Creating social learning spaces
December 20, 2008 by Dave Briggs
One of the issues with the training element of the digital mentor initiative is that, of course, different people like to learn in different ways - and this will be amplified by the widely differing ability levels that already exist out there when it comes to online media.
What’s required, then, is perhaps a new way of looking at how we learn best and how that might be delivered. David Wilcox has a fascinating post about ’social learning spaces’. Such a social learning space could be anything or anywhere that learning is possible: a workshop, a conversation, a blog or a wiki, or a forum. Offline or online, it doesn’t matter - the important thing is that people are open and share their knowledge to add to the sum of learning available.
I guess Wikipedia is a good example of an online learning space, but any blog is the same: people sharing what they know online so others can benefit. But I think it is important for online social learning spaces to be blended with offline to create a more rich exchange of information and increased trust in the community.
I wonder how the idea of social learning spaces could be incorporated both into the training of digital mentors, the training that the digital mentors will perhaps themselves provide, and also how it can be encouraged in the work of the communities benefitting from digital mentoring?
Dave - thanks for picking up on social learning spaces. My inspiration for that (mentioned in my post) was Etienne Wenger, who talks about “social artists” as people who can use their commitment to be a learning citizen to become social artists, helping create and support those spaces. Video of Etienne here
Another inspiration is Ed Mitchell who writes so well about the distributed nature of the web these days - latest here
Ed makes the point that - once we are digitally literate - we can create our own networks, and be in many places. The notion of “platforms” doesn’t really work well any more.
So - digital mentors a social artists?
The challenge will be to manage our own personal social networks online in many places (just as we do offline).
If we accept that emerging model, it seems to me that digital mentors are flexible in their approach, and focus on helping people develop the capacity to manage their online activity over this rather complex digital landscape. Otherwise they may just end up confined to a few digital ghetto places.
Fan of Wenger here too. The pace that the digital climate is evolving is faster than standard methods of learning can address. I can’t see how a “one size fits all” can work when recipients of any mentoring will all require something different and in varying locations. Versatility and creativity should be key attributes to successful mentoring.