The World is Open: or is it Flat?

Our keynote speaker for the Flat Classroom Project 2009-3 is Curtis Bonk, author of 'The World is Open'. We are delighted that Flat Classroom Projects are featured in this book and doubly delighted that Curtis agreed to present the keynote this session.

So here is: Curt Bonk's Flat Classrooms Keynote: The World is Open: Introducing the Heroes, Gurus, and Revolutionaries of the Shared Internet




Students around the world participating in the Flat Classroom Project this time have contributed their thoughts and questions on the keynote via the Ning discussion forum.

From Miller at WHS, "In this video, Dr. Bonk discusses his ideas on how the world is changing through technology. The most important key trend about Dr. Bonk's video is the idea of the world becoming open. This disagrees with Thomas Friedman's idea of the world becoming flat. He shares some similarities with Mr. Friedman by addressing that their are ten openers of the world, similar to the ten flatteners in Mr. Friedman's book. Dr. Bonk talks about many people who have shaped the technological world, and how they have done it. I would like to ask Mr. Bonk about how he classified the people he chose. What certain criteria did he go by in selecting the individuals that he chose?"

From Nevil at AHS, "The most important trend that Dr. Bonk discusses is how the online tools have become the new form of creativity and learning. Also, some of the online sources are free for the people to use. His views are very similar to Thomas Friedman’s views. For example, they both think that the web has become the new form of creativity, and it has change the way of learning. Many people around the world are collaborating (and sharing) their opinions on these great online tools. However, Friedman talks more about the flatteners, and how they have affected the world. On the other hand, Dr. Bonk talks about the openers, which are the different ways of learning. I have one question for Mr. Bonk:

How does flatteners differ from openers? Are they similar?"

In addition, recently Curtis was with Don Tapscott, author of 'Wikinomics' and 'Grown Up Digital' and collaborator with Vicki Davis and myself on the NetGenEd Project run last February to April. Here is a short video of them speaking about the flat classroom and changes in education.



So, what do you think? Is the world open? Is it flat? Is it under the influence of 'disruptive technologies' (Tapscott) such as wikis, such that education and the way we learn will never be the same?

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