Ideas Forum 2009: Re-cap

In Toronto on May 21, 2009, the Ideas Forum brought together a diverse group of participants, both on site and by remote access. Here’s a re-cap of what was on their minds.

The 2009 Ideas Forum re-cap is also available as a PDF (2.79 MB).

Big Ideas!

We started with a panel discussion led by Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda, with Rob Dowler, Chief Corporate Strategist, Ministry of Government Services; Annie Kidder, Executive Director of People for Education; Jeff Trzeciak, University Librarian, McMaster University and a talk by Mike Ridley, CIO & Chief Librarian, University of Guelph, who offered us their...Big ideas!

Rob Dowler: highlighted that access to broadband is critical to ensuring equity of access, that learning is less about memorizing facts and more about assessing and analyzing information and synthesizing it as it applies to real world situations. He emphasized the importance of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Rob cautioned that in an age where information is easy to find and assemble, people need to learn to take the time to scrutinize and authenticate what is good information. He also noted that emerging tools provide the opportunity to present content in differing ways that reflect the learning styles of different users.

Annie Kidder: stressed the importance of context rather than simply content. She noted that in some respects talk of 21st century literacies is a return to earlier ages in which knowledge was more clearly grounded in a cultural and historical context. One key difference is that new social media tools offer ways for communities to think together and share with the rest of the world. Annie noted the need to recognize, value and encourage different intelligences and expressions of creativity. Part of shifting our concepts of schooling and learning is changing the idea of the library as an integrative element in facilitating collaboration. She noted that only 2% of students use e-learning and that broadband still isn’t available throughout the province. She challenged KO to help break down the barriers to collaboration across sectors and institutions. Collaboration is key to understanding the possibilities of libraries.

Jeff Trzeciak: noted that the content-in-context idea argues for libraries to learn from the experience of museums in developing curated content. In an age of ubiquitous information, context and meaning are critical. He signalled that visual depictions of data will become much more important in teaching and conveying complex patterns and ideas. Jeff asserted that as the role of librarians shifts from transaction-based work to collaboration-based work, librarians are needed more than ever to work directly with teachers and faculty. There needs to be fuller appreciation of different ways students learn and how to respond to these in learning environments. He called on public and academiclibraries to work together to better meet the needs of the communities they serve.

Mike Ridley’s: observations helped to provide context, and served to propel the discussion into the next section of the day. He challenged us to embrace what he termed the emerging “Age of Imagination.” He called on us to harness the transformative potential of what Knowledge Ontario represents by broadening our collaboration to include active engagement of users at the grassroots. Mike asserted that at its core, Knowledge Ontario is about fostering a culture of creativity and innovation in all of its work, and acting as an “innovation engine” and ideas broker. He noted that we are moving into a world of smart information, built on social networks and a participatory architecture, where knowledge, like music, is about “the space between the notes.” In other words, the contexts, relationships, and situated meanings that give depth and coherence to the information. Knowledge Ontario needs to focus on acting as an incubator, catalyst, platform builder and dialogue leader, to create the tool sets, work benches, and ways of collaborating to support this future, which as he sees it, is a society of engaged citizens and active problem-solvers. See the full video of Mike Ridley’s insightful presentation on the KO Ideas Ning site.

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Emerging Ideas

Next came the consulting groups who offered up these...Emerging ideas!

1. Create a statement of principles, values and beliefs that can be endorsed by constituent groups, associations, etc. and that indicate a sense of commitment and ownership.
2. In terms of board governance:
   • Separate the management/constituency based board from a “rainmaker” foundation board,
   • Broaden representation so the board is less about libraries,
   • Shift constituency engagement/accountability to another vehicle freeing up the board to be more strategically focused on funding, alliances and partnerships.
3. In terms of funding and cost-sharing:
   • Develop viable cost-sharing models where library and other sectors contribute roughly 1/3 of total costs,
   • Focus efforts on exploring options to secure funding from foundations, corporations and other non-governmental sources.
4. Make Knowledge Ontario an enabler of social knowledge creation for people and communities; a platform designed to unleash the creativity and imagination of a community of learners.
5. Create a series of iKnow applets that offer a consistent branded identity and raise the visibility of Knowledge Ontario. Promote KO as an innovator, focused on delivering leading-edge services that build digital literacy, are easy to use, can be personalized, and deliver equity of access to digital tools and resources.
6. Broaden the context of Knowledge Ontario’s work beyond libraries and into communities, engaging a broader set of actors, including end users.
7. Reshape Knowledge Ontario’s role to engage directly with people as end users, digital citizens, and create communities of interest by fostering meeting spaces.

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SLAMs, tweets and other notes from you...

More than 100 people participated in discussions we set up on Library Networking Group (LNG), Ning and in three Twitter SLAMs hosted in April.

Three key idea clusters:

• Re-imagining our schools as learning environments focused on collaborative groups,
• Making greater use of gaming, simulations and immersive learning environments,
• Transforming discovery into an increasingly visual and personal space supported by “sense making” tools that provide context and discover meaning.

Re-imagining our schools will involve working in groups, in a situated context, with a focus on collaboration and problem solving, building shared narratives. This task must incorporate multiple intelligences in an inclusive, participatory way of learning that builds communities of engaged, creative, critical thinkers.

Learning environments that share the characteristics of well designed games and simulations hold great promise for building the skills needed by 21st century learners. It is learning by doing. Learning by design.

At the Ideas Forum itself, a number of additional themes also emerged:

• Promoting the development of active, engaged citizens,
• Strengthening KO as both knowledge broker and generator of platforms for collaboration,
• Re-thinking the role of Ontario’s libraries as knowledge hub and context shaper, bringing information together in new ways that support critical thinking and sense making,
• Providing all people and communities with the tools to enable them to tell their stories digitally, and,
• Work as part of a broader network of community information and referral services to leverage and extend capabilities, build community assets and capacities, and support both civic engagement and service innovations.

Strengthening platforms for collaboration is at the heart of much of what KO seeks to accomplish. Sometimes this takes the form of technology platforms, as in the case of the community digitization and portal web services of Our Ontario, sometimes it is about service innovation and leveraging capacity as in the case of Ask Ontario and Connect Ontario. In the next few months, we plan to re-engage participants and our extended community of stakeholders, as we think through the implications of moving forward on these ideas. We invite you to join the conversation.

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