Learning Conversations

Last week, I started thinking about my personal "elevator pitch".

The short version is currently: I work at the interface of people, organisations and technology - challenging the status quo, and pushing for improvements in all three.

But that needs filling out, so here goes...

It's important to have people who can act as a "translator" between IT people, learning & development specialists, and organisation managers. That's where I tend to sit.

It is primarily a communication role; preparing documents, articles, presentations, videos, workshops etc.

Sometimes it's proactive - trying to help create understanding, and sharing knowledge, between the different groups around things such as security, usability, learning theory and design, and change management. By necessity, this includes considerable amounts of research and reading to keep up to date with the changing environments.

And sometimes it's reactive, responding to the needs of the different groups and ensuring that effective communication takes place between them. This can include project management, requirements gathering, procurement support, sales support, supplier liaison, training and user support, and much more...

I support these communication pathways across organisational boundaries - working with people from both internal & external suppliers and customers (both prospective and current). Again, by necessity, this means working in multiple contexts, across the public, private and charity sectors, including formal and workplace education.

That's why building and maintaining an effective network is essential to me, and why I subscribe wholeheartedly to a connectivist approach to my own development.

Principles of connectivism

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Connectivism, a learning theory for the digital age, George Siemens, 2004