Reflections and New Directions

The next challenge Mary and I face is to prepare an abstract/presentation for the 2nd Workshop on Distributed Communities of Practice (DCoP), which will be hosted by the International Centre for Governance and Development at the University of Saskatchewan in September. We have been asked to focus on the cultural aspects of the relationship between the traditional academy (TA) and the knowledge economy (KE).

To date, we have identified mutual dependencies (Slide 3) as being the shared needs of the TA and KE for: a productive economy & thriving societal culture, continuing the quest for knowledge & innovation, highly educated members, and the continuous addition of new members, as well as an acknowledgement of learning as “the principal kind of production and consumption.”

In addition, we have identified cultural tensions betweem the TA and KE as including the Knowledge Economy's valuing of learning opportunities for non-traditional learners engaged in continuous and collaborative learning. We have attested that the goals of the knowledge economy for knowledge workers (slide 4) include skill acquisition and problem-solving abilities in order to increase productivity through innovation and the creation of new commodities.

In contrast, we argue that the Academy more highly values traditional (full-time, residential)learners (slide 4) who engage in periodic (program-based)learning and who strive for individual achievement via knowledge transmission from the professoriate and open discourse wihin the academy. We identify the goals of the academy as including the preparation of educated thinkers, who in turn, become well informed and reflective citizens.

Do you think the identified tensions are accurate? Inevitable? Is there an ethical, comfortable balance of pragmatic and philosophic interests that could be reached? Are we really looking at a contrast between agency and scholarship as the proverbial double-sided coin?

Gale

AMTec in Calgary

Mary and I are delighted with the number of delegates who attended our late-afternoon Learning a Living presentation in Calgary yesterday.

It was an honour to participate in a day that began with the insights of John Seely Brown. Dr. Brown's commentary on bricolage -- the basis of open source and remix culture -- seemed particulary apt as Mary and I found ourselves presenting an overview of Richard Schwier's 2001 VLC model... with Rick sitting in on our session.

Questions and comments from delegates included an extension of the Regina discussion of conflict within VLCs, as well as a discussion of cognitive and social indicators of learner engagement. So very many avenues in this arena beg further exploration.

It is my pleasure to welcome Jocelyn Lamoureux from the Learning and Teaching Resources Branch of Alberta Education and Merrolee Penman from Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand into VLC101. I very much look forward to their comments on our progress to date.

Cheers,

Gale

TLt Symposium Regina

Gale and I were very pleased to see the interest our session at the TLt Symposium on May 3 attracted. We had over 12 participants from SIAST, regional colleges, UofR, and UofS in support roles, teaching faculty, and students. We couldn't have asked for better diversity in our community!

We had some discussion about Conflict in VLCs (slide 17 of the PP) and how difficult it was to resolve issues within the life of the VLC. We also had feedback on our emphasis on social community rather than learning in Indicators of Vibrant VLCs (slide 19 of the PP). This point is well taken and we can include information about research on indicators of learning in VLCs. Stay tuned for an update on this.

Many thanks to Denise Nelson and the TLt organizing committee for providing us with such wonderful facilities for our session.

Mary

Learning a Living Website

Please accept our invitation to review the Learning a Living Website. Just click on the title in the right-hand column. We welcome your comments and questions.

To blog or wiki?

Just as I'm thinking of becoming a blogger, along comes wikis! One question I'd like to explore in the next few months is if readers are more likely to comment on a wiki or a blog. Is the greater visibility of readers' input something that promotes community development?

Rick's Café Canadien

A really great instructional design BLOG! You can find it at:
http://www.omegageek.net/rickscafe/

Designing For Diversity

Thank you Gail for your kind invitation,

I'm Deirdre Bonnycastle, I work for the University of Saskatchewan and I am interested in how we meet the needs of the diverse student population we are currently seeing in educational institutes. I created a Blog called Designing for Diversity in order to facilitate discussion about this topic. Please join me at
http://designingdiversity.blogspot.com/
I am particularly interested in Universal Design for Learning which has the following six guidelines
1. inclusion of all cultures, classes, genders and abilities in the content
2. supportive of difference
3. flexible presentation
4. flexible assessment
5. accessible
6. explicit feedback