Yesterday, I attended a seminar in Nottingham. The seminar is being hosted by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Their aim is the production of a Digital Equality Action Plan by Summer 2008, seeking to address the the lack of take up of digital technologies amongst certain groups. The intention to produce the Plan was mentioned in debate on Monday, this week, in the House of Lords.
What has this got to do with Conductive Education?
In my previous posting, I expressed the view that we in the international conductive community might be able to collaborate via the internet "in ways that we can barely begin to imagine". Earlier this month, too, Ben Foulger ventured some thoughts on models for conductor collaborations.
I have hesitated before making a contribution to the debate initiated by Ben. Partly this is so because I am an amateur in this rapidly expanding and changing field and partly because it would take me time (that I do not readily have) to assemble a systematic and well-thought through contribution. The best I can do in this blog posting is to indicate those areas where, in my view, there is much to talk about, enjoy and explore.
There has been a seismic shift in the way people use the World Wide Web. Terms such as “Web 2.0”, “the Read-Write web”, “the social web” and others reflect the direction of this change. Whether or not you recognise these terms, one crucial aspect of this change is collaboration. Through collaborations, “Web 2.0” has the potential not just to shift the balance of power in relationships, for instance between those who provide services and those who receive them, but to create wholly new forms of relationship. Ben began with ‘models’. My limited experience is that it is essential, first of all and from the outset, to grasp the nature and significance of this change, which actually takes quite an exercise of the imagination. For the international conductive education community, Web 2.0 offers the prospect of becoming collaborative, and thereby having impact, in ways that we are only just starting to imagine.
Most people reading this blog posting are likely, if not to be actual signed-up users, to be familiar at least to some degree with such as Facebook (which Ben proposes as one of his models), YouTube, Wikipedia (look up the entry on conductive education)and, maybe, Flickr, too - to name just some. (I signed-up with Facebook only in February this year, and somewhat warily). These are all Web 2.0 sites. Users of these sites are no longer (as with “Web 1.0”) merely passive consumers of ‘content’ but active producers. More yet, they are collaborative producers, forming groups and interacting in ‘social networks’. Blogs, wikis, podcasts – these are just some of the collaborative tools of Web 2.0. How might the international conductive education community use these tools and these sites? On Facebook, there are at least four conductive education groups. At PageFlakes, “The Conductive Web” is an attempt to assemble and to spark interaction between, conductive education blogs and bloggers.
One direction in which I would take further Ben’s first posting of his thoughts on models of a conductor community website, would be to ask about purposes. Ben’s imagined conductor community website would be for a ‘community of interest’, like-minded people getting together. One can imagination a similar community website for parents, or for those who manage conductive education centres and schools – with the advantage that such a community could be local or international as you wish. Facebook is for and about friends networking. (I have been much amused at what some of the younger members of my family get up to and share with their friends on Facebook – an eye-opener.) Facebook is fun, but I doubt it is the tool for professional – or even serious – discussion. LinkedIn, for instance, might be more appropriate, but that too is limited when it comes to discussion as a purpose.
This blog I set up initially for Paces’ People; whilst I explored how a blog might be used, to share with those at Paces some of what was pre-occupying me as Chief Executive and to see if any themes arose. However, one unexpected consequence is the interchange with other conductive education bloggers: a community is slowly forming, bouncing off each other, inviting others to join in, through their own blogs or by leaving ‘Comments’ on others’ blogs or simply sending emails – or all three.
With Paces Trustees, we have cautiously experimented with a wiki in order collaboratively to write our Strategic Plan. People did so nervously, toe-dippingly, but the result was, I have no doubt, a better draft than would have been achieved by traditional ‘paper-passing’ means. (Paces Trustees wiki is private, not in the public domain, though we might at some point make it so).
Using Mindmeister, I have, with Paces colleagues, experimented with the creation of a visual map of “Paces – from where I sit” which is in the public domain. I am working with others to test the use of NING to bring together parents of adults with learning disabilities and the Reps on the local Council Partnership Board; and doing something similar in our local community of High Green, using ELGG. I am curious as to how the “social bookmarking” tool del.icio.us coud become a virtual library of conductive education and related subjects open to all – but have not yet explored that. This might seem a lot – but each project is very small. (And they are all only experiments).
My wife, Dru, is a member of The Sheffield College team which has written and launched this February a Foundation Degree in eCommunications, jointly with Sheffield Hallam University. She is a main source of inspiration and information. For those who read, a useful book (with an educational twist) is Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson. Two weightier tomes are “The Wealth of Networks” by Yochai Benkler and “Wikinomics – How mass collaboration changes everything” by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D Williams.
What purposes do I have in mind at the moment?
One idea: I’m hoping somehow to put the whole of the capital redevelopment of Paces Campus online, to invite the world to join with us. The Computer Science Department of Sheffield University has expressed interest in helping with that, as has IT4C – IT for Communities – a not-for-profit that links IT professionals with community IT projects. I had thought of using Second Life as the vehicle for that but others have advised there are better options.
Ben might like to consider Second Life as his third potential model. It is a virtual world wholly designed by its users. There is a strong non-profit and academic presence. How fascinating it would be to mount a conductive education conference entirely within Second Life or, better yet, linking the virtual world with the real world. (This is not fantasy. It has been done already. Just not by the international conductive education community.)
One newish idea I’ve been pondering for a couple of weeks is whether we could achieve real cross-sector collaboration between all of those professionals and parents of children with, say, motor disabilities, using the resources Web 2.0 makes available? We have the technology! Finally, take a look at Patient Opinion, a project that can only happen because of Web2.0. The international conductive community could collaborate on planning campaigns; on mutually drafting documents to contribute to Parliamentary debates; on compiling examples of successful practice. We each battle alone. Let your imagination go with the flow of Web 2.0.
My apologies if this posting is not more coherent. As Ben says of his posting, it’s just a sort of ‘brain dump’. All I hope is that maybe something here sparks an idea with you. Then who knows, maybe we can collaborate on getting something going.
