Valedictory Lecture

In 1968 Doug Engelbart gave “The Mother of All Demos”: a disruptive technology lab had quietly invented the mouse, collaborative on-screen editing, hyperlinks, video conferencing, and much more. This was the start of the paradigm shift, still unfolding: computers were no longer to be low level number crunchers, but might mediate and mould the highest forms of human thinking, both individual and collective. In this talk I review nearly 19 years in KMi chasing this vision with many colleagues, inventing tools for making dialogue, argument and learning processes visible in different ways. How do we harness such tools to tackle, not aggravate, the fundamental challenge facing the educational system, and its graduates: to think broadly and deeply, and to thrive amidst profound uncertainty and complexity? These are the hallmarks of the OU — and indeed, all true education from primary school onwards.

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