Sep 25, 2008
The workshop model - evolved?
Here I am again, preparing a workshop. I have been thinking about this workshop since I was asked by the client (SILBA, a Danish organization that does seminars, workshops, election observations and other activities in several ex-USSR countries) if I wanted to do this quite a while ago, and I have been writing on my Powerpoint Presentation for it for a few weeks now, on/off.
My thoughts have gone to - among other things - my experiences holding talks about videoblogging/new media in Sarajevo in 2005, and my seminar about New Media in Georgia this last summer.
Since I started getting involved at my university during my study years in 1998 I have attended or organized quite a few seminars, workshops, meetings, trainings. My frustration has been pretty constant with all of these. ‘Where is the follow-up?’. ‘What are the results?’ ‘How do we connect the dots from here?’.
I intend to make this workshop in Vilnius different. I don’t have high hopes, but I will make a more conscious attempt at it.
I feel that workshops should evolve along with the way we consume media has evolved. In a time of Facebook, Youtube, LiveJournal and Twitter - how can we let the workshop model draw more on the strengths of these media outlets while keeping its own identity as an individual ‘event’? I mean: The workshop is supposed to be the arena for most of the learning, but surrounding that ‘media’ there are to be clusters. One of those clusters could be the dissemination of the material from the workshop. In my case: The final powerpoint presentation. Supporting material.
But there is also the question of participatory learning, which I have been thinking about a lot the last days, since I learned about this competition.
I don’t have any answers or conclusions yet, but I am working on this as we speak and I will finish the .ppt tomorrow friday or at the latest this weekend.
What do you think is happening to the workshop model these days? Is it evolving?
Edit:
My questions here are really:
* How does our learning change as our media consumption changes?
* How do you teach videoblogging for someone who lives in a very different political climate? My temporary conclusion is that the human story is to be at the centre. Storytelling.