http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/2008/08/27/from-courses-to-community-a-personal/#comment-5376
I would argue however that this is not new. We have been doing this, all of us for ever, the only differerence now is that thanks to the 20 or so years of writing on CoPs, Lave, Wenger, Orr, Hildreth Kimble and many many more, and the whole universe of situated learning, the ideas begin to gain currency. And that is wonderful.
The change is not least due to the affordances of new technology,and example of online interaction that Nancy White describes is everyday in my world and in the worlds of most of the people I work with, and I would guess, most of the readers of this blog.
However, there is a world outside this rarefied world. In some ways there is a sense in the educational blogosphere that as Neil Young (yes him) said “If we think real hard, maybe we can stop this rain”. We dance our dance, but unfortunately the rain isnt listening.
The idea is mature, and some early adopters are working on it, we like to think of them as the groundswell of the wave that will change everything. It is just over the horizon, we say. Or think. Or hope. I bet we have all dreamed often enough of that. But it never happens. However obvious, however common-sense it may seem. What are we doing wrong?
I think Nancy's post is excellent, succinct, to the point. I recgonise it, it describes the change I perceive in the world I live in, something that has grown slowly over ten years. But after five years working on these ideas with companies, and organisations, I know how hard it is to get people to accept the idea (not “buy-in”, I mean accepting the idea).
The problem perhaps is that although the impulse is often commercial; people want to improve training in their organisation, returns etc, the change is not possible without reorganising your epistemological understandings. It is a hard word, epistemology, but I would suggest that without staring it in the face we are all preaching to the converted here. Most do not understand learning as a way of life and resist attempts to change what they understand as their way of life. Or of understanding their world. Command and control, defining what is known, even in non-profits, even where we are aware of it, and fore-warned, continues to have a profound influence, to the extent that rather than challenging it most of us limit ourselves to subverting it. Often pyrrically.
When we present these ideas the current answer is that listening outside your network, strategic thinking, giving space to explore, trust, networking, being prepared and so on are all key ideas for the organisation. As long as they dont cost money. And the beauty is usually skin deep. Lip service is easy, but the fundamental change that these ideas imply is perhaps threatening.
I would be interested in hearing how people deal with these issues, not so much in their own lives as much as when they explain it to others.
