Learning

Learning

An educational crisis?

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Florence Meichel (in French) examines the US/World financial crisis and looks back at Ivan Illich’s criticism of industrial schooling:

Everywhere the hidden curriculum of schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent. Everywhere this same curriculum instills in the pupil the myth that increased production will provide a better life. And everywhere it develops the habit of self-defeating consumption of services and alienating production, the tolerance for institutional dependence, and the recognition of institutional rankings. The hidden curriculum of school does all this in spite of contrary efforts undertaken by teachers and no matter what ideology prevails.

Critical thinking and an understanding of the frameworks that guide our political and financial institutions would really help the citizenry to understand the complexities of what is happening. It sure beats listening to politicians and pundits in 30 second sound bites. Unfortunately, it’s what many have been conditioned to accept, because they’ve been told that these systems is beyond their understanding.

Is the financial crisis really an educational crisis?

Update:

Will Richardson offers a different perspective and sees all that is happening as one big teachable moment:

I’m sure there are more, but how about these topics, just for a start:

  • How mortgages work
  • What credit is
  • What the tax code is
  • The intricacies of borrowing money
  • Investing in the stock market
  • Balanced budgets
  • What debt, both personal and national, is
  • The political process (or lack thereof) of the two Houses of Congress
  • The electoral college
  • Truth in advertising
  • Vetting of expertise (as in talking heads)
  • The “Global Economy” and our effects on it

Learn the language before you speak to me

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Stuart Henshall says that you should Use the Tools First: Then Talk to Me:

I just walked out of one session where the presenter made a joke about Facebook. I checked; I’m fairly sure he’s not on it. That’s a big problem that exists here. You cannot talk about the impact of wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, tagging, even search unless you actually use them.

I agreed with this as soon as I read it and then wondered why. You don’t ask a doctor to have first suffered a disease before discussing how to treat it. Many academics in business school have never started a company, yet they can talk about the fundamentals of business.

Why is the Web, and especially social media, so different?

I think that one fundamental difference about social media is that they have a strong influence on the user, very much in a McLuhanesque medium/message/massage way. Those who come to web media for the first time are like adults learning a new language. You cannot start with the same advanced mental models and metaphors that you have in your primary language. Furthermore, if you do get to an advanced level in your new language, you may not have noticed it but the language, with its idioms, metaphors and culture, has had a strong influence on how you think in that language.

Social media change the way you communicate. Write a blog for a year or more and your writing (and thinking) will change. Use Twitter for some time and you will get an immersed sense of being connected to many people and understanding them on a different level. Even the ubiquitous Facebook changes how you may think of being apart from friends. Social media can change the way you think.

When you adopt a web social medium you are also starting on the bottom, or at the single node level. You have to make connections with what will become your network, either by connecting to existing relationships or doing something that helps to create new relationships, like writing a post. Starting over again, in each medium, can be daunting, especially for someone in a position of authority who is concerned about image or influence.

Yes, you need to use the tools first. You have to understand what it’s like to be a node in a social network. There is almost nothing like it in the industrial workplace or school system to prepare you for this. Therefore you won’t know what you’re talking about until you learn the new language of online networks. The only way to learn a new language is through practice. Social media are new languages.

PS: I took Stuart’s advice and downloaded the social web browser, Flock, from which I wrote this post.

Selecting Social Network Platforms

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At the Work Literacy course (starts today, with 365 people registered) we’re using Ning as our social networking platform. According to my co-facilitator, Michele Martin, “Online social networks facilitate connections between people based on shared interests, values, membership in particular groups (i.e., friends, professional colleagues), etc. They make it easier for people to find and communicate with individuals who are in their networks using the Web as the interface.” That’s an okay working definition and gives those new to the concept an idea of what I’m talking about.

We chose Ning because it is easy to manage as a completely hosted service. It’s been around long enough to have the major kinks worked out, the company is well funded and all of the facilitators have used it before. We also don’t expect this community to be active for long after the 6 week course is over, though we could be surprised. We didn’t expect to have so many people sign up either. Our initial idea was to use Ning as the connector, while writing on our own blogs, or the Work Literacy blog. For communities that are going to be around for a longer period of time, a different platform could be more suitable.

I came across Grou.ps recently and set up a demo community. I like the interface and the various options for modules. Grou.ps also includes a wiki module. Like Ning, it is not open source, but the company says that an OS version is coming. Grou.ps has already donated a fair bit of code back to open source projects. I prefer using open source based platforms for any community site that has the potential to scale. With open source you keep the option of migrating the platform to your own servers where you can maintain better control of service.

Another new player that I’ve only looked at quickly is Buddy Press, a social networking framework built on WordPress MU (multi-user). An example of WordPressMU used for education is edublogs. Since I’m already using WordPress and wordpress.org has always been open source, I’m quite excited about this new set of tools. BuddyPress is in Beta at this time, so it may not be best for your first company-launched community. Let the geeks test it out first.

Finally, an older player in the open source community space is Elgg. The free Eduspaces service offers Elgg as a hosted service, which you can test out and connect with the educational technology community.

There are several options to test out social networking online as well as some open source platforms that won’t break the bank and will allow you to tinker with what’s under the hood. As far as the technology is concerned, there are few excuses not to try out social networking for work or learning. Notice that I didn’t have to mention the really big social networking platforms that are getting all the mainstream media attention?

Launch and Learn

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Jay Cross is currently focusing on the ROI of organisational learning initiatives and debunking some of the myths and metrics. His notes from the CLO Symposium include this:

Jayne Johnson, director of Leader Development for GE at Crotonville, delivered the final keynote presentation. Someone asked how she measured the on-going effectiveness of Crotonville; she doesn’t. As for cost-justification in advance, no, GE believes in “launch and learn.” Experiment a lot, and keep what works.

The notion of launch and learn reminds me of the cynefin approach to complex environments:

The cynefin framework looks at five domains (the 5th is Disorder) and it shows how our reliance on backward-looking tools, such as best practices, is not a suitable strategy for complex environments:

Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe – Sense – Respond and we can sense emergent practice.

Probe-Sense-Respond (P-S-R) is similar to GE’s Launch-Learn approach. When no one can understand the vagaries of your situation in a changing, complex environment then the only thing to do is try out new things based on your best judgement then watch, learn and keep trying new things out. Effective organisational practices will emerge by doing things.

This is the big challenge for Web 2.0 for learning professionals as well. There are no best practices or even good practices. There are things that work for some people, some of the time. As learning professionals, our job is to understand our organisation or client’s situation and look outside to see what others are doing. We have to try things out and see how they work. If we wait for the best practices, we will be too late. This is life in continual Beta (change) and the natural world provides some good examples.

Work Literacy and a Storm of New Information

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We announced the WL – Web 2.0 for learning professionals online course yesterday and now have over 100 people signed up after one day. This is a six week (or is that six step?) program, covering the basics of Web 2.0 tools and methods, with room for the more experienced to join in and add their expertise to the mix. I’m pretty excited to have all these interesting folks decide to join us. Perhaps it was the price tag? (FREE)

As I was preparing for this online stint, I looked for an image that might convey what we’re trying to achieve. I came across Dave Gray’s sketch, Rain on the landscape of the mind,  on Flickr and thought it was perfect for our endeavour [thanks to Dave for letting me share it]:

A storm of new information passes over the mind – a flurry of activity can bring chaos, excitement, energy, and create the conditions for new ideas – new life – to come into being.

I’m looking forward to Monday …

Who do you trust on the Web?

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BBC News reports on Tim Berners-Lee’s warning about trust on the Internet and the fact that unfounded rumours, such as those about the LHC, grow very quickly:

Sir Tim told BBC News that there needed to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources.

Sir Tim and his new foundation are looking at ways to rate trustworthiness on the Web with something like Google Page Rank. I’m not sure that an external evaluation tool is really necessary and in the meantime each of us can have our own system. I know that I do.

I have developed relationships with:

  • people whom I know personally and trust
  • people with whom I connect on the Web who are consistently trustworthy in what they publish online (at least they admit their mistakes)
  • sources of information that are consistent and I have learned to trust at some level

Quite often I will check on a piece of information before writing about it. Google Search shows me what is being served up on the subject and Technorati tells me who’s blogging about it. I can send out a quick question on Twitter and that network may have some more information.

If I want to check the trustworthiness of a piece of information, I have many options. I can even blog about it –  and we know that there is no greater urge known to humankind than to correct someone who is wrong on the Internet. I’m sure I’ll be told that I’m wrong and then I can make a note about this on my original post and voilà, the Internet is fixed once again ;-)

We have many of the tools that we need to check sources and make sure that we are not being duped. Perhaps we lack the techniques and the motivation to do so. I hope that the next generation finds it more natural to think critically than our television generation does.

Open Up

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Martin Weller mulls over the notion that the Open University or OU should call itself the Open U, with an emphasis on “open”:

  • Open Source
  • Open educational resources
  • Open API
  • Open content
  • Open courses
  • Open participation

In an inter-networked society, open is the only way to remain relevant. Most newspapers have realized this by opening their online versions. Closed archives don’t get the links from bloggers and others commenting on the news and so they get cut off from the global conversation. The Connectivism and Connected Knowledge course, with about 2,000 students is an example of  “openness”. Anyone can join, students can register for credit at the University of Manitoba, and folks like me can just lurk and learn informally.

One of the arguments against open models is that people need to get paid and openness usurps the pay-for-service model. Anyone working with open source software knows this is not correct and that money can be made around an open model. It’s just made in different ways and at different points in the value network.

I have promoted open source business models on this blog for almost five years and I’m finally starting to see some shifts in the educational market. I’m also quite certain that there’s still a lot of room for several variants on this business model, but competition for attention and relevance is increasing. If you’re in the education business, it’s time to open up.

Edge Thinking

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The video of John Seely Brown on edge thinking is worth 15 minutes of your time.

JSB discusses the concept of workscapes (reminds me of Jay’s learnscape) and foresees that all managers will need general HR skills and that management will evolve over time to a coaching role. He also tells about how things changed when he became a free-agent after decades at XEROX-PARC. Within a year, JSB was more connected and had a more dynamic network than ever, and he credits social Web tools for this. The Web is a great place for do-it-ourselves learning and JSB sees work and learning becoming integrated [this is my own area of most passionate professional interest]. One example of the Web reducing the need for training is an older programmer learning new languages and techniques. He says that he just types in the exact programming error message in Google and instantly gets the performance support he needs.

Photo: Living on the Edge by Giant Ginkgo

I’m currently working on combining my last posts on The T&D Role and Learning & Performance into a more integrated article. JSB’s work, plus concepts like Wirearchy and Cynefin are starting to come together in my mind. I want to focus on the practicalities of creating a better workplace for a networked world, as many of the frameworks are already out there waiting to be implemented.

Changing the publishing model

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Last week, Jay Cross hosted a discussion on the un-book and several people discussed the concept of self-publishing on the Web, given services like Lulu. The question was asked by Dave Gray, “Why publish and then get feedback?”. Also, with self-publishing the author stays in control of the process. The publishing world is changing.

Eric Frank from Flatworld Knowledge spoke about his new venture, which is set to go live in 2009, but already has 26 universities involved in testing the concept. Flatworld’s business model:

Our books are free online. We offer convenient, low-cost choices for students – print, audio, by-the-chapter, and more. Our books are open for instructors to mix, mash, and make their own. Our books are the hub of a social learning network where students learn from the book and each other.

Eric mentioned that they work with established authors/experts; use a Creative Commons license; and allow textbooks to be re-purposed for each user and/or the adopting faculty member. Revenue is generated on the add-ons such as print, audio, PDF’s, and later on the Kindle. All of this is designed to give faculty more control over content. The service includes the ability to make private/public notes and comments as well as text chat and later some social networking.

It’s a new business model but doesn’t push things too far, which should make it viable. The professors remain in control, which should get buy-in, and the service will not be disruptive to the teaching model in higher education. Lowering the cost of text books will be positive for students as well. The key will be in getting a critical mass of text books and it looks like this is proceeding well. Self-publishing, or at least publishing without the middle-man, appears to be hitting the mainstream and this should be good for anyone in the learning field.

Global Civics 301

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Did you ever try to talk to teenagers about international politics or modern history? At our house, their eyes usually glaze over and the subject changes. Last night we watched Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, produced by the Morgan Spurlock who also made Fast Food Nation. This is the kind of documentary that takes on big issues but in a not too serious way, using humour to make its point.

I would recommend this movie as a starting point for discussions on terrorism, geopolitics, the war on terror or religious studies. Morgan ties together a story of discovery as he travels through North Africa, the Middle East and finally Pakistan, asking where is OBL. At various points he adds in computer-animated history lessons, which cover an entire semester’s worth of material in a few minutes. This movie keeps your attention, tells a serious story but doesn’t beat you over the head with the lesson. Judging by the comments on Twitter last night, this movie was a better use of my time than watching the Republican National Convention ;-)

If you’re looking for good movies on serious issues, see Global Civics 201 and Global Civics 101.