JOHO

Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization

December 31, 2001
Editor: David Weinberger (self@evident.com)

My original link to Blogging and several other information bits - Dr. Weinberger writes:

Out with the Old, In with the New (Or: Blog me, baby. Blog me hard.) JOHO is inevitably merging with my weblog (www.hyperorg.com/blogger). Much of this issue reprints blogged material ("bloggerini"). This merging will continue in ways I haven't yet entirely determined. Your opinions and ideas are welcome. I also encourage you to visit my blogger. I write in it just about every day.

Monks Learning Paradigm

Posted to RuralTalk by Chuck Bokor on Monday, 29 November 1999.

Did you know that lecturing was invented by the monks a few centuries ago? The reason? ....there was only 1 book....

In this day and age, professors, teachers and trainers routinely use lectures and other 1-way instructional methods to impart their wisdom on others.

We are starting down the path of online, web-based training for Ministry clients. For example, during a factsheet authors meeting last week, we talked about using factsheets for more than just clients to download hardcopies for reading. What about making them interactive?

In a new book called Virtual Learning, Dr. Roger Shank explains that natural learning comes from failure. We do something, fail, and correct. Facilitators of learning (teachers?) should intervene only at the failure point - to provide guidance and some coaching to the learner. He talks about simulations as the way to enhance a learner's experience online, using the technology to enhance rather than hinder the experience.

Dr. Shank was a keynote speaker at the recent Ont Society for Training and Development (OSTD) conference. If you want to know more about how the education system is not working, why it needs to be fundamentally changed, and to what, please contact me - I bought the book! chuck

I have Chuck's copy of the book if you are interested. RBH

The Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called "life". Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons, or you may think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, of experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".

4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Then you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that again looks better than "here".

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need; what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. The answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

11. You can remember any of this whenever you want.

How to judge e-Learning Quality

According to Dr. Gillis, Charles Allen's "Show-Tell-Do-Check" approach (to learning) used with shipyard workers in 1917 is equally relevant today. Both recent neurological evidence and Piaget's cognitive constructivism support the idea that learning takes place when learners are active doing something meaningful. In other words, in the "doing" or "experiencing" of something meaningful we create new neural pathways that form the basis of new and increasingly complex mental models or schema.

In keeping with this theoretical grounding, the quality criteria e-Learning categories consist of:

1. communicate purpose of learning opportunity
2. engage the learner and maintain motivation
3. elicit relevant knowledge the learner already has
4. show examples and demonstrations
5. provide practice and feedback
6. provide integrative practice
7. promote transfer of learning
8. offer instructional help
9. use media effectively and
10. assess learning.

If we pursue this approach, next generation learning will be characterized by more engaging courses, more robust learning activities that allow for better transfer of learning, more realism in learning activities, and more use of live mentors for help and guidance. Ultimately learning will be seen as more of an exploratory activity and less of a "canned" or linearly progressive activity. Differential learning contexts and experiences will allow learners to direct activities more and thereby construct more appropriate meaning for themselves as we move to more "plug-and-play" and immersive learning environments.

From the article "What About Industry Standards?" in the December 2001 issue of OSTD OnLine newsletter.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Learned this from an article on Tech Apps interesting links.

George Radwanski points out the differences between:
-privacy (the right to control information about yourself),
-confidentiality (your obligation to protect other's information)
-security (the process of addressing threats to information).

On Practicing Community Capitalism

"Practicing community capitalism is about building and sustaining whole wealth: a broader notion of wealth that embraces natural, economic, human and social capital.

Creating whole wealth is obviously about more than making money. It's about having abundance in all the things we care about in life. Sure, some forms of wealth can be measured in output, productivity increases and shareholder return. But whole wealth includes the riches of family and friends -- of healthy workplaces, neighborhoods and natural areas. It considers the well being in our schools, civic spaces and public places. Ultimately, healthy, wealthy communities are places where each of us has the ability to fully express our gifts and promise in a sustainable natural world.

Reflecting on the whole wealth compass (below), please consider how your choices impact whole community wealth. Use it at home, work and in the civic sphere."



Reminds me of the CED triangle. RBH