Category: talks
I was invited to speak at an olpc panel for the conference, and I was going to offer a few thoughts on what it means to live and learn in the age of multiple mobilities. But, then, i got real sick and I couldn't attend. So, here goes a short abstract, as well as the URL of a related talk: I sent both to Lidet Tilahun, who kindly invited me, for distribution. I sure will miss an extraordinary event :(
People today are spending ever more time, not in a specific location but on the move from one place to another. Alias, even people who never went places are constantly on the go. How is this "nomadic" lifestyle —a new blend of physical, virtual, and digital trajectories and ties— affecting the ways today's youngsters (often referred to as digital natives) play and learn, see themselves, relate to others, use space, and treat things? I stress the importance of "third places": informal settings between home and school/work, in which youngsters can explore and enact otherwise "dangerous" ideas, through personal and collective expression. Like Winnicott's "transitional" zones, third places offer safe stages for identity-formation and world-making. I identify some of the qualities conducive to transformative experiences through shared creative expression. I reflect on the power of digital to augment people's sense of being-in-the-world by tying private and public, local and global, actual and possible in novel ways.
People today are spending ever more time, not in a specific location but on the move from one place to another. Alias, even people who never went places are constantly on the go. How is this "nomadic" lifestyle —a new blend of physical, virtual, and digital trajectories and ties— affecting the ways today's youngsters (often referred to as digital natives) play and learn, see themselves, relate to others, use space, and treat things? I stress the importance of "third places": informal settings between home and school/work, in which youngsters can explore and enact otherwise "dangerous" ideas, through personal and collective expression. Like Winnicott's "transitional" zones, third places offer safe stages for identity-formation and world-making. I identify some of the qualities conducive to transformative experiences through shared creative expression. I reflect on the power of digital to augment people's sense of being-in-the-world by tying private and public, local and global, actual and possible in novel ways.
