Fwd - Louder Voices and Learning Networks - plus notes to self June 26, 2011
Another great post from Mike Gurstein.
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Louder Voices and Learning Networks
There is a stream of contemporary thought (with which I generally agree) which sees knowledge as being largely produced and disseminated by and through networks. That is, networks—social, technical, organizational—are seen as providing the basic framework within which knowledge activities increasingly are taking place and where knowledge workers increasingly are doing their work.
This all seems really quite straightforward and even somehow commendable in that it suggests that knowledge is being disengaged from the older top-down authoritarian structures and institutions which so many have come to distrust or even despise. And of course, these networks are (or at least appear to be) immaterial and placeless—existing or taking their form and substance through invisible wires, the ether, software such as Facebook, or other seemingly virtual products, themselves the outcome of the digital age.
(snip)
But in looking at this array of attractive intellectual baubles I’m left with one nagging concern. Amidst all this media and networking and mobility what exactly will be the content of this “Twenty-first Century University as global learning network”? Where will the content come from, that will constitute the “learning” component of this learning network? How exactly will the promise implicit in this statement—“digital learning is increasingly recognized as an important part of development worldwide” be realized in fact, and by whom, and ultimately in whose interests?
More at - http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/louder-voices-and-learning-networks/
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Notes to self -
Issues of knowledge creation and/or knowledge sharing.
Differences between skills based learning (brain surgeon etc) and ideas/information based (arts degree etc), and all in between.
Issues of product and/or process of learning (product - the final essay/project-work/exam paper, etc; process - the learning-journey/transferable-skills-and strategies etc learned while getting toward the product)
Learning paradigms - purpose, pedagogy, philosophy, whatever:
- 19th and 20th centuries - industrial, clerks, factory hands, wage slaves, consumers, competitive consumption, individualism, independence, right answers, competition, personal ownership, social isolation trends.
- 21st - finite planet, need for creative problems solving, collaboration, tolerating uncertainty - how do you teach people to tolerate uncertainty, ask questions, and work collaboratively in an education system that teaches people that success is giving the right answers to set questions and doing it ahead of others for personal long term benefit.
All the usual dadamac stuff on inclusion and people issues - socio-tech, cultural issues, access, training, thinking, independent learning, etc.
COTW - and how Paul tends to research resources for his own learning. He mentions the gems he finds. When particular members of group have a need-to-know i.e when interests go in a particular direction and more background is needed to underpin collaborative work - then he points to the appropriate resources. Everyone does something similar - maybe I just notice it more with Paul as we have greater overlapping learning interests.
School of Commoning - the kind of resources we pull in for our shared learning.
Ken Owino and others in discussions on the benefits and disadvantages of learning through the "University of Life" - such as with the Nafsi Acrobats - or the formal academic Universities.
Issues arising at Education for Uncertain Futures - http://www.dadamac.net/event/education-uncertain-futures
learning at all levels
new access
Range of new learning "offerings' - from the informal and radically different to the Internet enabled versions of the previously established - and everything in between, lots of cross fertilisation of ideas and influences. The tension between learner centred variety and consistent levels of accreditation. Digital learning footprints.
Learning - who, why, what, where, when - if "how' is via Internet. General online learning issues and specific university level ones. Research issues.