Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI)

By Christian Kohls (Knowledge Media Research Center, Germany); Joachim Wedeknd (Knowledge Media Research Center, Germany), Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. 2011. Design patterns have become popular in the domains of architecture, software design, human computer interaction, Web 2.0, organizational structures, and pedagogy as a way to communicate practical knowledge. Patterns capture proven solutions for recurrent problems with respect to fitting context. This publication addresses both e-learning practitioners and researchers, using an accessible language to communicate sophisticated knowledge and important research methods and results.

Chapter 19: Evolving a "Third Way" to Group Consultancy: Bridging Two Mode3ls of Theory and Practice, Jean E. Neumann, Evangelina Holvino, and Earl t. Braxton, Group Relations Reader 3, pp. 421-441. Interesting study on bridging NTL (individual, interpersonal style of facilitation) and Tavistock (group as structural unit) practices. Need to read slowly with pen in hand to begin to apply to our online facilitation work.

An overview by Diana Laurillard. On ALT Open Access Repository. From OLWeekly, March 11

This is a good intro/rationale to have people work in a supportive, online setting to get a sense of what it is like to work on something meaningful without resorting to a workshop or lecture about the benefits of communities of practice.

I am into my work because the following excerpt says so much to me..."goal state is initially only partially described" (every time!); the need to "scaffold the work of leaders" while "making a more improvisational style of collaboration possible". These phrases express truth and learning goals for me. "Her research on leadership in creative collaboration online explores how people can collaborate across distance on projects where the goal state is initially only partially described. Amy and her students are creating tools both to support existing creative collaborative practice by scaffolding the work of leaders, and also to try to transform that practice by making a more improvisational style of collaboration possible."

Headed by Amy Bruckman, Associate professor at Georgia Tech, this Electronic Learning Communities center engages Ph.D. level students in studying the application of constructionist social learning online. They are doing some fascinating work, such as developing software to support leaders of learning communities, offering young A-A males the chance to be game testers and to use that experience credential as a route into computer science studies and careers, etc. These are but two research examples; there are more.

Apparently, crowdsourcing of scholarly work requires support just as online networks/communities require assistance for 'voluntary' members to identify desired outcomes within a fleshed out change model; design and rollout processes and collaborative technologies; sometimes analyze content generated, provoke movement or change in tactics, etc.

Article by Amy Cavender on issues and gains from using eportfolios with college students. Mentions several eportfolio possibilities in article and in comments, such as Google Sites, Mahara, Yola, Weebly, or WordPress.

TED has set up an education Brain Trust of short lectures that it says anyone may contribute to. Should be fascinating.

This research is why I was encouraging host ambassadors to upload their pictures and profiles--they can be far more successful than I at engaging their peers in Polilogue-learning prior to the Conference.

This Carnegie hosted recorded webinar features panelists Anthony Bryk and Louis Gomez. They argue that the social organization of the research enterprise is badly broken and a very different alternative is needed. Instead, they support a science of improvement research and introduce the idea of a "networked improvement community that creates the purposeful collective action needed to solve complex educational problems." Webinar date, January 27, 2011.

excellent introduction to what the alliance does. see description below: Business or Operational Model: how the initiative fits into the organization's ecosystem. 2.Social Architecture: how collaboration is facilitated and what aspects should supported, such as performance support; communities of practice; knowledge management, informal learning or distributed work teams. 3.Technology Platform: identifying and implementing technologies that are best-suited for the organization's business and collaboration objectives and how they can be integrated within existing constraints.

I like his division of services into business or operational model, social architecture, and technology platform

Excellent video on how businesses need to redesign their systems to support listening, learning, sharing--more people you know, the more things you can do--"next practices" drawn from Jarche's blog

Very interesting yet short video on social learning as it relates to business but at first glance, they seem to apply to nonprofits/educational groups, too.

By Daniel R. Rehak, PhD., Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) technical advisor. Presented as keynote at Fourth International Workshop on Search and Exchange of e-le@rning Materials (SE@M '10), September 27-28 2010 in Barcelona Spain. Rehak's basic point is that all of the learning materials already exist -- we just need a better, more viable, more searchable repository for them. Very nicely produced presentation.