The Wales-Wide Web

Blogging is generally said to be like keeping a diary. I think this is wrong (although of course some people do use their blogs like that). For me there is little point in recording that I spent Wednesday evening in the Horner Ecke pub with Lars and we spent two (animated) hours trying to spend Werder Bremen's Champion's league booty and considering the possibility of Basturk moving from Leverkusen, or that on Friday I was in the same pub with Philip and Imke, where we talked of many interesting things including Imke's wedding dress and whether i shopuld move to a new flat. Such things are interesting to me but I can see little point in recording them (although I will write more accolades to the brilliant Werder Bremen in the next few days).

Instead I see of this blog as a notebook - somewhere I can record things of interest to me (and perhaps others) as they occur. Of course, I could write them in a notebook. But, firstly i cannot usually read my handwriting, second I will lose or forget the notebook, thirdly it is very useful (if only fort future cutting and sticking) to have these notes in electronic form, fourthly it is very handy to be able to refer others to my notes on occasion, and, finally I like the writing format of mixing the insubstantial, passing and ephemeral with things I think may be of some longer term interest ( if only to me).

Extended text for this entry:

Having thought out why I blog, I suddenly find I have a wealth of entries I want to make.

I am writing this on a flight from Hamburg to Dublin. I used to use travel as a place for reading novels - something I love but get very limited opportunity to do. Now reading will have to with writing as travel recreation.

Having said that, there is the take off and landing periods, when "the use of portable electronic equipment is not allowed". Having done little work yesterday, I decided to make up for it by working on my way to Dublin. Tomorrow I am due to moderate an on-line text discussion based on the European Commission proposal on "Common European Principles for Validation of non-formal and informal learning". OK, it doesn't sound so interesting - but there are a few ideas hidden in the usual Eurobabble. And the process of moderating these on-line chat meetings is certainly worthy of comment some day. But, not to be diverted, the document was read prior to us leaving the parking stand, so I could borth feel worthy and get out a novel to read during take off.

The novel is the Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. I have been carrying it around for the last four weeks, but never got round to reading it `(and have only got as far as page 12 now. I love the authors' note at the beginning, a short reflection on the process of writing the novel, in particular two things he says. the first quote, from page X, is

"That's what fiction is all about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?"

This is wonderful. For some time I have been fascinated with the idea of trying to develop web applications for story telling as part of a process of learning. The problem is two fold. Firstly most existing web approaches to story telling are based on high technology video and production. The technology overtakes the creativity. Reality is transformed, not by the ideas of the story teller, but by the medium of transmission. Secondly, from a teaching and learning point of view, there still remains an assumption that there is some kind of objective (or technical) reality to be pursued in the form of learning outcomes. There is no idea of the selective transforming of reality in learning. But surely this is what learning is about. About selecting realities and transforming them, about selecting ways and forms of technologies and transforming them.

The second quote is the final line of Martel's foreword.

"If we citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the alter of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."

And so it is with learning. The present technocratic approach to learning, as exemplified in the European missive I quoted earlier, sacrifices imagination to crude reality (expressed as outcomes and its dreams are ultimately futile and worthless.

In learning, as in storytelling, imagination and the selective transformation of reality should lay at the heart of our endeavor. Yet for this we need new pedagogies as urgently, if not more, than we need new learning tools. I am ever more intrigued with the idea of production as a metaphor for learning. Storytelling is an art, the art of producing ideas and realities. Learning is in the producing the doing, and in the objects produced, not in the abstracted learning outcomes.

Ok, enough dreaming for now. This blog has now got to the stage where I am happy to tell people about it. And, if by chance, stray readers are interested,we are going to try to build a storytelling tool in the next few months. If you are interested in participating, add a comment below or email me - graham@theknownet.com.