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Posts Tagged ‘conference’

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Towards Knowledge Commons

In Design on November 1, 2011 at 12:27 pm

I promptly fell ill once my conference obligations at MobilityShifts wrapped up, which makes me extremely grateful for the fact that all the panels were audio-recorded. They promise that everything will be up about a month after the conference, so I look forward to listening to all the sessions I missed!

Both the panel with my fellow critical making colleagues and the workshop with Kiku Day were instructive as well as inspiring. Questions from the audience during the panel reaffirmed my desire to pursue work in the area of music knowledge transmission and preservation, while the workshop solidified for me a research trajectory to pursue outside of a university setting, as well as connecting researchers with similar interests to share their experiences and pool their resources. Sincerely thanks to everyone that came out, asked good questions, and even bought a PVC shakuhachi by the end of the workshop!

I also contribute a lot of the inspiration to one of the few sessions I did catch, which was Matt Gold’s session on “Open Education: The University and The Commons”. It got me excited thinking about the kinds of “knowledge commons” I’m imagining.

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Self-Directed & DIY Learning

In My Work on October 9, 2011 at 10:13 pm


I’m in New York at the moment, preparing to chair a panel at the MobilityShifts conference with fellow Faculty of Information graduates representing the Critical Making Lab. It is uncanny how our three research projects ultimately touched on common themes despite our wildly different research approaches. Perhaps the apple does not fall far from the tree, but this panel is going to be interested in discussion the differences, the similarities, and most important, how it relates to two of the conference themes: DIY University (why not just learning in general?) and Digital Fluencies for a Mobile World (how big is this ‘world’we are talking about?).

We’re going to have more questions than answers, it’ll be the first time we’ve all spoken about our research since defending, and we are all going to bring something different to the discussion. Learning happens anywhere and at anytime, and the three contexts that we look at will give some interest contexts to discuss questions and concerns that the conference participants will surely have.

I’ve staked out a place to get my coffee and croissant before it all starts, and the summer-like weather will certainly help with getting me out of bed early. Not looking forward to rush-hour subway.

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The world at St. John’s

In My Work on July 15, 2011 at 8:57 pm

The presentation yesterday went pretty well. It was a small but engaged crowd, with many familiar faces and some great new colleagues. As always, putting ideas out there was a great way to strike up conversations with others, and learning about other people’s work. Experiencing a gathering of people from all corners of the globe has been both enlightening and humbling. I am especially excited about some of the new canadian colleagues I have met. I am forever indebted to Prof. Beverley Diamond (co-chair of local arrangements with Prof. Kati Szego and the inspirations behind Memorial University’s Research Centre for Music, Media and Place) for recommending that I submit a proposal when we met last year at BFE 2010. It’s funny how unplanned connections draw you down a path you never dreamed of walking down. I won’t promise anything, but I will do my best to write up some of my thoughts and some of the most interesting sessions that I have sat in.

I have to note once again that this was an extremely well organized conference. Maybe Newfoundlanders are just used to organizing music-related gatherings of this size, but what a team and what a city to be Canadian hosts to the world. Heck, they made me feel so welcomed, I want to come back and explore the rest of the province!

I am going to take the “excursion day” tomorrow to soak in more of the wonderful people at this place, and do my own job as Canadian host by showing people around. And if I am lucky, I will get to see the sun rise over Cape Spear before I leave, like I wanted to when I was here almost ten years ago exactly.

May there be a clear sky on Sunday morning.

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