Wikimania 2014

I (and a few other people ;-)) enjoyed Wikimania 2014 – which took place in London from August 8th-10th. For more details have a look at the programme. Most of the presentations to do with education took place on Saturday and included my new UAL colleague Dave White (Head of Technology-Enhanced Learning) with a provocative and thought provoking presentation entitled ‘What’s left to teach now that Wikipedia has done everyone’s homework?’ Videos of key presentations from Saturday are available at Livestream (you will need a Livestream account to view but that is free/easy to set up). A truly inspiring presentation was given by Jack Andraka ‘Citizen Scientist’ who told of his ultimately successful mission to discover a straightforward, cheap and effective test for early pancreatic cancer thereby saving lives – which he embarked upon whilst barely into his teens! He presents this awesome feat (made possible via access to open data) with an engaging and funny delivery which makes it worth watching even if you are not interested in this ground breaking work. The presentations from Clare Sutcliffe (‘Code Club’) and Emma Mulqueeny (‘Young Rewired State’) are also exciting and insightful – addressing young peoples’ engagement with the digital (and a rapidly and fundamentally changing world).