The Learning Coach's Blog

Updated: Learning through Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:06:00 +0000

I'm back. Sorry for the long delay in blog posts. I am now going to provide a concept map of learning through experience. Learning is more than just sitting in a classroom, taking tests, and getting degree. It is about becoming a professional. Becoming a professional is about being immersed into the activities of a community of professionals. Immersive activities is about the learning experience. Learning takes place through experience. The learning experience consists of practice fields and real fields. Think about how different sports get ready for games, the real field. They practice. They are put into simulated experiences and also do deliberate practice. Simulated experiences are like scrimmages. Deliberate practice is like practicing techniques over and over again until they are mastered. Simulated experiences and real fields consists of a coach, activity, and a learner. The biggest difference between a simulated experience and a real field is about identity. Practice allows learners to practice a professional identity but it is the real field where becoming a professional takes places under real world conditions. Nothing can replace the actual experience but simulated experiences are good to help learners practice skills under a controlled environment. The coach is the teacher in this model and their provide just in time teaching and assess performance during practice and real fields. There are many ways to assess the experience of a learner through performance assessments. We will review different kinds of activities in a later blog post. We will also explore the role of a coach in a later blog post.

How to teach creativity and innovation to learners?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:02:00 +0000

In my previous posts, I put together a definition of creativity and innovation. You will notice that these skill sets are not hard skills but soft skills. How do you teach this skills to learners? Teachers can not stand in front of the classroom and transfer creativity and innovation to learners. They must model and demonstrate these skills and they need to demonstrate them.

This is much different from learning as we know it in a traditional classroom. It is all about learning by experience. I am convinced that the only way to prepare learners for the next generation of jobs is through practice and real world experiences. The traditional way we would look at this would be to design a class in creativity and innovation and put slides together on what it is and test learners on the concept of creativity and innovation. I know this is a simplistic view of how this is done but it will help get my point across. Learners would never acquire the creativity and innovation skill doing this. We need to look at this in a completely different way. We need to ask ourselves what kinds of experiences do we need to design to allow learners to be able to practice creativity and innovation skills?

Of course, I believe that we need to do this in a context. Since I am a technologist and a runner, I will stick with what I know when I describe this.

Systems Inquiry Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Before I go any further in the innovation skills realm, I want to describe a systems worldview that will be the focus on my blogging from now on. Systems inquiry is three interrelated domains - systems theory, systems philosophy, and systems methodology. Systems theory is about the science of wholeness. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The new Science that Margaret Wheatley talks about in her writings falls into systems theory. Systems philosophy is a systems worldview; systems thinking is an approach to new ideas and possibilities. The systems philosophy I will use is the cultural-history school of psychology. Systems methodology are the methods used in systems investigations and the tools for application of systems theory to problems. I will use activity theory and appreciative inquiry as the systems methodology. Systems consists of both hard systems and human systems. You can not look at the world with only a hard systems or a human systems lens. I will look at the systems using a holistic approach. Systems require looking at the people, processes, and technology of the system. You also need to consider the culture and community. When I talk about systems, I will be using the community as a system in my posts. I feel that the community is central to understanding innovations and the adoption of innovations. Sometimes innovations will create a new community around the innovation which to me is a disruptive innovation or a new process and/or technology is introduced to a community which transforms the community. Activity theory is used to show activity of a community and the transformation of a community. Each individual has an unique identity in a community. The innovation skills that I have talked about up to this point focus on the individual skills needed for innovation. A person can not exist in isolation but belong to some community. Now, an innovator could create their own communities if they do not exist but they usually come from some community where their identity is formed. So, you can not isolate the innovation from a community. They coexist. To be successful, an innovation needs a community to be a successful innovation. Remember the innovation must be of value to be useful to a community. This is line of thought I will use when discussing innovation in my blog.

Defining Communication and Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:13:00 +0000

The last two key skills in innovation are communication and collaboration. Communication can be broken down into listening, dialogue, and discussion. You need to be able to listen which can be a hard skill to master for some. Dialogue is about an open ended conversation. Discussion is about communication that leads to a decision. You need to master both. Dialogue does require listening along with participating. Collaboration is about working with two or more people towards a common goal. Teamwork is a part of the ability to collaborate.

Community and Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:44:00 +0000

In this next post, we will investigate community and culture. I will treat them together because they really belong together.

A community is a group of people who share a concern, dialogue, work, and learn together. A special kind of community that I will blog about is a Community of Practice. We all belong to communities of practice and we all have our own special identities in each of these community. Identity is an important concept in a community. From newbies to old timers, each member of a community lend their expertise. A practice is always social in nature and it is a domain of expertise. Communities have histories, artifacts, and activities that allow members to participate. Identity, activities, and practice are the key terms in the community language.

The last term of importance is culture. Communities develop a culture over time. A culture has customs, tools, values, beliefs, practices, and behaviors. Members must conform to the culture to fit in. Member either buy into the culture or they do not participate in it.

In Innovation, communities and cultures are important concepts for you to master. You can not bring an idea from conception to adoption without understanding the community and culture that you are trying to introduce the innovation into. You must understand these concepts to figure out how to get members to adopt an innovation. Some innovations can cause a community to transform. Healthy communities do transform themselves over time.

Defining Curiosity

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:13:00 +0000

We will explore curiosity today as a skill of innovation. To be curious, you need

* to be inquisitive

The ability to ask questions and use Socratic questioning in an area of interest.

* to explore

The ability and eagerness to explore a topic in detail. This includes researching and playing with ideas/possibilities.

* to investigate

As part of exploration, you need to investigate. You almost need to be an investigative reporter trying to get the details you need in the area of interest.

* to learn

You need to eager to learn more about an area of interest and get into that area in depth. You must go beyond the surface understanding of a topic. You must do a deep dive and get into depth. You must learn as much as you can.

* to experiment

You need to be willing to experiment with new possibilities and ideas to see they are of value or not. If the experiment is successful, then you move the idea forward. If not, you need to be wiling to let it go.

Defining Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Here is the next installment of defining Innovation. We will explore creativity skills. Creativity is the process of imagining and generating new ideas that have value.

I have included a mind map for creativity. You will see the following skills:

* Imagination

To be creative, you need to have a good imagination.

* New Lens

To be creative, you need to be able to look at this in a different lens. This means you need to be able to look at things in a different way.

* Open Mindedness

To be creative, you need to have an open mind to new ideas and possibilities. We have a lot of people in this world that closes their mind to new ideas. They are so fixated on the past that they can not imagine the future.

* New Possibilities

To be creative, you need to able to generate new possibilities / ideas that have value. The key to this statement is "value". You can have ideas but if they are not valuable then the ideas will never get traction.

* Risk Taking

To be creative, you need to not be afraid of failure. You need to be able to understand that not all possibilities and/or ideas will be of value which means they is a good chance you will fail with your ideas. We are so focused on the right answer in schools today that no one is willing to take a risk and fail. I find that failing are just as good learning experiences as successes. You learn alot. This takes someone who has the self confidence to fail and move on. This means that you need to be able to learn and unlearn very quickly.

* Flexible

To be creative, you need to be flexible. Change in a constant in today's business world so you will be faced with opportunities and you need to be willing to be flexible. Just because you have a good idea does not mean you become arrogant over it and hold it close to the vest. It requires an openness and flexibility to go with the punches.

Innovation Mind Map

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I have done a little brainstorming on innovation and created a top level mind map of my thinking around innovation. We will explore each area of the map in future blog entries. I call this the 6 Cs - collaboration, communication, community, creativity, curiosity, and culture. Innovation is a full holistic process and not just about technology. It is about people, processes, and technology. Each of the Cs brings innovation to being not just a personal process but also a collaborative one. It requires someone with good communication skills, someone to be creative, and someone with curiosity. Someone willing to ask questions and be curious. A big part of innovation is about asking the right questions. Innovation is also about community. You can have the greatest idea in the world but it will never be successful because the community does not adopt it. As part of community, you need to understand the culture of the targeted community. More about this in another post.

Innovation Defined

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I have my own definition of innovation that has been informed by Phil McKinney of www.killerinnovations.com and Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.

in * no * va * tion [in-uh-vey-shuhn]
- noun
1. the process of taking an original idea that has value from conception to adoption.

Innovation is about ideas that have value. It is also about being able to take it from an idea to be used by the community at large. You can have a great idea but it does not mean you can bring it to the world who will adopt and embrace it. Remember, it can be a process and/or technology (either physical or virtual). Innovation is both social and technical. It requires both the right and left brain. It requires form and function.

Innovation skills

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Since we are now in a Creative Economy where creativity and innovation is king. What are some of the skills needed for innovators. The 21st century skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) web site is where we will begin the exploration of skill sets in creativity and innovation. These lists are useful to begin a dialogue and not an end in itself. I say this because someone will want to take these skills and create a curriculum based on traditional teaching methods which will not work for these kinds of behavioral skills. You must learn from experience and not from listening to lectures and taking tests.

So, from Partnership for 21st Century Skills web site -

Creativity and Innovation

* Demonstrating originality and inventiveness in work
* Developing, implementing and communicating new ideas to others
* Being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives
* Acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the domain in which the innovation occurs

If you look at these points, you will see most of them being behavioral in nature. The key aspect of innovation is being able to take ideas from conception to production whether it is a physical product or a software product or a process. I believe that you can apply innovation to people, processes, and technology.

Invention is different from innovation. Just because you invent something does not make you an innovator. An example of this is the operating system. Bill Gates did not invent DOS but he was able to innovate to bring DOS to the masses. This is something to keep in the back of your mind.

The Creative Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:10:00 +0000

Sorry, I have not posted in a while. I have been a big fan of Killer Innovations (www.killerinnovations.com).

I have been very concerned about the future of technological work. Part of my doctoral research I wanted to figure out where the future is going.

We have entered a creative economy that is very focused on ideas and innovation. I have suggested in the past that we are entering a new renaissance. Today, left and right brain thinkers is what is needed. Form and function is important. One is not important over another. A good example is the Apple iPhone and iPod.

What are the implications of this thinking? Traditional disciplines and educational models are quickly becoming commodities. The world is about how to generate ideas and bring them quickly to market. Innovation is the key to the future. To me, this means we need to educate and train new technological workers in a different way with creativity and innovation as important goals in education. This is not a focus in most programs.

Slowly but surely, the Hollywood model of creating movies is coming to the technological workforce. Everyone will be a consultant in the future. The Hollywood model is about bringing the talent together to create a movie and then the team is disbanded at the end. This is increasing happening in technology.

There are two kinds of companies...you have the big companies and the small companies. The employees in a big company has a corporate entity to be able to move between projects. Employees are somewhat isolated from the risk that small companies The small companies live on a project by project basis and may have multiple customers at one time.

Between the move to the Creative Economy and the change in the employment contract, technological professionals need to stay on their toes and stay current.

Tools as Mediating Artifacts

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:31:00 +0000

In Activity Theory language, a tool is considered a mediating artifact between a subject whom uses a tool that transforms some object that becomes an outcome for the subject. Lets look at an example of a farmer. A farmer uses tractors to transform the land to be able to plant, cultivate, and/or harvest crops. In this case the mediating artifact is the tractor.

All Web 2.0 tools are all mediating artifacts in the activity theory language. Subjects uses Web 2.0 tools to transform some object into an outcome. So, there are three questions we need to ask ourselves when we make statements that Web 2.0 will transform the world.

* What is the subject who will use the tool? Who are the person or persons who will use the tool?
* What is the object the subject will act upon or transform?
* What is the outcome of using the tool?

There needs to be some motivation for someone to use Web 2.0 tools and we need to make sure that we are meeting a true need. Web 2.0 tools just on the face of it looks very promising and will make the interactive Web a reality. I see Web 2.0 as enabling communities and people to collaborate, communicate, and share.

Typically, when using mediating artifacts over time allows an activity system to transform itself. What are Web 2.0 tools going to transform? I believe it is the user experience and also the Internet will become the computer if Web 2.0 lives up to its promises.

LearnHub

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:16:00 +0000

Last week I received an email about a community called learnhub (www.learnhub.com) where you can be both a teacher and a student in a community. You have the ability to teach to or also learn from other people. You can join communities, participate in discussions, sign up for classes, also teach classes. You can also learn from other people. I would like to take some time and outline my interest in LearnHub and the theoretical foundations that I use to measure LearnHub.

I am a communities of practice, activity theory, and social learning theorist believer. I look at the world through these lenses. I do this because the world right now is so focused on behaviorism which is based on stimulus - response and looking at the world through pieces and parts and not the holistic hole. I look at the world holistically through a systems approach. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a common interest and participate together to co-create a practice. A practice can be anything like family practice, systems engineering, and other professions.

CoPs have members at all levels of participation. A community can have a lurker who sits on the periphery of a community and occasionally participates. Then, you have the core members who are the leaders and are completely engaged in the practice of the community. They are the role models for the other members. In this model, there may be multiple people who are the teachers or what I like to call coaches. These people are responsible for transferring the knowledge of the community to the newer members. CoPs also transform through participation of its members. There is a distinct culture in a CoP. Also, you will find tools, technologies, social norms, division of labor, informal goals of the CoP. I envision LearnHub as constellations of communities of practice. In a CoP, members have identities and those identities are transformed through the members participation in the community. In one community, a member might be a novice member or in another community that same person could be a master/expert in the community.

I really like to see LearnHub use their authority measurement and create a peer authority. I am not sure what the actual measures under the peer authority would be but it would be related to the participation of the member and their status among the members. Other members should be able to rate other members of the community through their interactions with them. For example, if a master member responds to another member, the post could be rated as effectiveness or helpfulness to the member requesting information or help. So, if I visit a photography community I should know who are the levels of members in the community from novice, apprentice, journeyer, master. Depending upon their authority numbers, they would be in one of those categories. The authority number can be calculated through multiple ways like the others are done. This does require some thought though. This would get LearnHub closer to a CoP as the research presents and also provides newbies information about who the masters are.

So, to fulfill the ideals of social learning theory, CoPs, and activity theory, I would like LearnHub to use these ideals to transform itself into a powerful social learning network. I will explain more in upcoming posts.

Web 2.0 Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:55:00 +0000

There are a lot of Web 2.0 tools that exist in the marketplace. Web 2.0 does have a lot of possibilities including creating a better interactive multimedia and learning experience to the Web. But, we have got to remember that these are just technology tools and the tools themselves will not change the world.

There are three parts of any introduction to new technological innovations: people, process, and technology. You can not have one without the others. People will not use Web 2.0 tools unless it improves their personal and/work processes in how they do their job. I have tried to introduce new Web 2.0 tools and innovations in the workplace over many years. I have learned the hard way that it is not easy to integrate new tools or innovations into the workplace.

I think we need more research on how and what technological tools are being used by people in their day-to-day lives like an anthropological study. This may gleam some insights on what tools are being used, how they are being used, and why they are being used. Unless we ask the who, what, when, how and why questions then we will not really know the answers to these questions. I used activity theory in my dissertation research to try to learn how IT professionals solve problems. Activity theory may be a model that can be used to guide such research in Web 2.0. I need to do more research myself to see if any of this work is ongoing.

I have also learned a couple of things while introducing these tools. First of all, the technology must be a mandatory part of the day-to-day work processes to be used. Email needs to be used for updates and reminders and a link to get them to where they need to go quickly. Also, there must be a concerted effort on leaders to use the tools and model their usage to others.

Web 2.0 technologies possess the possibility of truly transforming the user experience. Designers need to figure out how to make these tools so easy that users want to use the tools and they are more productive in the process. Otherwise, people will stay with what they know - email, browsers, office, etc.

More reflections on metaverses

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:54:00 +0000

I would like to continue the dialogue on metaverses in education. In my previous post, I talked about the need to move beyond just replicating the real world classroom into metaverses even though it is going to happen. I am designing a Second Life island for a group in Springfield, MA to support their technological education mission and we will have these areas.

To fully move to the next level, imho, we need to look at metaverses as simulations of the real world and provide rich, immersive experiences that will actively engage learners in their development of who they are aiming to become. In my example in the previous post, I am actively working on designing programs and courses in the network and security technology areas. I would love to be able to provide learners with a rich immersive learning experience where they are "working" as network and/or security technologists that provides experiences to help them learn how to become these professionals. I would also want to design learning experiences where they practice a particular technical skill.

I believe that learning is best situated in context and in participation in a community of practice. Learning is social by nature. Metaverses has the potential to provide these rich immersive social learning experiences.

My reflections on metaverses

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:19:00 +0000

I have been doing quite a bit of work with metaverses lately especially in the areas of Second Life and Croquet. Metaverses are virtual 3d worlds that you immerse yourself in and participate in as a member. You are able to build and/or just be a user. Being active in these metaverses is about participation in the community surrounding the tool. In Second Life, for example, you can buy items using a currency called Lindens and use them to build your avatar or to build with. You can explore the world and participate in its activities. I am interested in these worlds for educational purposes. These worlds are pretty incredible and exciting to say the least.

BUT, we have to be careful with these virtual worlds in education. Like all other technologies, they are just tools. They are a means to an end not an end in itself. These virtual worlds are not going to solve any problems with education unless we think differently.

I am afraid that we are just going to replicate the traditional classroom in these worlds. Actually, I am seeing it happen already. Replicating what we already do is not necessarily all a bad thing it is just thinking too narrowly and in the box. I am not going to say any more about this because I want to start a conversation on the possibilities of metaverses in education NOT the failings of education. I could go down that route but it always ends up with people becoming defensive and combative. The failings are pretty well documented. It always what Zander and Zander in The Art of Possibility calls the downward spiral. I want to get us out of the downward spiral and get us into looking at the possibilities instead of the problems. It changes the dialogue from the negative to the positive. We have a habit to always look at the negative and pessimism sets in if we are not careful.

The possibilities of metaverses are endless. I would challenge everyone to think differently here. I believe in activity and that learning is through experience as Dewey once wrote. Metaverses provide the tools to allow us to create a new kind of learning experience. One that is immersive in nature and one that guide learners into becoming the practitioner they want to become whether the practice is music, video, technology, art, etc. Learning is about experience and doing. I believe that you must do to learn. In the way we design courses today, we focus a lot on content and not on activity and context. I would challenge us to think about how to design courses that are activity centered and in context.

For example, I am responsible for network technology at Capella University. I would love to be able use a metaverse to teach learners how to become network technologists from the architecture to the construction. This hypothetical metaverse would simulate a real world context such as wiring a building or installing a network for a client and the learners would have to plan and execute the plan. Why can't we have a full immersive metaverse experience where learners are put into close to real situations as they can and let them work through them. With the virtualization becoming mainstream I could see a mashup between virtualization and metaverses. Why not be able to simulate a real problem in a metaverse that teams of learners collaborate together to solve? I believe this is the future that we need be envisioning.

I call this kind of experience, a practice field, which is a term the Senge uses in his work. A practice field is like a practice on a sports team. The athletes practice techniques, plays, and other things to prepare for the game. But, a practice field is not a game. The game is the only place where athletes earn their stats and their reputations. But, practice can be effective to help athletes become better. There is some research on deliberate practice that shows that practice does make a difference. But, practice is about activity. Part of activity is content do not get me wrong but athletes can study the play book (the content) but they will not learn the play until they practice it actively not through the passive activity of memorizing the play. I call a game a real field in my work. Real experience requires a real field but a practice field can provide learners a place to practice the principles and techniques to help them in the real experience. We know from the research that pilots can become better pilots through simulators and in some cases I have read that new pilots have learned to fly in a simulator and are able to transfer that experience to the real world.

To close out this blog posting, we need to be aware of the infinite possibilities that metaverses can provides to our learners and we should not just replicate the real world in the virtual world and expect it to help our learners in the long run. I believe that a combination of practice fields and real fields are needed for a program to be an effective program to help learner become the professionals they come to us to be. I have seen way too many instances that this does not happen very often today except for the top 10-15% of the learners that come to us. We must reach the rest of the learners because they are our future.

My philosophy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:51:00 +0000

Here is another item from my web site to provide context on my passion for transformation and innovation in technological education.

Here is the original post -

My Philosphy

From my dissertation proposal:

Cultural-Historical School

All the information on this site will be situated in the cultural-historical school of psychology. Cole defines the cultural-historical school as “the structure and development of human psychological processes [that] emerge through culturally mediated, historically developing, practical activity” (Cole, 1996, p. 108). Cole goes on and summarizes the key concepts of the cultural-historical school:

1. Mediation through artifacts. The initial premise of the cultural-history school is that human psychological processes emerged simultaneously with a new form of behavior in which humans
modified material objects as a means of regulating their world and one another.

2. Historical development. In addition to using and making tools, human beings arrange for rediscovery of already-created tools in each succeeding generation. Becoming a cultural being and arranging for others to become cultural beings are intimately linked parts of a single process called enculturation. … Culture, according to this perspective, can be understood as the entire pool of artifacts accumulated by a social group in the course of its historical experience.

3. Practical activity. The third basic premise of the cultural-historical approach, adopted by Hegel by the way of Marx, is that the analysis of human psychological functions must be grounded in human’s everyday activity. (1996, p. 108-110)

Social Learning Theory

Although this site will use the cultural-historical school of thought for looking at human activity, it will also use Wenger’s concept of social learning theory and communities of practice. Wenger believes that learning is social participation. Wenger (1998) states “participation here refers to not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities” (p. 4). The four components of Wenger (1998)’s social learning theory are meaning, practice, community, and identity. Meaning is “a way of talking about our (changing) ability – individually and collectively – to experience our life and the world as meaningful” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Practice is “a way of talking about the shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain mutual engagement in action” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Community is “a way of talking about the social configurations in which our enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and our participation is recognizable as competence” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Identity is “a way of talking about how learning changes who we are and creates personal histories of becoming in context of our communities” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5).

Community of Practice

A practice, as Dr. Linda Polin (2002) of Pepperdine University defines it, “is a full-blown domain of expertise; it has a productive value. The following are practices: architecture, professional French Horn, oral surgery, health insurance processing, Pokemon trainer,
scriptwriter” and others. Wenger (1998) defines practice as the following. In a sense, practice is always social practice. Such a concept of practice includes both the explicit and the tacit. It includes what is said, and what is left unsaid; what is represented and what is assumed. It includes the language, tools, documents, images, symbols, well-defined roles, specified criteria, codified procedures, regulations, and contracts that various practices make explicit for variety of purposes. But, it also includes the implicit relations, tacit conventions, subtle clues, untold rules of thumb, recognizable intuitions, specific perceptions, well-tuned sensitivities, embodied
understanding, underlying assumptions, and shared world views. (Wenger, 1998, p. 47)

Each of these practices belongs to a social community, which is called a community of practice. “Communities of practice [CoP] are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 4). Everyone belongs to one or more communities of practice whether it is in our family life, work, education, or profession. This study will look at the IT profession through the lens of CoPs and the cultural-historical school lens of activity. Communities have histories, artifacts, and activities that allow members to participate. The community decides the competence of its members through changes in member identity. Members in a community of practice exist at different levels of participation. The newcomers sit on the periphery in the beginning (legitimate peripheral participation) and start moving towards full participation as they change their identity (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Older members of the community of practice provide newcomers with models of performance for newcomers to replicate. Communities of practice have reproductioncycles in which newcomers enter the community of practice and become full participants, and eventually “old timers”, through their changing identity in the practice.

Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) or Activity Theory

Since participation in a community of practice is about activity, activity theory is a model for analyzing the community’s activities. This study will treat IT work, also known as knowledge work, and education as activity systems for analysis. Members of a community think, act, and
learn together as a system. Activity theory is a framework in the cultural-historical tradition that looks at activity as the basic unit of analysis. Activity is the relationship between a member’s or subject’s action in pursuit of a goal of transforming some object, which is mediated by artifacts/tools, and/or signs. The subject is the person or groups of people who are initiating and performing the activity. The mediating artifact can be tools or technologies such as physical tools, instruments, signs, people, and others. The mediating artifact allows a subject to transform some object into a goal or outcome. An object can be a physical entity or a problem space. Rules are the methods, laws, procedures, and processes that subject follows to transform an object. The community is the collective that are the stakeholders in the activity. Individuals do not act in isolation but in relation to a community. The division of labor is the organization of the labor in the activity as related to the transformation of the object. Figure 1 illustrates the model of an activity system (Engestrom, 1987).

An example of activity is designing and implementing a software product for a customer. The subject of the activity is the team who develops the software product. The object is the project of developing a software product. The outcome is a fully functional software product. The mediating artifacts are the software tools, procedures, computers, and other artifacts needed to transform the object into an outcome. The rules are the norms of the community such as how the software is written, and what methods are being used. The community is the development team, the customer, and the management. The division of labor is the different duties and roles
each team member plays on the team. There is a hierarchical structure of activity. “Activities are oriented by motives, that is objects that are impelling to themselves. Each motive is an object, material, or ideal, that satisfies a need. Actions are the processes functionally subordinated to activities; they are directed at specific conscious goals. Actions are realized through operations that are determined by the actual conditions of activity” (Kaptelinin, 1996, p. 108).

My History

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:34:00 +0000

I published this on my web site a while ago and I need to post it here for everyone to understand the context of my passion for transforming technological education. Here is my original post -

My History

My College Days

My interest and research in educating the future technology professional goes back to college when I was a student at Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL. I always knew that hands-on experience was critical in securing a good high paying job in this economy. I experienced that as a student at Florida Tech when I knew to be competitive that I needed to gain work experience. So, throughout my college experience, I always tried to find work in technology. My first experience came at Harris Corporation as a computer operator during the third shift. I took this job because I knew that I needed experience. About a year after that, I was hired by Rockwell International as a computer operator and I ran the department on weekends.

Also, I worked on creating a student foundation at Florida Tech and I took a role in helping secure real world capstone experiences for my fellow students. I knew that was the key to success along with a four year degree. I graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering at Florida Tech.

My First Job

I landed my first full time job at E-Systems, Melpar Division, in Falls Church, VA. I had an opportunity during my spring break in my senior year to interview with three places - E-Systems in Texas, E-Systems in Falls Church, VA, and the Navy in Connecticut. I ended getting an offer from E-Systems, Falls Church, VA. I got this job based on my summer internship experience with Dictaphone Corporation where I was a technical writer. E-Systems hired me as a Systems Engineer. During the interview, I did have my portfolio of my senior design project that I showed to people who interviewd me. Even at this point in my life, I was convinced that I needed experience to land a good job. I brought my
experiences to the interview because of this.

My Teaching

I was hired by Northern Virginia Community College as an Adjunct around 1994 in the electronics department to teach computer repair. I took a full time teaching job with Computer Learning Center (CLC) in Alexandria where I started in the Electronics department and moved to the client/server programming department which I started as Lead Instructor. I then was hired full time by NOVA in 1998 once I secured my Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason U.

My Interests and Research

While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six
months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were
doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.

Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.

My Interests and Research

While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.

Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.

The more I worked with our students the more I became aware of workplace readiness issues that needed to be addressed. I met Scott Brainard, who at the time was project manager of the SCANS 2000 Center at John Hopkins University. I met him at the announcement of the voluntary partnership between NWCET, NCTT, and National Skills Standards Board at NVCC, Annandale Campus. I believe this was in 2002. I talked to him about our NSF ATE grant proposal we submitted and we started a partnership. The SCANS report was published in 1992 that talks about the key workplace skills that were missing. We started a partnership with them and learned from them how they 'teach' these skills in their local high schools. I knew that college students also needed these skills too.

We were awarded an NSF grant in Summer 2002 to look at what we called value-delivery skills and creating a consortium of IT education iVirginia. We setup the SCANS 2000 center as a partner in the grant. We had several meetings to discuss the whole issue with them. As part of this grant, we help several focus groups in No VA. The first focus group used emotional intelligence skills as a foundation to talk about the value-delivery skills needed to be successful. I felt that the first focus group was a success and now we had a second focus group that looked at how we could teach this skills in the classroom.

Well, most of the skills were behavioral. How do you teach behavioral skills? In the past, I would have looked at teaching a teamwork course or the like. But, today, I realize that you can not teach behavioral skills. You can only experience them. This causes you to look at this in whole new light. Now, I need to design activities that allow students to practice these skills in the classroom. So, this means assigning group projects where students work in teams and evaluating their performance during the project. Then, evaluating the outcomes of the project whatever the artifact may be. One big outcome of the second focus group was what are coined 'curveballs'. Now, when we teach projects the complaints that the projects were not realistic enough. We need to introduce curveballs to simulate the real world projects. Some examples of curveballs are change team members, change requirements, etc. Here is a paper I wrote before this focus group and one after this focus group.

Value-Delivery_Skills_-_An_Essential_Component_in_IT_Education_8_26_02.pdf

Oh yea! Before I forget, I wrote a white paper on my vision for the educational system in VA as we were funded by NSF. I attached that to this entry. To continue, the work on the NSF continued my research interest in Workforce Development and actually moved my ideas forward. My partnership with Mike Peterson, who was the Executive Dir of Institute of Excellence in Information Technology, was a great partner in moving my ideas for workforce development forward. Also, I decided to enroll at Pepperdine University in the Educational Technology Doctoral Program to further my education in this area of learning and technology. I have research interests in educating the future
technology professional, learning theory, learning technology, along with technology's impact on today's workforce. The last focus group caused me to contact Case Files (http://www.thecasefiles.org) and I partnered with them because they had a way to design activities that require an authentic business problem. I ended up partnering with Dr Ruth Loring and she became a mentor of mine as I went through the doctoral program and also as we worked on our NSF grant. I attribute a lot to her in helping me understand Case Files and I was invited to every major event that they had. I also worked at them also.

My_Vision_for_Information_Technology_Education_in_Virginia.pdf

The Case Files

Why did the Case Files work interest me? There are actually two projects. One project comes out of CITE at http://www.cite-tn.org/pbcb.htm and the other is Case Files at http://www.thecasefiles.org. Both projects come under the heading of Problem-based Case-based learning.

From my research, each of these projects has merit. The goal of becoming a technology professional requires an apprenticeship in a community of practice of technology professionals. Learners become members of the community through participation in the community's activities. Learning is about participation in a community. This allows an apprentice to under the culture, tools, and technologies of the community. The CSS projects in CITE are what the literature calls 'real fields' and they provide a real authentic problem solved in real time with a sponsoring business. This type of project allows learners/apprentices the opportunities to develop a professional identity.

Now, a Case File is what the literature calls a 'practice field'. A Case File is a real world problem but it is not done in real time. Typically, a CSS project becomes a Case File once the the project is complete. This type of project provides a context that allows for learners to practice their skills in a safe environment but it is not a real field and learners can not develop a professional identity in a community. These problems are isolated from the real world because they are not solved in real time. But, they do have merit. I believe that a combination of real fields and practice field are needed in an technology program. Actually, if we take sports as an example, a team is formed and practices occur to help the team prepare for a game. Then, games provide a context for the team to compete with other teams and also when statistics are kept. Also, team members develop a professional identity in the community of sports players.

Story Centered Curriculm

There is another project that is of interest to me. It is at http://elc.fhda.edu/index.html. While Case Files is based on John Bransford's work at Vanderbilt, SCC is based on the work of Roger Schank. I become a student of both of them. Socratic Arts is Dr Schank's organization that promotes SCC. It is at http://socraticarts.com/aboutscc.html. I recommend you read the pdf there. It is very cool. Also, an implementation of SCC is at Carnegie Mellon West at http://west.cmu.edu. Now, SCC is a simulation of an organization where the faculty are mentors to the learner teams. The simulated organization has projects they do with tasks. Learners are put into teams to work on the tasks in the virtual organization. To do this correctly, the whole environment appears to the learner as a real organization. There is merit to this work. I struggle with whether to call this a practice field or a real field. I tend to favor practice field since this is not done in the real world but in a virtual world.

The projects are not real projects for a real customer. It appears that CMU also has a internship requirement which adds the real field to the equation. I am no longer active with this project as I used to be. I am still active with Case Files.

Implications for Programs

From looking at the different approaches that exist, I strongly believe in the need to develop a balance of practice fields and real fields in developing learners to become technology professionals. I have attached two white papers that talk to learning to become. This work was influenced by working on both projects.

knowledge_work_v2.pdf

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Keith A. Morneau) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:34:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog. I will begin a dialogue about learning and technology innovation for the 21st century. We will discuss the following topics such as communities of practice, innovation, simulations, second life, linden scripiting language, technology, activity theory, and other topics. I hope you enjoy this blog.