Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend my first "uncoference" called GeekRetreat, which took place in Stanford - a small town tucked away near the southern most tip of South Africa. Basically the GeekRetreat is an event for geeks, organised by geeks - the best way I can describe it is a high powered think tank made up of some of South Africa's best tech and web industry minds that meets with the aim of making the South African internet better. The event is filled with opportunity to learn about some very innovative ideas and projects that are happening out there as well as to get involved in future proposed projects/ideas that came out of the weekend.
The theme of this years GeekRetreat was online education , and although this was not the only topic discussed I personally came into contact with some amazing projects and ideas that I just have to share with you. Here are my highlights:
1. Stefan Magdalinski’s theft-based activism websites. Basically the idea here is that there is a lot of public information out there that isn't public when it should be. So Stefen set up a bunch of sites to deliver information to the public that was previously concealed, usually by 'stealing' it. A brilliant idea I think! Check out some of these theft-basee activism sites here:
2.
Cognician - This is a project driven by
Barry and
Patrick Kayton which has resulted in the creation of a
software based thinking guide called Cognician. The idea behind Cognician is to help you walk through a concept or a problem and
guide you in asking the right questions in order to find the best solution. The project has huge implications for education especially when it comes to teaching critical thinking and systems based thinking - I cant wait to use it myself.
3.
Personera - Not focused on the education side but
one amazing idea never the less. Personera uses the Facebook API to allow users to pull together information from their profiles (photos, birthdays, events etc.) and then gives users the opportunity to create physical personalised calendars, wallpapers and other gifts. This project is so awesome I will do a full post on it soon!
4.
P2PU - Or the Peer 2 Peer University.
A true experiment in open informal education the P2PU is one of the most inspiring projects out there. Basically P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there,
creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. This is definitely a project to watch especially since the P2PU is looking at ways of formalising the courses so you earn real credit for them!
Over all the GeekRetreat inspired me greatly - there are so many ideas out there and its always very encouraging to see people actually taking them and making them work. Once more it was brilliant to get together with such a wide variety of people all sharing their ideas, the power of which can never be underestimated.
If you would like to read more about the GeekRetreat check out the opinions from some of the other attendees:
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