In Praise of HASTAC on Ning

Flickr Image: 

In writing about HASTAC today for another project, and thinking about what it means to be a network of networks, I want to give a shout out to Mechelle de Craene, the spirit and organizer behind HASTAC on Ning, a Synergistic Symposium for a Cybernetic Age (http://hastac.ning.com/). The emblem of HASTAC on Ning is the dandelion and that's exactly right for conveying HASTAC's hope to inspire those who inspire those who inspire those . . . on and on, virally but also like seed spores, dropping down where they land and then flourishing there. One breath, and the dandelion spores fly into the world and then hopefully create new life elsewhere. A weed? We hope so!

We'd love the network to grow and grow. And we'd love more individuals to see how they can take the concept and not only make it their own, but make it central to their community. Most of the originators of HASTAC were college professors. Many of the people on HASTAC on Ning do K-12. This is an invitation to others out there, independent scholars of any age, artists, anyone, to be part of the network, in whatever fashion you wish. (Check out "Eight Ways to be a HASTAC Leader"--http://www.hastac.org/node/1040--if you are looking for ideas.)

Our baseline commitment is to digital or participatory learning. We see that as having two crucial components, neither part of which should exist without the other. The first part is creative use, customizing, and development of technologies that support and promote learning in its most expansive sense. If it opens a mind, it is learning. The second part is critical thinking about the use, customizing, and development of technology. We believe you cannot have one without the other. And that we should be developing new technologies while thinking critically and analytically about issues of access (in all its forms), diversity (in all its form), social disparities (in all their forms), social possibilities (in all their forms), opportunities, limitations, and, well, dreams.

HASTAC on Ning does this. If you haven't checked it out lately, it is a visual as well as an intellectual feast. Happy weekend to all, and to Mechelle and others in the HASTAC on Ning community, thank you for inspiring us.

(Special thanks to "catmadogma" on Flickr, Creative Commons licensing, for this beautiful photograph of a dandelion and amber. The dandelion is the emblem of HASTAC on Ning.)