The Conversation - Australian forum for academics

While at the AVETRA conference a month ago, one of the websites that came up in a workshop session at use of social media by researchers / academics, was ‘The Conversation’. This website provides a academics to put up op-ed type articles on a range of topics including Arts and culture, business and economy, education, environment and energy, health and medicine, politics and society, science and technology etc.

There are version so of "The conversation for Australia, Africa, France, UK and the US of A. Becoming an author requires registration.

A browse of the education section reveals a few nuggets, including this article by Megan O'Connell and Bill Lucas on 'young people designing their own learning'. Generally, most articles appeal to a wide audience, hence articles relevant to the compulsory education sector and around Australian funding / policies.

A few vocational education focused articles usually on topical issues, sometimes in ‘reply’ to try to shift perspectives reported in the popular media. Examples include:

Gavin Moodie on vocational education being too complex, job specific and underfunded; 

Mary Leahy on reform of voc. ed. and time to end its exploitation of vulnerable people; and

Damien Oliver and Serena Yu summary of a recent NCVER report on relevancy of voc. ed.

So, another site to add to my 'favourites' / alerts as it provides commentary on socio-political forces which shape voc. ed.