections and being able to re-imagine the uses and application of things. That is what I love about Udell’s work, he doesn’t necessarily re-invent the wheel, he justs shows us a new path to roll it down (his library search, screencasts, and citizen political action pieces all do this so well). Thinking through this stuff is somewhat akin to jamming and improvising, not necessarily simply a “CREATION” that leaps from Zeus’s head!

    Reply
  2. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    I actually made OLDaily today under my own steam! I’m so excited.

    I liked the plagairism one too.

    I think Jon doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but if someone does reinvent it, he’ll screencast that.

    You’re still in my fave five, Jim. And who knows — I mean, really, New Zealand? Obviously a fling.

    Reply
  3. Leigh Avatar
    Leigh

    You guys 🙂 Its nice to have new mates, even if they are fickle… New Zealand maybe having a renaissance you know.. who knows, small country, smaller institutions, easier to change (?) have you found Artichoke yet? The post Edubloggers as prisoners of the Nation State is a good’n, hopefully you’ll find more gold in Arti… especially from a linguistic pov.

    Reply

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