Why Not Record It All?
 |
| photo by Dustin Baxter via flickr |
Both of the presentations were so rich that I know I would benefit from being able to review them again. I just had the chance to speak with Malcolm Murray, one of the conference organizers about why the keynotes are not recorded.
Although there are some issues with copyright and licensing that arise with the use of borrowed images and embedded youtube videos, Malcolm suggested a deeper reason as well. The act of recording changes behaviours. Not only does it have the potential to greatly expand the size of the audience, it can also have an inhibiting effect discouraging speaking freely and being critical. So going off the record can contribute to special type of environment, especially in today's world of near ubiquitous surveillance.
I actually heard in mentioned in a session here that a University is considering recording all lectures by default and making them available to the students. While there is an obvious benefit in for the student's access to the lectures, would it truly be outweighed by the potentially stifling effects?
So, while it's a loss that these keynotes will not be widely shared as video recordings, perhaps they were of a higher quality for taking place in this "special" type of environment. I'll take some time to reflect on them here in the future as will many of the other attendees I'm sure.
In the mean time, here's a sample from Ray Land:
As you say, "The act of recording changes behaviours." Recording every aspect of a lecture, including audience questions and comments, risks stifling discussion. "No recording, no attribution" encourages frank discussion, as at Chatham House (hence "Chatham House Rules" for frank debates).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if talks will be recorded at the 2012 Threshold Concepts conference, http://bit.ly/hfm1Hz
In the context of Threshold Concepts, some people would feel very uneasy to have it recorded for posterity that they find an explanation or a theory confusing. Yet in science, many advances happen through the re-thinking that follows such admissions.
At a student level, naive intuition may well be wrong, hence the value of being able to find ways to occasionally contradict intuition. As an example I recently came across the Banach–Tarski theorem and the re-thinking and unlearning that follows an encounter with it. For me, this was troublesome knowledge, and I found myself in a Liminal Space. But I'm not an expert in that area, so I can happily admit to that. It might be different in areas where people look to me as an expert.