Experimental Sit In: 'What is a Book?' by Drew Whitworth

There are four spaces available to be a part of an educational experiment with Drew Whitworth who teaches at the University of Manchester. I have arranged it so that four people from Ragged University will be able to sit in on a class given by Drew the focus of which is 'What is a Book?'.

Following his class, where as visitors we can get the benefit of his educational work, the visiting group will be going to a nearby cafe to have a conversation about the class. This is an educational experiment which has been negotiated with Drew exploring the 19th century history of 'auditors' in Russian universities. Historically members of the public were allowed to sit in on empty seats of classes being taught in Russia getting the benefits of being able to learn independently without the individual attentions of the teacher.

It seemed like an interesting experiment to explore with formal educators to see if members of the public could again use the extra space in the classes of formal education by sitting in as 'auditors'. This is an exciting opportunity to try out seeing how the lifelong learning of informal learning communities like Ragged University can connect with formal education without disrupting what is going on.

Drew's plan for the lesson is to go right back to medieval manuscripts and enquire about the ways that 'information technology' was evident in those texts, the ways that people learned to organise the information within them over time, and plenty of hands-on activities where we 'deconstruct' the book.

For those who want to read up on some history of the book and the written word, I have prepared the following articles:

The Function of Visible Speech: https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2016/11/05/function-of-visible-speech/

Print History:
https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2015/11/04/information-design-print-history/

Information Design:
https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2016/11/29/graphic-information-design-2/

Drew has published several books including 'Mapping Information Landscapes': https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/drew.whitworth/

Unfortunately this is an opportunity which is limited to four people so places are on a first come first served basis. As an experiment in learning and education please only come along if you have an active interest. It will be an interesting experiment which may open up further opportunities.

If each person can bring a book of some kind, that would be helpful for the lesson. Any kind of book -- e.g. cook book, novel, tourist guide, phrasebook.... the more different types we have in the room the better.

Kind regards, Alex