For many years, the only comprehensive conductive education website has been that of the Foundation for Conductive Education in Birmingham UK. Its Forum has been a compelling focus for all with an interest in discussing matters in conductive education. We have indeed reason to be grateful to those at the Foundation who have maintained the site and monitored the site's Forum. However, it is not the vibrant place it once was. Now there is a new "Forum": a new "Conductive Community".
My first response, therefore, to reading of a new "Forum" was a deep concern about the possible fracturing of the CE community - rival websites, and all that might bring. However, on reflection, I welcome the initiative, especially after reading the "open letter to the Conductive Community regarding the establishment of the Conductive Community website" from its founder Elliot Clifton.
The Foundation's Forum, in my view, has a number of problems: the most serious of which is that the Forum has almost ceased to have any credible intellectual standing, either in the quality of topics raised for discussion or in the language and attitude in the quality of postings. Having just returned from three weeks in America, that took me to Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Chapel Hill in North Carolina and Washington thanks to the Travel Fellowship funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and finding everywhere I went people keen to engage in courteous, professional and challenging discussions, returning to the Foundation's Forum was a disappointment; some contributors seem content with the unpleasantness (long a problem) and the low level of topics and discussion.
Actually, what quickly persuaded me that a new conductive education community online was worth attempting was Elliot's claim: "I take my inspiration from the success the open source software and open content movements have had in building web-based communities to share knowledge and develop collaborative projects." Elliot's interest mirrors my own: I have myself become increasingly convinced of the value of building virtual social networks and collaborations. I have experimented at Paces with using wikis to write funding applications and draft strategic plans - with some success, although it is requiring a greater commitment to training of collaborators than I expected. I am also experimenting with this blog - trying to work out what I want to use it for as CEO at Paces. I did not at all want to simply write a blog diary. I did want to communicate some of the thinking that I have exposed myself to, and share this with Paces' People, as well as anyone else who cared to be interested. I wanted it to be an exploration of ideas: around 'cerebral palsy', recent research in cognitive neuroscience, on being a charity CEO and - for the moment - thoughts arising from my Fellowship. Like Elliot, I am inspired by the potential of networks and collaborations to support and advance conductive education and have some projects - though not his technical skills - that I would like to implement. I am also inspired by my wife who is part of the team at The Sheffield College responsible for developing the multi-award-winning GCSE and A level English courses online, and who are now developing an eCommunications Foundation degree course with Sheffield Hallam University, which has involved her in close engagement with open source and web2.0 initiatives and tools - some of which has rubbed off on me. Then there is the Visioning undertaken as part of UCP's "Big Sky Project", which I will return to in another posting.
So it's 'wait and see' time. Elliot's new "Conductive Community" has been launched at the quietest point of the academic year, and there's not much yet for the visitor to engage with. Take a look; tag the new site on del.icio.us
