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EDUC 5860: Wikimedia Speculative Fabulation/Theory Forum
• ‘As a literary genre, speculative fiction probes readers and writers to consider “provocative divergences from the norms of human biology, the conventions of human society, and the limitations of human thought” (Milburn 2012, p. 525).’ cited in SE Truman
• 'Speculative fictions describe many dystopic worlds brought on by the integration of new technologies including human-alien interspecies mating, bio-warfare, and human–machine (cyborg) integration. These dystopias are often depicted as manifesting concomitant with the global market expansion of late capitalism, hyper-media, environmental degradation, genetic engineering, and neo-Imperialism.' SE Truman
What if…? What might the future of 'education' and 'learning' look like?
Rather than read about conventional ways of using wikimedia in education, we are going to look to the opportunities of speculative fiction for collaborative world-building and for developing critical literacies (exploring the opportunities wikimedia tools while also leveraging speculative fabulation for a re/imagining of educational 'realities', or for creating encyclopedias of a future – or alternative - world).
The aim of this collaborative project is to, in small groups, engage speculative (educational) theory in order to think about possible 'educational futures’ and/or the impacts of technology, ecology, and/or other events (see Novum, Black Swan, or Covid19).
How might we examine current trends in teaching and learning, pedagogy, educational policy, technology, and media culture - and 'extrapolate' impacts, future events, and future states of affairs? Why is the work of looking forward and imagining possibility important for us, both in and beyond school context? Most importantly, how does 'speculative' educational theory help us imagine possible futures (to hopefully eventuate ... or cautiously avoid).
In small groups (3-4 people), using the readings, models and resources in class (or beyond class), you will be imagining a possible future of education via 'science fiction' storytelling. What do you imagine it will feel like to learn in the future? What will ‘teaching’, ‘schooling’ or ‘learning’ look like (if current challenges and problems are not deal with, or if new “innovations” or technologies or pedagogies applied? For example, will we learn alone, in a community, in what contexts/roles? What will be the role of technology in learning – in relation to pedagogy? What will be the fate of (current) institutions?
Be sure to include contextualizing details for your world-building (Where/when is this imagined world taking place).
Ensure that your alter/future world-building ‘extrapolates'
Expectations: Use science/speculative fiction world-building techniques and processes of extrapolation (covered in class) to imagine the future of education. To begin, you need to identify the larger/over-reaching problems facing education, schools and youth today – and then consider a future condition or “state of affairs” in relation to the challenges or current problems, challenges, or opportunities – be them, sociocultural, ecological, institutional (schools, politics, workplaces), pedagogical and/or technological. Consider the conditional term: “What if …?” Revisit concepts like ‘Extrapolation’ and the Novum ) And feel free to explore the specific critical affordances of both dystopian and utopian and heterotopian modes of storytelling to make a critical point about learning, schooling, education, and technology today, through looking into the ‘mirror’ of possible futures.
Optional Genres or Conceits: In construction your alternative or future world, consider using – or mixing – genres like:
• Wikipedia ‘encyclopedic’ mode for telling your story through Wikimedia conventions. • A wiki museum of ‘found artefacts (e.g., presenting documents like memoir, diary, maps, photos, news-clippings, etc ‘taken’ from that alternative history/future) • Literary modes: Third person or embodied First-Person narrative accounts (e.g., through ‘the eyes’ of someone living in this imagined world). • Mix up these genres – or devise variations – or figure out a new way to present your world/story.
Counterfactual History Option: A historical ‘what if’ (twisting the past) that changes our present (= we live in an alternative timeline in the present). The most famous counterfactual historical point of departure: “What if Nazi Germany won WWII”? Consider an educational counterfactual (e.g., What if Edgerton Ryerson opposed, instead of promoted, cultural genocide through residential schooling systems?)
Formal Expectations:
Genre: See above. Up to you as a group to use one or more genres - or decide on how to mix up genres.
Length: Minimum 1500-2000 words (for a three person group).
• ‘Alternative futures affectively inspire readers to speculate on what needs to be done in the present to arrive at an alternative future’ - S.E. Truman.
• Truman states: SFs offer us generative practices for imagining a different future, but they must be grounded in 'response-ability' for the worlds we inherit and create. Just keep this in mind as you being to speculate and do world-building.
To start editing this wiki, just login and hit "edit". Here is a Video Wikimedia Tutorial that can help you: https://vimeo.com/200086367
But basically, to create a new page, you just use the two brackets example and click "save page".
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