Here

I know where I am: I am in Crediton. However, since I spend a great deal of my time running up and down the M5 between 'here' and Bristol, and up and down the A303 between 'here' and Surrey/South London, I often feel confused about where 'here' is. The situation is complicated further by broader notions of 'here': do I think of here as a place (and a time) or do I relate it to other identities - opinions, networks, experiences, etc? If I tell someone I know where they are coming from, where do I think they've been? Last term one of my Year 11s asked me - cautiously - "Where are you from, sir?" I glibly replied that I live 200 metres from the school gates. "Yes, she said, but you're not from here, are you?" I know what she means if I am truthful and in one of my rare non-evasive moods. I often want to know where someone is from, and I want the answer to make GPS sense. I wonder why.

The other day I realised that my MOT was about to expire so I wandered round to the garage to see Mark. He also does a side-line in funerals. He told me about a fire that had happened in the town in my customary absence beyond the A303. I walked home and found more information about the fire on Twitter. I noticed that the tweet came from someone who is currently attending UEA where my latest child will be going. I went next door to thank our neighbour for looking after our cat and we discussed her extended family network in Crediton. This prompted me to phone my daughter in Bristol to inquire after her and my grandson. 

I suppose what I am teasing out is what do I mean by 'here'? Is it a place? Is it external to ourselves? Is it something frozen within? Is it a portable environment like a burka?

What prompted these ramblings was reading about MOOCs (massive open online courses) and their potential to give everyone access to the education they want. You can't be against these really (although some professors are) because they have such a broad definition. Even Hitler wasn't against something as broad as 'freedom'.

There is a great deal I would like to explore and develop in terms of 'communities of learning' and personal learning networks, but I will, for the moment, express my views in negative, destructive terms: I would like to see universities destroyed as 'suck in, spit out' institutions. I want to see them as part of the web of learning, not castles guarding its highways. I want to have no one attending full time courses physically 'at' universities until they are 26 at least. I want to see universities inter-relating with and serving the learning networks. These networks will thrive on conversations, tweets, blogs, etc. I want learning to be like a great sloshing around of wise water that ebbs and flows through universities. I am glad that Pearson will be 'teaching' degrees in its offices. I teach (and learn) anywhere. I want Tesco to offer a 'value' range of bite-size education that can be 'consumed' between the beans and the frozen desserts. Long live horizontal, punk learning, I say.