Wikiworld - Commons and Education

A multidisciplinary project for learning about and living in the commons, especially with regard to education, open information society, peer collaboration, anonymous collectivism and so on. In the digital world of learning there is a progressive transformation from the institutionalized and individualized forms of learning to radically open learning and collaboration.

The project has also a page in the Finnish-language Wikiversity [1].

Scope

The project for students and researchers who are interested in liberal and critical adult education and community education, public sociology, (global) civil society, participatory learning and peer production, collective expertise, new digital commons, media education -- all pointing towards an emerging open information society and forms of life-long learning. The project aims at Zeitgeist analysis and practical interventions through learning by doing.

Organization

Part of the project actualizes in the meatspaces of Tampere University. In addition to the courses taught by the various departments, a common seminarium is held during the terms, connecting students and researchers preparing research work or BA and MA theses on relevant topics. These courses can be taken individually or as a concentrated part of education studies (Department of Education) and information studies (Dept. of Information Studies and Interactive Media)

Keywords

Copyleft society, wikiworld, peer-to-peer, collaboration, collectivism, critique of digital collaboration, open information society, commons, information society, peer collaboration, digital commons and copyleft society, lifelong learning & collaborative media, informal learning, politics, popular education (adult education), information science, media studies, political economy, cultural studies, ideologue critique, e-learning, wikipedagogy

Topics

By the commons we refer, following Žižek, to "the commons of culture, the immediately socialized forms of "cognitive" capital, primarily language, our means of communication and education, but also the shared infrastructure of public transport, electricity, the postal system, and so on; the commons of external nature, threatened by pollution and exploitation (from oil to rain forests and the natural habitat itself); the commons of internal nature (the biogenetic inheritance of humanity); with new biogenetic technology, the creation of a New Man in the literal sense of changing human nature becomes a realistic prospect." ^[1]