» conversations http://www.catboant.com Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:08:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 How Does the Educational System Becomes Decentralized? http://www.catboant.com/2010/03/07/how-does-the-educational-system-becomes-decentralized/ http://www.catboant.com/2010/03/07/how-does-the-educational-system-becomes-decentralized/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:53:35 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=561 Along TEDxNYED I had the chance to interview George Siemens, an influential thinker on how future educational systems might look like. Together with Stephen Downes he started more than 2 years ago the experiment “Connectivism and Connected Knowledge“.

The following list is helping you to guide through the 40 minutes conversation.

01_George_Siemens
George Siemens tagging himself

02_George_Siemens
His life in less than 3 minutes

03_George_Siemens
How can WE handle education as one of our most important FutureChallenges

04_George_Siemens
A structured model is incapable of adjusting to the individual needs of a student. learner

05_George_Siemens
Is there an urgency for change?

06_George_Siemens
Impact of social mediatool on kid’s behaviour

07_George_Siemens
Can you make friends with people you don’t know or you only “virtual”

08_George_Siemens
What social skills can kids learn with social media?

09_George_Siemens
The role of theory – technology is embedded in philosophy
Networks and connections

10_George_Siemens
Connetivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK) – An experiment

11_George_Siemens
Any surprises within this experiment?

12_George_Siemens
Is CCK a future model of learning?

13_George_Siemens
Will school buildings become obsolete?

14_George_Siemens
How do we get the educational system into this decentralized environment?

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2010/03/07/how-does-the-educational-system-becomes-decentralized/feed/ 1 Cybernetics and New Forms of Governance http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/12/cybernetics-and-new-forms-of-governance/ http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/12/cybernetics-and-new-forms-of-governance/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:31:33 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=559 Yesterday I had a brief SKYPE chat with Javier Livas, lawyer and cybernetics theorist in Mexico. Very interesting thoughts on how to run a country …

He says that the science of law is pretty much a cybernetic system which can or should be used to set up governance.

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/12/cybernetics-and-new-forms-of-governance/feed/ 1 Re-Thinking Science http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/07/re-thinking-science/ http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/07/re-thinking-science/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:52:58 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=554 At transmediale 10 I had the chance to talk to Alan N. Shapiro. It happened surprisingly, wasn’t scheduled but it ended up to become a long conversation on where science needs to go. It perfectly fits in our matrix …

Shapiro’s thoughts include to broaden science, to bring together humaniteis with biology, physics … and very clearly to leave reductionism behind!

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2010/02/07/re-thinking-science/feed/ 3 Two Stars for Peace – Invitation for a Grass Roots Movement http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/14/two-stars-for-peace-invitation-for-a-grass-roots-movement/ http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/14/two-stars-for-peace-invitation-for-a-grass-roots-movement/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:50:49 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=549 There will be no peace and terror won’t end unless the Palestine-Israel will be solved. There have been many attempts to find solutions, millions of papers have been written and the one-state and the two-state-solution have been discussed over and over again. No results! The questions occurs: Why? Maybe the politicians, those who are in charge aren’t interested in a solution?

I believe that most of the people in Israel and Palestine want nothing but peace. And to achieve this goal finally, new unusual – outside the box – approaches should be discussed seriously. Martine Rothblatt, US based lawyer and entrepreneur, offers a new approach and invites YOU all to participate. She
calls her solution “Two Stars for Peace” which is a proposed agreement for Israelis and Palestinians to secure their mutual futures by petitioning the United States Congress to become the 51st and 52nd U.S. states.

Please discuss!
You find a Hebrew and Arabic translation on the website of the book.

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/14/two-stars-for-peace-invitation-for-a-grass-roots-movement/feed/ 1 The Power of Networks http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/11/the-power-of-networks/ http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/11/the-power-of-networks/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:23:56 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=544 Peter Kruse is – at least in Germany – one of the leading figures when it comes to the questions: How are networks functioning? Why can they be so powerful? What rules are they following?
What impact do they have on society, politics, economy?

He started his career as as a hard core scientist, working as an experimental psychologist at the border of neurophysiologie. His big question was: How does the brain makes chaos in order to make order?

Later in his business career Kruse became successful in transferring the concept of how the brain is functioning into (business and social) networks. His latest work is strongly related to the Internet …

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2010/01/11/the-power-of-networks/feed/ 1 Europe Could Play A Key Role On Our Way To Become A Global Village http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/31/europe-could-play-a-key-role-on-our-way-to-become-a-global-village/ http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/31/europe-could-play-a-key-role-on-our-way-to-become-a-global-village/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:21:56 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=527 Dave Snowden, Welsh entrepreneur, was trained as a physicist and philosopher. This is why he loves Shakespeare and Einstein! His incredible background in complexity theory gives us some great insights on how to deal – and maybe solve – future challenges.

Dave’s prediction for the next decade: Europe could play a key role on our way to become a global village!

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/31/europe-could-play-a-key-role-on-our-way-to-become-a-global-village/feed/ 2 “China is going through its teenage phase …” http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/30/china-is-going-through-its-teenage-phase/ http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/30/china-is-going-through-its-teenage-phase/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:41:45 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=524 … says Qiao Li, australian-chinese filmmaker. Qiao was born in China, left with his parents when he was four years old and returned after film school 3 years ago. Since then he is living in Beijing and trying to gain ground in the chinese film market.

He gives some great insights on the young generation in China!

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/30/china-is-going-through-its-teenage-phase/feed/ 0 China/”The West”: Embrace Cultural Differences … http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/chinathe-west-embrace-cultural-differences/ http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/chinathe-west-embrace-cultural-differences/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:11:34 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=491 … respect them and learn to live with them – says Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber. She describes herself as a freelance translator. freelance project manager, organizer, someone who likes to build bridges. Ingrid first went to China 1980, shortly after China opened its doors to the West. Since then she is travelling back and forth. Speaking the language fluently and diving deep into Chinese philosophy and culture – Ingrid has gained great respect on both sides. She is truely a bridge builder.

In our conversation she gives us a very emotional and personal view on China. Our topics are:

- media/censorship in China
- Internet access
- current discourses in politics and society
- what makes the Chinese culture so unique
- why we should learn more about China
- why we should embrace and accept cultural differences

Apologies for the less-than-ideal audio and video – we did the conversation via SKYPE! Ingrid is right now in Beijing, China.

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/chinathe-west-embrace-cultural-differences/feed/ 0 We Need A Culture Of Tolerance … http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/we-need-a-culture-of-tolerance/ http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/we-need-a-culture-of-tolerance/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:13:17 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=484 … says Ayman Abdul Nour, editor in chief of all4syria.info . Ayman, born in Syria, is now living and working in Dubai. He considers himself a political activist and he is fighting for a “democratic” Syria. He is also cooperating with global voices online.

We first met in Amsterdam at picnic conference 2008 and since then we “join forces” whenever we can to build a bridge between the Arabic and the Western world.

In our conversation we were raising questions regarding:

- religion and fundamentalism
- free speech and censorship in Syria
- democracy
- how the Arabic world sees the Western world (and the other way round)
- key to success is education
- tolerance is critical for a “one world” model
- Dubai as a model for a modern Arabic world

]]> http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/27/we-need-a-culture-of-tolerance/feed/ 0 Can We Learn To Applaud Each Other? http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/22/can-we-learn-to-applaud-each-other/ http://www.catboant.com/2009/12/22/can-we-learn-to-applaud-each-other/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:05:56 +0000 ulrike http://www.catboant.com/?p=479 This is Joy Tang’s most important question! I love it! And I hope we can …

I’ve met Joy this year in August at Makers Faire in Accra, Ghana. Together with 10 students from Taiwan, who spent a month in Winneba (about 50 km west of Accra), Joy was working for oneVillage Foundation. oneVillage Foundation, founded by Joy, is a global nonprofit organization using innovative approach to deliver the power of technology and information to people in the developing countries, giving them valuable tools for building better lives. She is active in sustainable education and development, promotion of indigenous culture heritage, creation of ecotourism as social enterprise and designing appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) devices and solutions to facilitate collaboration and learning.

We had a lot of fun in Ghana as you can see here and here and I felt like I have met Joy before. Without knowing each other but having common friends and interests within our virtual network we were immediately connected. And I am very happy that Joy is joining our “conversation” …
We did the entire conversation vis SKYPE, it was early afternoon in Germany and 9 pm in Taipeh, Taiwan.

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