Another great talk by Stephen Downes. He is working for the National Research Council, Institute for Information Technology, in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and is specialized in online learning, content syndication, and new media.

I personally love his concept or idea of “critical thinking” in the context of learning … You will find some of this idea in this presentation. Here is what Stephen says on his blog about his main ideas:

I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle.

Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be.

This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward.

In this presentation he mainly describes the concept of the internet as a form of global consciousness. He is looking at the idea of human nature as it has traditionally been represented but suggest that a more appropriate model is that of a collection of neurons. With this model he analyses what a global consciousness would look like - not collaboration, as in the organization of a company or a nation, but cooperation, as in the actions of autonomous but interdependent and connected individuals.

Here are the slides:

All the photos in the presentation are taken by Stephen himself in Linz.