The UCISA Conference is in Glasgow this year, and just having an introduction from Magnus Magnusson (of Mastermind fame), and also Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University.

The theme of the conference is 21st Century, and in the first section, talking about 21st century e-learning.

One of the themes MM is drawing out is the exponential growth in ‘knowledge’ (which he regards as consildated body of information). This seems to strike at the heart of ‘education’. Not only is there now an incredible amount of knowledge to sift through, but the growth of the internet means a lot of this knowledge is available to us reasonably instantaneously.

So – for University educators there seem to be two ways to go. We can concentrate of guided reading/education, and invest in systems that allow the tutors to deliver this, OR invest in skills which allow students to find information and assess it critically.

Of course, there is always a balance, and by suggesting it is a choice between one and the other, I’m being simplistic. However, there do seem to be some questions about where best to invest our effort.

MM just referred to education as ‘a way of integrating learning and living’ – quite like this idea.

MM just said that education depends on the quality of the teacher – reflecting that education is about ‘leading out’ what is already in the student, not putting something in (references to “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and the latin derivation of ‘education’)

Quite a good introduction to the conference. One thing of interest is to reflect whether we could have got the same experience in an online environment. My guess is not – it would be very difficult to get the same feeling of a personal address online. However, I can see some possibility for online debate around the ideas presented – its a shame the conference hasn’t provided this facility.

Also worth noting that I wrote this as I listened to the talk, but had to wait to blog it, as getting the wireless network to work was a pain (I needed to get a special piece of paper with an ‘access code’, and also had problems as it only works via a proxy server. By the time I got the wireless access working, I was almost out of battery power – no power points in the main hall either.