[p2p-research] Fwd: THIRD WORLD UNIVERSITIES FORUM

[paola.dimaio at gmail.com]

HI Pamela

thanks for your interest

It's very complicated, coming from a multidisciplinary background, and with
years of work experience in different fields, (and never made money really)
I consider myself as always learning most things , and occasionally teaching
something along the way.

When I taught software engineering, my students could teach me PHP
programmeing, for any thing that I can teach, there are ten things that I
can learn from others,

however many institutions are still set up to prevent knowledge sharing ,
with their silly and redundant organisationa, bureaucratic and social
structures, they are just  pretending  nobody asks the right questions, and
nobody answers them

 I work as a lecturer and researcher, and now doing a phd (I enrolled a
couple of months ago, back to being a student and have mixed feelings about
it)  . My field is 'systems engineering' and one reason I love that, is that
it encompasses everything. ahah, blows my mind too, yes, systems, and
systems of systems..... haha ... everything

There is a lot that I would like to share about the topics of discussion,
maybe one day we should have a multiconference and
speak on video to one another. sorry If I am not participating more actively
in discussion, topics are improtant and v interesting

I see HE should be more seen as CE (continuing Education) better still
continuing learning,  I regard learning as
a) knowledge transfer, which needs processes to be enabled and supported,
that is the role of unis in the future I think, as well as b) personal and
social experiences that expand one mind and consciouness

where do I fit? you tell me......
lets talk more soon

PDM



I

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Pamela McLean <pam54321 at googlemail.com>wrote:

> Thanks for your response Paola
>
> I do find some of the people are open, but the system does not help
> regarding interaction and collaboration (No time to explain that or put it
> in context at present).
>
> I wonder "where you fit" regarding HE, teaching learning etc. I am
> interested in your observations and would understand them better with more
> context.
>
> Pam
>
>
> 2009/4/28 <paola.dimaio at gmail.com>
>
> Pamela
>>
>> Most of the things your write below are exactly what I wanted to say but
>> did not have time to articulate, in relation to the role of unis and
>> lecturers etc
>
>
>
>> quick comments
>> 1.hopefully they have open boundaries, meaning that we do not have to 'go'
>> to interact with them
>>
>
>> 2. learning pertains to life, and the fact that you are not an academic
>> does not mean that you dont know someting about academica, academics tend to
>> be ver narrow minded cause they know extremely well their domain, and are
>> totally ignorant of many other things
>>
>> 3.i do believe in self directedness, but I would continue to emphasise the
>> need for becoming acquainted with the body of literature. I mean, i would
>> expect anone who is learning a topic to familiarise themselves with
>> everything that there is to know about it, including the standard
>> sillabus.
>
> however what I see is that today professors and all tell their students
>> what *they* consider the version of the truth, thus leaving the student
>> under tthe impression that everything elese dos not matter or is false. I
>> hope in the future students will be able to put together what their
>> professor says, and compare it with what other professors say, and then
>> become self directed in what they consider sould be pursued further
>>
>> 4, I see change happen from the top, but a lot is 'wasted' due to systemic
>> reasons, of which I would like to discuss in more detail when possible. i
>> see web based technologies already in place offering the greatest potential
>> for change from the bottom up, and people not using them. looks to me that
>> the processes and procedures need to be revised
>>
>>
>>
>> p
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 11:48 PM, Pamela McLean <pam54321 at googlemail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> This topic really interests me - but as a non-academic I'm not
>>> considering attending and I don't submit papers to journals because papers
>>> get peer reviewed and my writing is too journalistic  - I only describe what
>>> I have observed in practice and thought about, and I don't  relate it to
>>> adademic research. This is because, as a practitioner, I don't know enough
>>> (if anything) about relevant academic research.
>>>
>>> I wonder if anyone will be going? I wonder how this looks from the
>>> academic side of the fence. I would be interested in contributing to this is
>>> there was an appropriate way to do so.
>>>
>>> From my informal education side I think what is happening  in the
>>> informal sector has pointers for where higher education may go in future. I
>>> think that what post-graduate level independent, self-directed, learners are
>>> doing (online, outside of universities, to continue their learning) may have
>>> some relevance to universities.
>>>
>>> I have the impression there is a move towards self direction in some
>>> university courses. For example in some situations students are able to
>>> include self directed work (events they have attended, additional things
>>> they have read or followed up in some way) in their online portfolios of
>>> work (presumably this influences how their work is judged in some way). I
>>> think of two presentations I've heard at different events in London recently
>>> which were relevant to this trend. (Philip Butler for instance is doing
>>> interesting work related to this in his work using Moodle, also someone else
>>> - probably at CDE London - is doing work with music students which includes
>>> capturing many different aspects of the music itself and the student's work
>>> related to it.)
>>>
>>> I know that when I was studying with the OU there was great freedom to
>>> create your own personal, very individual, degree course. The courses that
>>> made up the degree could be selected from various faculties, as long as you
>>> were progressing appropriately in your level of study and you judged that
>>> you had the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle the course you had
>>> chosen. This opportunity to choose meant there could be a unique and useful
>>> relationship between formal OU courses (studied  in your "spare time") and
>>> what you had already learned (and were continuing to learn) in your parallel
>>> life in the "real world" of "the university of life" and full-time work.
>>>
>>> I think there is already much more flexibility, such as credit transfers,
>>> than when I was back in the sixth-form discovering what universities offered
>>> ( and failing to go to one). I hope there will be increasing flexibility in
>>> future university courses, with many more degrees offering the variety I
>>> enjoyed through my OU studies (perhaps this already happens).
>>>
>>> I also wonder about the role of universities in accrediting people at the
>>> end of their studies. I think people want accreditataion normally in order
>>> to enter the full-time employment market. I think (in some areas of work,
>>> especially those that relate to information) we are moving away from
>>> full-time permanent jobs towards a more independent, dynamic approach to
>>> earning a living. I think it will become  less usual to have a full-time
>>> permanent job and more usual to have short term collaborative work (with
>>> individual people often having a portfolio of projects they are working on,
>>> perhaps in a number of different collaborative teams).
>>>
>>> I think students (working towards information related work) will
>>> gradually develop and demonstrate competence (perhaps through voluntary
>>> work) by being involved in projects (perhaps "real" projects, perhaps
>>> "artificial" projects set up for learning purposes only). As they
>>> demonstrate competence  they will be offered more challenging opportunities
>>> to prove their worth (like the system in Appache - as I understand it - of
>>> rising though merit).  Ultimately people, who  are good enough, will be
>>> invited to take part in projects that are being done for money. These
>>> opportunities to work for money may well be happening in parallel with
>>> university studies. Any student who has sufficiently developed and showcased
>>> his/her skills in order to attract a portfolio of paid projects may then
>>> have reduced motivation to continue to the end of a university course in
>>> order to get formal accreditation. This is particularly likely if  the
>>> student has dicsovered how to continue studying well outside of the formal
>>> system
>>>
>>> I wonder if the main role of the university may become one of mentoring
>>> the students (rather then lecturing/teaching them and testing them). If you
>>> are a student then the main difference between independent informal learning
>>> and learning at a univirsity may be the opportunity to have someone who is
>>> your personal mentor, guiding you through your individual learning journey,
>>> helping you to clarify what you might need to learn next and how you might
>>> go about it. Of course it is possible this personal mentoring role is how
>>> universities tend to work now anyhow - I don't know - I'm not in the system
>>> .
>>>
>>> I wonder if the need for additional provision in the "Third World" may
>>> mean that new things tend to happen there faster - but I don't know about
>>> that. However various things I have been reading seem to suggest change is
>>> on the way everywhere - but I don't know abou tthat either e.g
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=1
>>>
>>> I wonder what those of you in the academic system see happening.
>>>
>>> Pam
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Wittel, Andreas <andreas.wittel at ntu.ac.uk>
>>> Date: 2009/4/27
>>> Subject: [p2p-research] THIRD WORLD UNIVERSITIES FORUM
>>> To:
>>> Cc: Peer-To-Peer Research List <p2presearch at listcultures.org>
>>>
>>>
>>> This could be an opportunity to develop a vision for the future of
>>> universities, something which could be considered to be a position
>>> associated with the p2p foundation. Is there some interest for
>>> collaboration?
>>>
>>> Andreas
>>>
>>> THIRD WORLD UNIVERSITIES FORUM
>>> Davos, Switzerland
>>> 9-11 January 2010
>>> http://UniversitiesForum.com <
>>> https://outlook.ntu.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://UniversitiesForum.com
>>> >
>>>
>>> Inspired partly by the success of World Economic Forum in hosting global
>>> conversations about emerging issues of economic policy, the World
>>> Universities Forum (WUF) was created in 2008 in the belief that academe must
>>> better engage today's most crucial questions, and that higher education
>>> itself must be included as part of the wider discussion of global change.
>>>  The Forum encourages the participation of university executives,
>>> administrators, scholars and research students, as well as journalists,
>>> policy makers, business and political leaders, and others who understand
>>> that the importance of the university extends well beyond campus. While WUF
>>> encourages conversations about all aspects of higher education policy and
>>> practice, the keynotes for the third WUF have been invited to consider
>>> issues of the current global economic crisis and its implications for
>>> universities.
>>>
>>> Keynote speakers include:
>>> * Professor Eva Egron-Polak (International Association of Universities,
>>> France)
>>> * Professor Jonathan Jansen (Rector, University of the Free State, South
>>> Africa)
>>> * Professor Simon Marginson (University of Melbourne, Australia)
>>> * Professor Nigel Thrift (Vice Chancellor, University of Warwick, UK)
>>> * Professor Pandhyala B.G. Tilak (National University of Educational
>>> Planning & Administration, India)
>>>
>>> In addition, the Forum will also include numerous paper, workshop and
>>> colloquium presentations. We would particularly like to invite you to
>>> respond to the Forum Call-for-Papers. Presenters may choose to submit
>>> written papers for publication in the refereed Journal of the World
>>> Universities Forum. If you are unable to attend the Forum in person, virtual
>>> registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for
>>> review and possible publication in the Journal, and provide access to the
>>> online edition of the Journal.
>>>
>>> Whether you are a virtual or in-person presenter at this Conference, we
>>> also encourage you to present on the Conference YouTube Channel. Please
>>> select the Online Sessions link on the Conference website for further
>>> details.
>>>
>>> The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short
>>> abstract) is 14 May 2009.  Future deadlines will be announced on the Forum
>>> website after this date.  Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of
>>> submission. Full details of the Forum, including an online proposal
>>> submission form, may be found at the Forum website -
>>> http://UniversitiesForum.com <
>>> https://outlook.ntu.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://UniversitiesForum.com>
>>> .
>>>
>>> We look forward to receiving your proposal and hope you will be able to
>>> join us in Davos in January 2010.
>>>
>>> Yours Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Professor Fazal Rizvi
>>> Department of Educational Policy Studies University of Illinois Urbana,
>>> Illinois, USA
>>> For the International Advisory Board of the World Universities Forum and
>>> the Journal of the World Universities Forum
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Paola Di Maio,
>> ****************************************
>>
>>
>


-- 
Paola Di Maio,
****************************************
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