Corporate learning increasingly deals with groups instead of individuals, networks instead of silos, and impromptu instead of planned activities. Learning ecosystems create more value than learning programs. We need to shift our thinking from instructional design to environmental design.
The best metaphor I’ve yet found for being a learning ecologist comes from classic books on landscape design. That’s holistic, too. You design, climate happens, things evolve. When dealing with learning, I call this learnscaping.
A learnscape is not a network or a campaign. It’s the whole enchilada.
This morning I recorded a seven-minute explanation of what I’m talking about.
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Seems like “learnscape” is a synonym for “knowledge ecosystem”.
Peter, maybe it’s just me, but knowledge ecosystem sounds impersonal. I want to capture the interplay of learners, the co-creation of new knowledge, and the need to nurture what you want to see more of.
Jay, I guess these things are very much about what expressions mean to us. From my perspective, having spent much time exploring knowledge, I have come to the view that knowledge only exists in people – everything else is an information based representation for the purposes of sharing knowledge. So, when I say knowledge ecosystem it infers people ecosystem and is very personal, because we each operate within our own overlapping ecosystems. But I can understand that it might seem impersonal to you. Since I have never worked in the education / learning field, and if it weren’t for the fact that I only recently discovered the relevance of elearning interests to me, learnscapes would not have capture my attention at all!!
But, now I appreciate that my interest in knowledge sharing and knowledge creation has significant overlaps (synonymously in some areas) with those of elearning advocates, and that in some areas, it is simply language that is the barrier to appreciating this common interest!
Peter, I’m only sixteen months late in replying. (I was almost trapped by a black hole.)
Check out George Siemens’ Knowing Knowledge for an alternative viewpoint. George would tell you that knowledge exists not within people but between people.