Learning

Learning

Wisdom of Crowds for Health & Education

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In Deschooling Society (1970), Ivan Illich explained why we must disestablish school:

Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby “schooled” to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is “schooled” to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavor are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.

There is almost an arms race quality to the way in which we are trying to save our current education and health care “systems”. I am coming around to the notion that the system is the problem. Much in the same way that The Support Economy diagnoses ‘managerial capitalism’ as the primary cause of the disconnect between corporations and markets, I am seeing that Illich had it right over 30 years ago – we have seen the enemy, and it is us. Through our large, corporatist systems we have created self-perpetuating monopolies in both health and education.

In order to get back some semblance of control, I would suggest that we stop paying the supply side of the equation. Instead of paying the suppliers (teachers, doctors, administrators, etc.), a socialist country like Canada would instead offer education and health insurance to all Canadians. Let the people decide where their money is spent. If the average Canadian is allowed to vote for the governement, why not be allowed to vote where education and health (our topmost priorities) money should be spent? This system would have some problems, such as wealthier people opting into expensive facilities out of reach of average Canadians, but I believe in the wisdom of crowds, and feel that communities would develop to support all members of society. At least we would have the tools to do something other than lobby government on how to spend our money.

  • Does the wisdom of the crowd reflect this sentiment?
  • Would it be even remotely possible to try to implement this kind of approach?

Update: Dave Pollard has posted another article on how to use the wisdom of crowds in business planning and decision-making. His flow chart shows how the solutions team needs facilitation skills much more so than subject matter expertise or managerial skills. hmmm?

Next NB

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I received an email the other day, inviting me to participate in “A Covenant With Our Children – Education in New Brunswick”. This is described as a public forum to discuss what we teach and how we can better nurture a culture of learning with both parents, students, teachers and communities in New Brunswick. It will be held on September 14, 2004 at 7 p.m.
Tweedie Hall, Mount Allison University.

In reading through the Next NB website, I remarked on a few things. First, the article (PDF) that mentions Sackville is somewhat dated, and has inaccuracies, such as missing the fact that the Vogue Cinema is actually a private business that supports the Sackville Film Society, not vice versa. Second, the discussion forum is not easy to use, does not have an RSS feed, trackbacks or permalinks; so it doesn’t integrate well with other blogs – and that is my primary concern. There are already a number of conversations about education in NB happening on the internet, let me list a few blogs:

UNB, the sponsor of the Next NB initiative states that, “It is time for New Brunswickers to talk to each other.” Guess what – we’re already talking to each other, and maybe you’re not listening.

I have not had comments or input from Next NB on any of my posts about education (one-room schools, laptops in schools, goals), nor do they link to any other conversations in the province.

This focus on the province alone is another problem that I see with the initiative. There are interesting conversations on PEI and in Nova Scotia. Living in Sackville, I am only 8 km from the NS border, but I am only allowed to think of myself as New Brunswicker – I think not.

Anyway, I know this sounds like a bit of a rant, but please correct me if I am wrong. Has any blogger received input from NextNB? What do you think of their approach? I intend to invite them into the many conversations that are ongoing in the region and the blogosphere. Maybe they just haven’t read The Cluetrain.

One more thing – why do they have to have meetings in early September when many parents of school age children are signing kids up for extra curricular activities? Bad timing.

Update: I submitted a comment to the NextNB discussion forum on education. Not sure if the HTML will work, but tried it anyway. On submitting my comment, I received this message:

Confirmation / Confirmation

Thank you for choosing SNB Online. / Merci d’avoir choisi SNB en ligne.
Below is a summary of your order to keep for your records. / Vous trouverez ci-dessous le sommaire de votre commande. Conservez-le dans vos dossiers.
Order # / Numéro de la commande: 355160
Date of Order / Date de la commande: 2004-09-13
Item # / Article no: UNB8003
Name / Nom: Post a Comment re. Next NB / Afficher un commentaire sur Avenir N-B

Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinion. / Nous vous remercions d’avoir pris le temps de nous faire part de votre opinion.

Click here to return to the Next NB Discussion Forum. / Cliquer ici pour retourner au groupe de discussion de Avenir N-B.


I didn’t know that submitting a comment constituted an order for services from SNB; and now my comment waits patiently in the government-funded line up. Now this is a great way to get the conversation flowing ;-)

Synergy

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I am interested in the intersection of learning, work and technology. Why? One reason is that I firmly believe that a multi-disciplinary approach can solve more complex problems. I try to stay current in matters of learning theories, instructional design, collaborative work, business models, economics, etc. Here is another reason, by Peter Smith of California State University, in an article entitled – Of Icebergs, Ships, and Arrogant Captains, published by Educause Review:

Synergy, a biological term, is defined as “the action of two or more substances, organs, or organisms, to achieve an effect of which each is individually incapable”  By itself, technology cannot save us. Considered in a vacuum, new learning models for organizations and individuals might not dramatically improve the impact of higher education. But if we understand and anticipate the synergy of the social, technological, economic, and political forces at work around us, employing them together, we will be able to achieve what cannot be done by employing any of these forces alone.

Learning Outsourcing

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I mentioned in my last post that I had been working on an article on collaboration in the New Brunswick learning industry. As anyone here knows, almost all of our work is export focused, as the local economy is quite small. Another theme that is getting more press in the last year is learning outsourcing. Jay Cross thinks it may be the "next big thing", pointing to recent initiatives by Intrepid Learning Solutions and Knowledge Pool. In Atlantic Canada, many companies are already providing some kind of outsourcing services, be it custom development, hosted services, consulting, etc.

Jay is offering his services to help organisations examine the intricacies of outsourcing. Jay links to a recent report by SRI Business Consulting’s Learning on Demand service, entitled Learning Outsourcing: Strategic Opportunity. The report is authored by Eilif Trondsen and Hal Richman. Hal is my business partner, and resides in Nova Scotia. Given that Atlantic Canada has a number of learning-oriented companies, with a variety of skills and expertise, I think that we are well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. We just have to get the word out.

Understanding the Real New Economy

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This Summer I had the opportunity to help Rob Paterson with his 4th year UPEI course, called Understanding the Real New Economy. It was fun, and quite easy for me as a mentor. All I had to do was read the postings and make comments – no marking, or assignments done under deadline. I really enjoyed reading the wide variety of opinions; some more insightful and thought provoking than others.

The main text for the course was Natural Capitalism, parts of which you can access online. The final assignment was to describe two possible future scenarios on PEI. One being the result of just "bumbling along" and the other about creating a plan and acting upon it. One of the students, Joshua Arsenault, has posted his final assignment on his blog. Here is the conclusion of the positive scenario:

But, in the end, change is highly contingent on individuals and the circumstances around the person at that time. It seems that the fuel crisis actually spurred innovation and change because Prince Edward Island had the creative people who stepped forward to promote change before the crisis occurred. The crisis then acted as the tipping point for the positive changes we live with now.

I hope that some of these students will be stepping forward in the near future.

eLearning Market Peaked in 2001

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Stephen Downes reports today that:

The e-learning field is changing in front of our eyes, and
yet people are not seeing it. Content is flat, services are
the future.

Stephen’s comment stems from The Workflow Institute’s press release yesterday:

The corporate eLearning Market in the US peaked in late-2001 at about $6.5 billion and has seen 15-20% negative growth in both 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the market leveled off and has remained flat. As of mid-2004, the market for conventional eLearning is $4.5 billion with content accounting for half of the revenues. The technology segment accounts for $1.1 billion, and the robust services sector accounts for $1.2 billion. By 2008, at least 60% of eLearning revenue will derive from services.

While developing strategic plans for elearning ventures over the past two years, I have been telling my clients the same thing – focus on services. Now I have some more data to back it up. Thanks Jay.

Off-the-Shelf Content

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A few years back, the saying in the elearning world was that "content is king". Now you can purchase access to a suite of 10 elearning courses from ITdatacorp for one year for $(US)109.00, and for an additional $30 you get online mentoring (this adds some context to the learning process).

The low cost of content sure makes the value proposition for off-the-shelf learning content quite difficult for a business or an investor. Even adding mentoring won’t generate much more revenue, unless you have a huge customer base. This means the big players will continue to lower their prices in order to get more market share. I see this as one more reason to stay out of the commoditized learning/training business unless you have deep pockets and great distribution channels. The price keeps dropping.

There are still many ways to make a good living around the proposition of improving learning or work performance. It’s by solving business problems, one situation and one client at a time.

Via Jane Knight.

Learning Innovations Forum

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This just in:

The Learning Innovations Forum d’Innovation d’Apprentissage is organizing the first Working Forum on eLearning Quality Assurance and
Return on Investment. If you have expertise and experience in these areas,
or if you know someone who has, and you’re interested in (1) sharing what
you know and (2) collaborating with others in Canada, the Americas and
Europe, please contact me. We are inviting speakers and participants to
this Working Forum, Sept 30 and October 1 in Vancouver, where you will have
the opportunity to participate in the first meeting of the Joint LIfIA –
EIfEL eQuality Committee which has responsibility for the Open eQuality
Learning Standards – the Open Source consumer-oriented eLearning quality
standards. And you may be able to find new clients and partners for your
products and services.

Registration in the Forum includes a half-year membership in LIfIA and
associate membership in EIfEL – the European Institute for eLearning. Among
other membership benefits, LIfIA is becoming the leader in panCanadian
development and implementation of the ePortfolio. (LIFIA news attached as
well).

Plan to be at this Working Forum if you have a story to tell or a need to
know about ROI, QA and the ePortfolio for Quality Assurance in eLearning.
Register early as participation is limited.

Please note that the site only works in Internet Explorer, as the navigation functions are not standards compliant (bad example folks). [now fixed – see comments below]

Online Communities in Business

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If you’re interested in online communities then read the latest report by Ambrozek & Cothrel. The report surveyed 135 respondents, many of them experts in the fields of virtual communities, communities of practice, etc. The list of influencers on pages 22/23 of the report offers an excellent start to filling your RSS aggregator with the opinions of those who have the greatest influence in this growing field. There’s lots to chew on here.

The most interesting view of the future, from one of the respondents, that I think should be considered for those in the technology-based learning field is:

Cautious personal predictions for the future: movement from a linear scheduled-media environment to an IP-delivered, on demand, rich media environment where you can access tailored content where you want it, when you want it, how you want it … with linear programming and scheduling still firmly there, but as one of the choices you can make. [Media producers] may begin to talk about ‘brands’ and’genre content’ rather than ‘programmes.’ The public will begin to co-produce media, and the media producers will act more as editors who enable and shape this material, plus add the expert view and point to ‘the official view’ or ‘the best’, ‘the newest, ‘the most apposite,’ ‘the funniest. etc. Media producers will also still offer quality crafted content but audience/members will be able to view the content in different ways and to also feedback and comment/add material in separate windows or on separate menus if people want to drill down or across to take a look. Further ahead: 3D networked gaming environments with chat and self-build homes/dens/vehicles will increase in popularity with children, particularly boys. Medics and scientists will see the value of such environments for teaching, and holiday brochures will neverbe the same again.

With more people involved in multiple online communities, getting information and sharing their experiences when and where they want, there may be less acceptance of pre-programmed, linear elearning. Learners will also want to involved in the creation of their own learning programs, and will have the tools to do so. Add these together and we may see the end of “content based education”. If the content is up to the learner, then the only critical part (for organisations) will be the evaluation component. Instead of content-based testing, we may see a rise in performance-based testing. I hope so.

PS: There is a note in the report that the wiki is now open to anyone, but I haven’t found a way to get access –
http://www.socialtext.net/online-communities-in-business

Update: you can send an e-mail, which is available from the main link, and get wiki access from the authors – thanks.

Wikis Support F2F

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A few (many?) years back it was unthinkable that anyone would register and pay for a conference via the Web. Then Web only conferences came along. Face-to-face conferences gave out CD-ROM’s of proceedings, and later followed up with web-access for conference attendees. Vendors can now see their booth space on the Web and position it relative to their competition – for a price. Conferences also precede events and follow-up with mailing lists and contact information. The conference media keep changing.

The latest that I’ve heard of is from Eugene Kim, who discusses the use of wikis as a way to tap the energy produced at face-to-face meetings. It’s not as easy as just placing a wiki on the web and everyone will merrily contribute to it, but Kim offers a lot of good advice. My own experience with wikis is limited, but we were successful in using them as a way for physically distributed social workers to stay in touch and develop policies & procedures. It may take a lot of of hand-holding and support to get someone to the "ah ha" moment of understanding the potential of wikis, but after that moment you have to run to keep up to them.