I’ve just arrived at ALT-C in Leeds after attending a 24-hour meeting run by Lawrie Phipps. Usually I feel very flat after this sort of event, but just now I am buzzing with excitement and ideas.
This was essentially an unstructured event in which like-minded people were given the space to chat about their thoughts and share ideas. And it really did involve being given space – there was no agenda, no plan, we didn’t have to feed back to other groups, people could dip in and out when they wanted and we could talk as long as we liked. So myself, Dave White, Andrew Middleton, Simon Ball, and a few others who popped in and out, spent a whole day kicking round ideas around game-inspired learning environments, the integration of virtual, real and alternate worlds, and the potential of mobile technologies.
In all, an excellent, truly participant-centered event. Watch this space for the paper…
How did this happen?! I wish I could bottle what happened in making this Meeting 2.0 so ground breaking in terms of organised events. The spontaneous and highly creative discussions were really rewarding, personally and in terms of what we produced. Several days later (and despite further intense submersion at ALT-C) I’m still buzzing about what we achieved. Great to meet you, Dave, Simon et al and even greater (!) to find myself developing a fantastic paper with people who had been strangers just the day before. Let’s hope this sets a new way for JISC to facilitate innovation in UK HE.