I [mentioned earlier on](http://blogs.omnium.net.au/main/2006/12/18/presentation-at-learning-futures-2007/ ) in January that I was was going to present at the Beyond Distance Research Alliance’s Learning Futures 2007 conference hosted by Gilly Salmon. I spoke on the topic of Converging and Emerging Online Cultures: creative collaboration and a future for learning and really looked at several different converging online cultures and the potential they have to radically re-shape education, if only institutions would look up from their bean counting important research to notice.

What was interesting for me, coming from a design background and as a educator in new media, was the amount of times people were talking creativity and innovation as central, important aspects to the future of education. It was a “well, duh!” moment for me. Collaboration, creativity and process have been central to working in this area for decades and central to what we do at Omnium.

One of the keynote speakers, Prof. Curt Bonk made the following comment on his blog:

At the Beyond Distance Research Alliance Conference in Leicester on January 9-10 I heard the words globalization, creativity, and customization many times. It struck me as somewhat surprising to hear the word creativity given that it was not a conference theme or at least one that I was aware of. But were these just words coming from people’s mouths that we could nod to in agreement? This was a great conference but I wanted to see some of this globalization and creativity displayed. Where was it?

Curt didn’t manage to make it to my session, but I hope it was there. The arts really have to stand up for our own processes and experience which is becoming more and more crucial in this creative economy. We’ve been the wayward siblings of research funding skewed to the sciences and engineering for far too long. I don’t believe we need any special measures, but we do need to make it known that we have a lot to offer, rather than management consultants re-’discovering’ creativity.