XplanaZine

Here’s a summary of ideas and conversations from the edublogging community that have captured our attention in the past 48 hours.

Miguel Guhlin calls upon the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to talk about addressing the “totalitarian states” that are our educational systems. How do we stand up to them? How do we appropriately challenge their authority to effect the change we believe in? All good questions and, while the comparisons between the state of educational technology today and the plight of Christians in Nazi Germany may seem farfetched, Bonhoeffer’s prescription seems both timely and apropos. Brian Crosby reacts to Miguel’s post and puts it this way. “The early adopters of project-based. Educational technology driven learning are like those that Bonhoeffer saw disappear early on in the Nazis rise to power when they questioned things. They saw the power of changing paths but were swept out of the way as an impediment to progress. Wasn’t NCLB promoted that way?” As Brian says, “Learning is messy!” Finally, Guhlin follows up with several more posts on the concept of disobedience.

Ray Cha over at if:book has a lengthy response to David Rejeski’s call for a Corporation for Public Gaming.

“My main contention with Rejeski’s call is his focus on the final product or
content, in this case, comparing a video game with a television program. His
analogy fails to recognize the equally important components of the medium,
production and distribution. If we look at video games in terms of production,
distribution as well as content, the allocation of government resources envision
a different outcome. In this analysis, a more efficient use of funds would be
geared towards creating tools to create games, insuring fair and open access to
the network, and less emphasis funded towards the creation of actual games.”

I agree with Cha’s emphasis on tools rather than end products. We have passed beyond the days of a centralized content providers and have entered the time when ever person expects to have the means of production at his/her disposal.

Remember a recent report that said only 1% of people actually listened to podcasts? Well, Vicki Davis has a nice post on what it will take for the podcasting audience to grow.