‘Little arguments with myself’Discontinuity, fleeting connections and digital strangers. Disrupting how we ‘do’ learning in a post-digital world.

Peter Bryant@peterbryantHE

Head of Learning Technology and InnovationLondon School of Economics and Political Science

http://www.peterbryant.org

‘There is a certain randomness to what I am about to tell you. I cannot promise narrative. There is, without doubt, a keening sense of disruption. And clearly something is lost. However, there is a truth to what you will hear.’ (from ‘How do I know any of this was real?’ by A Sad Waltz in D-Minor)

Why?

How the institution ‘does’ learning

1. Institutional resistance to change 2. Ambient conservatism and risk aversion3. Pedagogy for the 20th (19th?) century4. Critical shifts in the way information is acquired and

applied5. Student resistance to our use of technology

How the learner ‘does’ learning

1. Learners arriving at university are already e-learners 2. 21st century skills for a technology driven society3. There is no real and online world…there is just the

world4. What is authentic and real can be defined differently5. Not all students are experts in all technologies6. Student adoption moves faster than institutional

adaptation https://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/14089406581/

Modern pedagogy is often…

SEQUENTIALSCAFFOLDED

ALIGNEDSTRUCTURED

https://www.flickr.com/photos/verylastexcitingmoment/3980490179

LIFEWORKPLAYLOVEETC.

rarely are

The logical impossibility of (the) Status Quo

What is knowledge

and where do we find it?

1

What is the purpose of university?

2

3

Jobs todayJobs tomorrow

Question/Answer

4

The ubiquity of technology

5

Speaking in tongues

6

Pedagogy for the post-digital age

FOUNDIDENTITY

MAKINGPLAY

DISCONTINUITYAUTHENTICITY

COMMUNITY

FOUND

  Black ribbons, dirty scars, sour umeboshi and bright flames, all found and delivered out of sequence. They represent hiding places, consequences, sensations and redemptions, and 

not in that order, and perhaps not what they seem.  Each piece has its own momentum and sense of motion, a contrast between the reflective narration of the 

characters and the need to move on, forget and get on with life.

IDENTITY

I may have offered you a fictionalised account or I may have told the absolute truth. It could have been an entirely fake

persona, a digital stranger hiding in dark crevices.  I was active one day and then I disappeared into silence, initiating a virtual death the next, forever vanishing from the community. My

constructed identify was difficult to google search, left very few breadcrumbs or trails and most importantly, I was in complete control of the way it was constructed.

Of course, it was real.

MAKING

In the bowl is umeboshi, each plum crinkled and dark maroon in colour.  The brine at the bottom of the bowl is a black blood red.  And then the feeling of curiosity returns.  What to do next? The first camera positions itself over my shoulder and watches me carefully pick up an umeboshi and pop it into my mouth.  The credits roll.  What a strange way to end a film, I think to no-one but myself.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mofoods/5414240977

Students as Producers Project

Top DownTop Down

Bottom Up

FROM THE MIDDLE

OUT

Aims of the Futures ProjectTo develop an engaged, innovative and critical teaching and learning community by; • Supporting a culture of innovative teaching 

and learning with technology;• Developing, celebrating and rewarding a 

community of engaged teachers and learners;

• Enriching the curriculum and practices of teaching and learning with technology through the application of the principles and values of social science;

• Engaging in critical evaluation and research about the practices and science of teaching and learning with technology; 

• Encouraging creativity, bold experimentation, innovation and evaluation of new and emerging approaches to teaching and learning with technology.

I believe everything we dream can come to pass through our union we can turn the world around we can turn the earth's revolution we have the power People have the power ... 

Patti Smith, People have the Power 1985

just keep counting the starslike someday you'll find outjust how many there areand we all can go home'cuz there's nothing as sadas a man on his backcounting stars

Little Argument with myselfLow from the album ‘Trust’