Tuesday, January 23, 2007

of buildings, communication and professionalism

Last night we were invited to attend the launch of a new television series called Edifice and Us. We were invited by our old friend Steve Wolfson and his wife Penny Ward. It seems Saskatchewan is becoming a hotbed for television series. Corner Gas in its own slow prairie way has taken off and the new series Little Mosque on the Prairies will become a classic. Little Mosque was created by Zarqa Nawaz who is from Regina.

Edifice and Us is an interesting series in that it explores the interplay of architecture, culture and society in the Saskatchewan landscape. The preview we saw made it very clear that architecture was a very special way of communicating - ideas, history, sense of place, behaviour, etc.

Professionals, like architects, learn to communicate on many different levels and in many different ways. Their buildings and other structures, speak to us. But before that level of communication can take place there needs to be many other types of communication - between architects and other creators, with the users of the structure, with the builders and tradespeople, and on and on.

It seems to me that teachers' work is parallel to architects in many ways. Often we only see the results - lessons delivered, students who know and can do certain things. But underlying that level of communication are many other levels and types.

One of these types is communication between professions for the purposes of increasing their professionalism - their professional skills and abilities and understandings.

To that end we have conferences, workshops, conventions and professional journals.

We also have internet based discussion groups.

For many years I ran a listserv called BUSED-L. Each discussion group has its life cycle and I believe that the original BUSED-L ran its course.

But there seems to a renewed need to communicate and discuss fundamental issues in Business Education once again. So I am beginning the process of rejuvenating BUSED-L. In a later entry here I will explain how to subscribe.

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