Rachel Dobbs

Rachel is an artist and educator with over 10 years experience in a range of formal and informal educational settings, from community workshops to universities.

YouTube, peer-to-peer instruction and Massive Open Online Courses have completely changed the landscape of self-directed learning in the last decade. We now rarely reach for textbooks, spend time locating experts or take in-depth courses to learn new things. Instead a simple search for “How to change a tyre”, “crochet tutorial” or “advanced Photoshop techniques” brings us on-demand education, straight to our phones and devices so that we can use it in context. In this talk, Rachel will explore how this shift, and the potential new spaces it opens up for learning, could be used by local communities (in Plymouth and further afield) to build skills, take greater ownership and improve their situation. She will also talk about how this could be facilitated by technologists, educators, policy-makers, CICs, community activists and others through curating, signposting & building knowledge resources online, in conjunction with face-to-face activity.