OpenU Valedictory Lecture

SBS_Valedictory_LectureOn 31st July I fly to join the University of Technology Sydney, directing the new Connected Intelligence Centre. More on that later!

Meantime, here’s the replay of yesterday’s reflections on nearly 19 years in KMi and the OU (my talk starts 10mins in). My deepest thanks to all my colleagues for the memorable send-off! Slides embedded below, or download as PDF. Read on however, for news of the KMi team who take this work forward in the OU, and for a few ‘Director’s Cut’ additions — the  clips that I was dying to show, but just couldn’t squeeze in!

The Contested Collective Intelligence research programme continues!

As well as pursuing this research in Sydney, in KMi my longstanding research fellow Anna De Liddo takes the team’s work forward, with Michelle Bachler continuing to provide the programming that has underpinned our work over the years, joined recently by Brian Plüss (research associate) on the EPSRC Election Debate Visualization Project, and Thomas Ullmann (research assistant/developer) on the EU Catalyst Project. PhD students Duygu Simsek (discourse analytics for academic writing) and Simon Knight (epistiemic commitments and collaborative online search) complete the new look team, of whom I’m very proud 🙂


Anna De Liddo

Michelle Bachler   Brian Plüss   Thomas Ullmann   Duygu Simsek   Simon Knight

Extra clips:

Tools to build the web of ideas and arguments

The EU Catalyst Project represents the current state of the art in our web apps for Contested Collective Intelligence. Check out the demo movies on our YouTube channel to see how LiteMap enables you to highlight clips of interest in source materials, and place them into an emerging summary map of the debate; DebateHub moves us beyond posting an idea to be voted on, to more careful reflection on its pros and cons; and the CI Dashboard enables you to configure views onto deliberation spaces — all based around the ‘DNA’ of reflective dialogue which I introduced: variations of Questions, Ideas, Pros and Cons. Two examples…


The Evidence Hub is a slightly different platform, architected to pool a community’s collective knowledge (as a web of ideas and arguments) about what works (and fails) in tackling pressing issues. Designed to connect researchers, practitioners, policymakers and enterprise, a Hub also geographically maps the people, projects and organisations behind those ideas. It comes with built-in analytics, alerts and report generation:

Knowledge, skills, and dispositions

A clip from the Reinventing University video roundtable on New Metrics, in which Ruth Deakin Crick introduces her work on assessing learning dispositions. You can learn more about dispositional analytics in this replayable workshop, and our conference presentation.

Video from a case study of designing authentic inquiry with explicit assessment of the above learning dispositions, in Bushfield School, Wolverton. I was delighted to be joined on Tuesday by the two Headteachers I’ve worked with closely as Chair of Governors,  Andrea Curtis and Steve Springett-McHugh, who embody the kind of vision, courage and compassion needed by school leaders today.

4 Responses to “OpenU Valedictory Lecture”

  1. Dear Simon,

    It is a great pleasure to be part of your team. You’ll be missed deeply! Wishing you outstanding years ahead in Aussie.

    D.

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