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EDUC 3610: Wikimedia Speculative Theory Forum
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 while re/imagining educational 'realities' and futures.
What if…? What might the future of 'education' and 'learning' look like?
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 social events.
How might we examine current trends or states-of-affairs in the world today (technology-driven, political, environmental, etc) and take a look at current trends in education, teaching/learning, pedagogy, policy, technology use, and media culture - and then 'extrapolate' to imagine possible futures, and educational realities? How does a 'speculative' educational theory help us imagine futures and think critically about the present?
What will ‘teaching’, ‘schooling’ or ‘learning’ look like? What will be the role of technology in learning – in relation to pedagogy? What will be the fate of (current) institutions and roles? How might innovations in AI (artificial intelligence), virtual reality, or other media tools reshape schools or learning outside of schools.
In small groups (4 people), using the models/resources from class, you will be imagining a possible future of (or alternative world) for via 'science fiction' storytelling.
Expectations: Use the world-building techniques, extrapolation, and Novum, etc, (covered in class) to imagine some future world of education and or learning.
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.
Tip: Consider the conditional term: “What if …?”
Tip: Revisit concepts like ‘Extrapolation’ and the Novum -- and think about how these ideas work in film or literature (e.g., Handmaids Tale, Matrix, Black Mirror, etc).
Tip: You can start anywhere or with anything: with a technology (e.g., VR, Siri, 'robots', surveillance, bio-genetics, AI, social media, algorithmic culture, Mars colonization, etc) - or you can start with significant pedagogical and social justice challenges (diversity, inclusion, equity, and so on).
Tip Have fun with genre conventions like time travel or counter-factual history (alternative pasts).
Consider critical literary tools that have been used throughout the history of utopian/dystopian art and literature: satire and irony.
Be sure to include contextualizing details for your world-building (Where/when is this imagined world taking place).
Optional Genres or Narrative Conceits: In constructing your alternative or future world, consider using – or mixing – genres like:
• Wikipedia ‘encyclopedic’ mode for telling your story through Wiki discourse conventions.
• A wiki museum of ‘found artefacts' (e.g., present documents like memoir/diary, maps, photos, news-clippings, text messages, social media posts, etc ‘taken’ from that alternative history/future).
• Literary Modes: Third Person or embodied First-Person narrative accounts (e.g., through ‘the eyes’ of people 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 2500 MAX! (for a four person group). Add some images that show aspects of the world, or reflect key themes, technologies, ideas, etc.
• If connecting with, or extrapolating on, course theory is useful, then please us readings to inform your vision.
• Ensure that your world-building either ‘extrapolates' in ways that help us think critically about the present; cautions us to (dystopain) perils embedded in our present world/system, and/or 'invite readers to speculate on what needs to be done in the present to arrive at an alternative future'.
• Try to have some fun! And don't worry if it gets weird, out there, that is fine.
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