A quick pointer to some slow reading…

Via OLDaily, Norm Friesen has just posted the third installment of his “E-Learning Myths” series, this one entitled The Myth of the Knowledge Economy. It ain’t easy reading, but I wish every edublogger who has praised The World is Flat [cue sound of my teeth grinding] would take some time to reflect on Friesen’s argument:

…the question of politics and class emerge as central but obscured issues in education and educational research: The situation of one class (or of one group within that class) –savvy users of new gadgets, or those destined to become knowledge workers– is tacitly generalized to the population as a whole: educational institutions need to accommodate the characteristics of a homogenous net generation; children need to be placed on a trajectory to knowledge work. Sadly, it is not so simple.

The two earlier myth installments (The “Net Gen” Myth and Technology Drives Educational Change) will reward semi-attentive reading.

And I haven’t yet read the new International Game Developer’s Association Alternate Reality Games White Paper (sucker’s 82 pages long), but it looks like a comprehensive and highly useful overview of a slippery and confounding genre (confounding to me, at least). Via Bryan Alexander who contributed. Dr. Alexander is undoubtedly hopeful that publication of this document will stem the tide of my unceasing and senseless queries on the subject, and it probably will, at least until I finish reading it.

Oh, and since I’m typing… this collection of top podcasts on P2P issues (including David Wiley on the Open Education Movement Vicki Davis and Adam Frey on Wikis in Education, and Stephen Downes on Connective Knowledge) is certain to prove useful. A very impressive collection, again via OLDaily.