cj`s bit space: Home

Chris Bigum

Welcome to my bit space¹. A wee piece of digital real estate in which I keep something of a collection of the various projects on which I am working and, as I get around to it, a digital paper trail of projects past.

I am a freelance academic, something akin to a free range hen², working on the Gold Coast of Australia. Currently, I have an adjunct appointment at the Griffith Institute for Educational Research. I also do bits and pieces in Education at Griffith. I am always open to offers, paid or unpaid that are interesting!

I am interested in three things³ : Edges, Exponentials & Education. Edges: because this is where new and potentially game changing stuff happens; Exponentials: because this is the rate at which key technologies are improving⁴; Education: because in this current period of human history, it remains the most important task.

Why do I do this? I am singularly unimpressed with the way in which formal education systems (and many government bureaucracies) maintain a view that they are in control, know what is going on and know what is best for the young⁵ and learners generally. Asleep at the wheel is a phrase that comes to mind. We have to begin having debates about things like the rise and rise of automation of all kinds and what this means for preparing the young. We have to get away from the mind numbingly stupid one size fits all schooling system⁶ and begin lots and lots of experiments in doing school differently. We have to get much much better at thinking about the digital. We have to get much better at dealing with delegating work to machines.

I have 'promiscuous' reading habits ⁷ and am drawn to stuff that is outside the familiar or routine. How one makes sense of what often seems a crazy world, particularly in education, is important to me and my theory space maps the ideas and folk who have shaped much of my thinking.

If all of this has not made you close the window and you are interested in some/any of these agendas, do contact me. I promise not to bite.

Notes 1: Some might say it is more of a swamp than a space. The details of how I put this together can be found here
2: As opposed to academics who work in various battery cages (aka universities)
3: In fact, many more than three as I have tried to indicate in the other lab
4: It is also a marker for what Kelly calls the GRIN (geno, robo, info & nano) technologies which exhibit exponential growth in performance and other interesting attributes
5: I have ten year old twins and four older kids who managed to survive the inanities of the formal education systems of Australia.
6: The same applies to the notion of a national curriculum. I have written a wee rant about that.
7: As a good colleague, Donna Alvermann, once remarked.