In How the net works, Stephen describes the network approach to learning in contrast with the transmission model. It’s long but certainly worth reading unless, or course, you’re in favor exclusive use of the transmission model.
Learning is a lot more than transferring information. Learning is becoming:
Rather than being a process of acquiring something, as commonly depicted, learning is in fact a process of becoming something. Learners do not ‘receive’ information which they then ’store’, they gain experiences which, over time, result in the formation of neural structures. To learn is to instantiate patterns of connectivity in the brain. These connections form as a result practice and experience. They are not constructed; a student does not ‘make meaning’ or ‘construct meaning’, as sometimes depicted in the literature. Connections are grown, not created; meaning is, therefore, grown, not constructed.
Learning involves knowledge, and knowledge is not what we thought it was either. It’s the connections in your head and to the world:
The ‘knowledge’ we have is, in essence, the patterns of connectivity we have in our mind. Or, we might say, the knowledge *is* the network. What does this mean? The way networks learn is the way people learn. Network learning is the same thing as personal learning.
What does it take to make this network learning take place?
Looking at successful websites in general (and looking at usability, information architecture, and other design documents) we can identify three major criteria: interaction, usability and relevance.
Stephen separates personal learning and network learning. I don’t, but that’s a quibble, not a show-stopper. He concludes that “the model of learning as a personal and a network activity provides us with concrete insights into the sort of learning environments that are most likely to be successful online.” I couldn’t agree more.
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Just made a connection regarding transmission models. In reading the eLearning Guild’s “Handbook of eLearning Strategy” I noticed a few content-centric and transmission-oriented diagrams (pp. 2, 4, 12). Our industry associations are still pushing the transmission model and it’s obvious why they are doing so when you read the advertisements in this free e-book.
For the most part, the articles are good (though Patti’s Shank’s use of the completely unproven Bloom’s taxonomy as a prescriptive measure on p. 31 jolted me).
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.817
Friends and colleagues, if you will write up a framework that will help practitioners understand how to incorporate the network learning model into their organizational learning strategy, I will publish it in Learning Solutions. In fact, if you’ll help me find a sponsor who will defray the costs, and if you will provide the content, I’ll publish an e-Book on the topic of network learning. Considering that our e-Books get thousands of downloads, it seems to me that it would be a great way to push the idea.
I’ve written and published articles in Learning Solutions about the use of social software, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. I’d like to publish more about these and other aspects of informal and network learning, but I can’t do that without your help. I am not and The Guild is not “pushing the transmission model” — and on the other hand, I can’t publish what you don’t write! So I am publicly inviting your contributions.
As to Adobe’s sponsorship, they had no input into the content of the book. Zero. They did not get to review it before it was published, and authors were told to write their chapters without regard to the sponsor’s product line.
Enough of my rant. Have we got a deal?
A good summary of an interesting article, commenting on a reflection of one of the best commenters on the Net. I liked it and it took me to other interesting places. “knowledge *is* the network”. Thank you, Jay.