Futurelab paper on Social software and learning

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/
opening_education/social_software_01.htm

I wanted to like this paper but was frustrated with the first 12 pages or so, mostly because it is just review of the ‘social software’ field and forrays into how knowledge and learning are changing à la Downes and Siemens. Nothing particularly wrong with it, just nothing that new.

But it was worth sticking with for the practical suggestions in section 4, “How Do We Move Towards ‘C-Learning’?” especially the section on what educators can do…

“You can plan your curriculum as though education does not stop at the classroom walls.”

Doesn’t get much more succinct than that! Or this line – “In particular, schools should not expect students to leave the 21st century in the cloakroom.”

This is an important paper. It is both academically respectable, readable (though a little longish for time constrained Deputy Ministers and the like) and ‘gets it’ without being fanatical or evangelical. Send it on to those who can help affect this change. – SWL