REPORTER:
Don McIntosh Wow!
Where Did That Come From? Ten Principles for Stimulating Emergent Learning - Peter
Honebein, Ph.D. Honebein Associates, Inc.
Peter
defined emergent learning as - An instructional method that generates new constructions
of knowledge and skill that are more than the sum of the parts. His
ten principles include:
1. A large number of elements (students and resources)
2.
Interaction between the elements (optimizing communication between elements)
3.
Rich interactions
4. Non-linear interactions
5. Interactions have a short
range (elements are physically close together)
6. Interactions have feedback
loops.
7. The system is open and can communicate with other systems.
8.
Disequilibrium rules the system - a constant state of change.
9. The system
has a history which can be tracked and managed.
10. Each element is ignorant
of the behaviour of the system as a whole. Peter
has worked with this particularly in a post-secondary education environment using
tools such as Web CT, but I believe that it is applicable to corporate situations
as well. Peter's
presentation was interactive. He asked us to come up with a process improvement
scenario and explore ideas for the development of emergent learning using a worksheet
he created. As groups, we had fun exploring the possibilities and found that there
was synergy with other ideas from the conference such as Bill Daniels strategy,
Joe Durzo's ideas regarding the value of consultants and, of course, the whole
HPT approach. We
observed that this can be done with interest groups in an organization. In my
experience, whenever you have teams of people working on real projects, new knowledge
can emerge and it is important to capture this in a form which can be shared.
In my mind, Peter has over formalized this somewhat but I believe there is value
in looking closely at some of his ideas. All
this from 3:30 to 5:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. |
| 
Check
out Don's other reports: My
conference impressions How
do you want to learn today? - Connie Cassarino and Ginger Swope, IBM Avoiding
Performance Technology Myopia
- Joe Durzo Wow!
Where Did That Come From? - Peter Honebein |
