This evening, I participated in DU's Bridges to the Future event over at the Newman Center. Bridges is a community outreach effort (among many) of the University of Denver, and it brings in prominent speakers on topics relevant to the theme of each year. This year's theme is education, and tonight's program was about technology in education. So the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at DU asked me to bring a poster presentation on the my use of Wikis in Administrative Law. Here is a picture of my table:
There seemed to be a lot of interest in the attendees (of which there were about 75-100) for Wikis in Education. I had a lot of interesting conversations, including one with Jerry Wartgow, the former Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools (and now Interim Dean at DU's College of Education), and retired Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Peter Ney.
But the highlight of the evening for me was the keynote speaker, Steven Johnson, the author of Everything Bad is Good for You (and several other interesting books). I found his talk to be both interesting and inspiring. I think he gets a bit of a bad rap about that book - as if he said that video games - even the violent ones, and pointless shoot-em-up ones - are OK, and even good for our children. But he did not say that - and clarified this point tonight. Instead, his view is that some of the complex simulation games - such as Sim City, Civilization and Spore - are often very good for our children because they immerse them in complex worlds that are far more interesting and challenging than many things that are going on in their schooling. More on this can be seen in the video of his appearance on The Daily Show when the book came out.
At the end of the talk, he was signing his new book, The Invention of Air, about the scientist Joseph Preistly and his role in the founding of our country. A fascinating book in its own right, although a bit further afield from "Everything Bad..." Anyway, I had the honor of giving him a copy of my book, and he was very gracious in receiving it.
I am going to check out his blog, and follow Steven more closely. I think he is a fascinating guy, and very smart.
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