My Earthcast09 Presentation

Earth Cast09

View more presentations from Minhaaj Rehman.

I have given this presentation on Global Warming and Sustainable development issues on Earthcast09 arranged by Matt Montagne and Webcasting team on 22nd April, 2009. It was a pleasure to join and listen to earthcastathon. We've had students from Shangai, Barcelona, Portual and US talk about issues concerning earth and environment. Keynote by Jason Czarnezki was a great opportunity for most of us to know things about global warming that we didn't know we don't know. His work on sustainability and issues relating to environment is phenomenal and hes probably the most influential and youngest researcher on such issues.

I would like to thank Cristina, Andreas, Jeff, Doug, Drew Buddie, Vance, Peggy, Sheila , Lisa Parisi, Linda, Joao, Angie from GatorRadio and her fellows, students in Shanghai, Barcelona, China and Portugal for making this event a mega success (with apology to people I've missed and who matter as much as these and without whom this event would have been impossible.). It was phenomenal and reiterates the importance of collaboration, border-less compassion and humanity that we share as human beings. I think time has come when we create meaningful relationships from online sphere that transcends human biases, restrictions of time, laws and personal differences.

I have recently been trying to analyze learning theories online and am in a process of formulating and synthesizing these ideas into a semantic form without restrictions and formalities of academic complexities that hinder the process of learning. In this regard i'd like to mention academic endeavors that've inspired me. I personally am of opinion that theories and philosophies should be ranked below practical work and research outcomes and i am not keen on abstract theories like Connectivism.

I would like to mention Etienne Wenger's Community of Practice, Nancy White's learning model found in her Slideshare Presentations, Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, Alec Couros's Sherpas, Leigh Blackall's open access courses, David Wiley's work on open licensing, free cultural works and recently his controversial statement on 'Universities will be irrelevant by 2020', to an extent Downes's work on nature of networks, groups and communities although i detest his incomprehensibility, irrelevance and impractical philosophizing on educational issues, 'derivatives' of Connectivism courses seen on participants's blogs and NOT the actual theory which is something i strongly disagree with.

More influences come from works of Scott Lesile, Konrad Glogowski (fabulous), Vance Stevens (Multiliteracies and CALL), Sharon Betts (work in Africa), Jo Kay, Kip Boahn, Nergiz Kern, in Second Life, Terry Anderson (a little academically snob though, something pretty common in Canuck academics IMO or maybe academics overall, i don't know!),   Howard Rheinghold (Author of Smart Mobs and probably the most insightful social media theorists alive), Larry Sanger (Citizendum), Debra Hoven (Technology in English Teaching). Some Webheads have done some immensely extensive work primarily in ESL domain e.g Rita Zeinstejer, Robert Squires, Dafne, Carla Arena, Susan Nyrop, Ibrahim, Dennis Newson, Aiden Yeh and alot of people i can't recall at the moment. I am leaving out biological, economical and social theorist like Max Weber, Maslow, Marx, Darwin and Adam Smith which can be seen more or less contributors to our overall view of how we see world around us.

It would be futile to sum up and pile up my cognitive recountances here and all the literature i've assimiliated through years but there is something i have learned from these influences. I have left theorisizing and deducing meanings from these works to individuals. Any theories which don't help in practical endeavors is practically irrelevant and should be discarded in favor of pragmatic action research. Nature of learning is beyond human understanding and i am of view that learning styles of masses is as diverse as DNA patterns. Technology has given us this serendepitious privilege of pedagogical freedom. Where people can choose their learning styles and opt their own tools. Theorisizing and standardizing curriculum is going back to our own restrictive roots and academic absurdities. I have my own ideas and from time to time i've predicted some of the events that would change  future of learning, technology and nature of collaboration between humans, which now people are witnessing as reality. I would like to relate to David Wiley's 'heresay' about 2020 as one of my own hunches from my writings, shared items and comments in the past and work 'against' copyrights. I have discussed this extensively with academics e.g Leigh blackall and through my comments on people's work e.g. Alec Couros, Dave Cormier. I hate to document that on my blog in form of a theory which is highly spoken of in our times which is something i'm heretic to. I am glad to see things drifting in the direction of my own projection of how social media and humanity will proceed.

I would avoid projections and prophesizing of humanity and educational trends watsoever like Downes and other 'bandwagon' academics which would make me exactly that i've stood against. I have always indentified myself as a 'facilitator' as opposed to teacher and this is how i identify myself when it comes to social media and learning  theories, someone who aggregates the knowledge without commenting on the nature of knowledge itself, which i believe should be left to the nodes of this uncontrollable network, which are individuals themselves.