Had a great show today with Will Richardson and Stephen Downes on Edtechtalk. They were very interesting, brought up some great points, and really quite a coup for us to have them on the show today. The thing that struck me the most was how nice they were. This is something that I have found consistently inside the blogging community (so far), everyone is willing to listen. They are willing to let people make mistakes. In talking about the software they like, and don’t like, they are always respectful of the work that people have done, whether it’s by Microsoft or billy joe rubberboot from down the street.
The other thing that struck me (and i mean in terms of personalities, they said lots of tech and ed things that struck me, but I’m going to need more time to process that) was their talk of the roles that they fill inside the community. Stephen as researcher and philosopher and Will as teacher and practitioner. I didn’t explain it very well during the show but I can’t help but think that these two groups NEED to come together to produce ‘official’ material that can trickle down to the public that isn’t ‘wired in’. An invitation with the authority of the academic and the wisdom of the practitioner…
