Tending the Boundaries of Your Zen Garden

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‘In a world that is not predictable, improvisation and innovation are more than desirable, they are essential.’ My reading of Wenger helped me understand the potential of the read/write web for fostering innovation.

“Metrics for such innovations are tricky, since social practices evolve slowly and surround us continuously, and thus become our frame of reference. It is not until we are abruptly forced to put them aside that we become aware of how much they have been shaping our lives.” (link) John Seely Brown,I think Wenger is about realistically providing an authentic environment where the natural processes of learning and innovation are augmented. Imagine if we made no space for innovation in learning. There would be only one answer, one way of learning. How much real learning would occur? On the other hand if we choose only to focus on innovation it would be difficult to know what was important to us, how we should start.

In my previous post I discussed the difference between collaboration and cooperation. Noting the subtleties in authority, autonomy and control. Wenger goes further and addresses the dualistic nature of these and many other aspects of learning design so that the community designer can approach learning design with a clear mind and open eyes. These provide a frame of reference for creating a balance where learning is understood from the perspective of the people involved, their relationships to each other, the relationship of the community to other communities, the place of all participants in the world and possibly most importantly the relationship of these parts to practice.

The complications of building learning communities are the complications of being in relationships, building businesses and just generally being a person in the world. We are always fighting the greater of two evils or looking for a way to have our cake and eat it to. By recognising the innately human task of learning and innovation we can support the people and therefore the practice and often save ourselves a dollar in the long term.

Even though Wengers language can be a little esoteric I found his approach very practical in it’s essence.

• Things change – we can attempt to plan for it but we can’t control it, don’t fight it, capitalise on it
• We don’t work in isolation – the linkages are what helps us grow and achieve, support them and they’ll support you
• We need a boundary to work towards – a clear vision helps us identify with the community we are part of, make it clear but not dictatorial
• Fostering innovation can economically and usefully be used manage practice and learning as part of the wider human experience – create processes that make this natural and ongoing

The potential of the read/write web to blur the boundary between producer and consumer may provide us with an opportunity to help learners and learning designers understand their roles as they overlap and intertwine.

I sit squarely at the intersection of designer and learner. I participate in various communities and have many many online learning experiences. The challenge for me is defining where those boundaries lie, where my questions intersect the questions of the communities I engage with and how I can develop a sense of the overall path of my learning so that I can support others in their learning. I wonder how other people are responding to a learning landscape where change is constant?