Learning Ecology

Just moving into Week 4 of the 2nd quarter, and the readings, videos and podcasts are amazing. The 2009 Horizon Report lists the upcoming technology advances we will see in the next several years - mobile, cloud computing, geo-everything, the personal web, semantic-aware applications and smart objects. Wow! How many of those do you know about?

John Seely Brown, in his Seminal Paper, talks about the changes that need to happen in education to meet the needs of kids growing up in the digital age. These are not simple changes, but entire shifts in thinking, and they are all possible with the versatility of the Web. He describes the Web as transformative, interactive, rapidly developing, focused on social learning, and responsive to multiple intelligences. It is a tool that has the potential to leverage learning. The Web allows a region to combine knowledge and “augment the dynamics of a region.” The Web is so important for education because today’s kids are multi-processors and today’s new literacy is Information Navigation. The Web facilitates informal learning from experts to anyone who wants to learn, as well as from students to teachers.

In the Jossey-Bass reader, I learned about political aspects of leadership. According to Wikipedia, ploitics is “social relations involving authority or power”. I had never really thought of politics as anything other than government, so this surprised me a little. The key to political skill is in building relationships. One can only do this by caring about people. We show we care by listening, being sincere, thinking before speaking, and getting to know the people in our organization. I loved reading about this, because caring about people is central to my philosophy and my mission. I am getting caught up on the readings nicely this weekend, and am looking forward to this new week.