A true story | Blogs | Black Swan Society

...So, I was sitting at the pub reading a book, when I couldn't help overhearing the conversation at the table next to mine.

(in other words: I was eavesdropping.)

Three people, in their twenties, were busily discussing a Project - one was talking about flash, another, nerve endings and neural paths.

I couldn't help myself. I turned around and asked - 'what are you talking about?'

One - a young doctor - told me that he'd had an idea. He'd spent a lot of time playing GeoQuest on facebook (disclosure: I love that game) and had discovered, to his surprise, that he'd developed a lot of geography knowledge by doing so. That set him thinking - 'anatomy is hard, games are fun, you learn from games, so why not teach anatomy with a game?'

With no knowledge of the industry, the technical standards or anything else, this industrious group of clever young people were planning to create their own elearning resources for their peers. I could have cried, it was so touching.

I gave them some hints, and left them with my email in case they wanted a hand. But the thing that got to me was this: that elearning made enough sense to these folk that they were willing to draw on their expertise, have a go, and make some themselves.

I salute them, and I hope to see many more.

...So, I was sitting at the pub reading a book, when I couldn't help overhearing the conversation at the table next to mine.

(in other words: I was eavesdropping.)

Three people, in their twenties, were busily discussing a Project - one was talking about flash, another, nerve endings and neural paths.

I couldn't help myself. I turned around and asked - 'what are you talking about?'

I salute them, and I hope to see many more.

Aaron 15 months ago

I really think that's the next wave of user-generated content and social media -- creating and sharing content that is entertaining and for good laughs is rewarding... to a point. At some point, people want to keep creating, but I truly believe they also want to do something more signficant. Teaching can be another form of sharing, and it's already inherent to people who actively network. I think it's a natural progression path. There are other paths, but clearly the link between teaching and sharing is one (another is the link between doing something for fun and then doing the same thing for money). In your example, filling a void like that helps each professionally as well as personally -- a win-win

zoe.f.rose 15 months ago

Yes - the one worry I have about user-generated content for teaching and learning is expertise. The guy in the above example was a qualified medic, but what if someone whose anatomy knowledge was poor undertook the same thing?

Aaron 14 months ago

Well, that's where the reputation kicks in. The first few people who experience the training who smell that something's not right inform others. It's not perfect, but this informs me of a good use of Cory Doctorow's and Mark's points about Wuffies. I'm not saying it's foolproof, but while information can be accessed anywhere and posted to anywhere, I think more and more as information becomes so freely available that people will seek out repositories with a reputation for high quality information. Anyone can post their fake medical learning game anywhere -- but we'll get to a point (eventually) where given the choice of five different medical learning games on Facebook, the most popular one will be the one that's the most fun to play AND the "most" true. It's scary to think of it that way, but it's also scary to think that it may not be much different than it is now in traditional learning. Isn't there a difference in the quality of medical education from a school like Oxford and a school like the University of Grenada?

zoe.f.rose 14 months ago

what I wonder about, though, is how we're going to verify sources when the sources are human. Will there be a standard? Should there be? I guess we'll find out...

I'd guess that eventually there will be some kind of standard, probably established through some kind of defacto means, derived from a great implementation of reputation handling that everyone mimics. Chances are I won't be the one to come up with it :)