Learnscapes
Learning is a process, not an event. A Learnscape is where that process plays out.
Learnscapes are learning ecosystems.
Informal learning is about situated action, collaboration, coaching, and reflection -- not classes. Developing a platform to support informal learning is analogous to landscaping a garden. You don't make the platform; you make what's there better.
A learnscape is a learning ecology. It’s learning without borders.
Jay's blogs on Learnscapes. Free-range learning. Learnscaping seven-minute overview
Learnscapes are not formal or all informal; they are always a mix of both.
Discussion became quite heated when I depicted this as an audio mixer:
Major areas of any Learnscape
Learnscape Health Checklist
Conversations | Relationships | Individual skils & support | Optimal network | Learning Culture |
Third places Online discussions Un-meetings Informal support of formal Storytelling Visual support |
Fast: IM Communities Each one/teach one Foster collaboration BBS, VoIP, discussion boards Coach |
Communications Health Tech savvy Visual Mindful Web 2.0 Refined PKM Unlearning Conferences & unmeetings Meta-Learning: reflection Performance support Large screen Ease of access |
Bandwidth Connections Right people-ONA Internet inside Signal/noise Search: Findable: social search, tabs, federated search, tagging, cross-linking, V-search. Find people, too. Tag clouds. |
Bottom-up Open/transparent Conversational Flexible< br/> Include customers & partners Bus & bike Trust |
Sound mind, well body
Friendly, outgoing, receptive
Internet Culture and the Evolution of Learning
Designing a Web-based learning ecology
Dave Gray's delightful drawing addresses common Learnscape communication issues.
Teemu Arina's sketch puts informal learning in the center and formal learning around the periphery.
A sample Learnscape (Unworkshop)
beliefs and processes
1. learning is natural. get out of its way and let it happen.
2. learning is social. encourage conversation and networking.
3. learning is adapatation to one's ecosystems. it is a dynamic relationship.
4. learning involves skills one can improve.
5. authenticity trumps its facsimiles.
6. good learning comes from having good connections.
7. learning is spontaneous. so is rain. but you can seed a rain cloud…or learning
connections
to others: know who, ease of access
to info: know where, perf support
pave the cow paths, bring trails
learning is a series of relationships
receiving node
nurturing relationships
listening skills, meta-learning, search, grok, frameworks, emotion, stability
sending node
empathy,
audit, organization and individual
community, yeah, but…
strength of weak ties not just master and apprentice
seed groups
friendly nomenclature: helper nets
issue: mistakenly seeing only one connection. oversimplify. stereotype.
the stocks become flows. "powerpoint = tyranny"
Web 2.0 at Motorola
Mark Oehlert on This is How It's Supposed to Work
Peter Senge, The Learning Organization
The dimension that distinguishes learning from more traditional organizations is the mastery of certain basic disciplines or ‘component technologies’. The five that Peter Senge identifies are said to be converging to innovate learning organizations. They are:
He adds to this recognition that people are agents, able to act upon the structures and systems of which they are a part. All the disciplines are, in this way, ‘concerned with a shift of mind from seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their reality, from reacting to the present to creating the future’ (Senge 1990: 69).Systems thinking
Personal mastery
Mental models
Building shared vision
Team learning
Society for Organizational Learning
This wonderful design romp through the renaissance of web page design applies directly to the presentation of learning content.