Learning Ecosystems

A Better Way to Manage Knowledge

We give a lot of talks and presentations about the ways and places companies and their employees learn the fastest. We call these learning environments creation spaces — places where individuals and teams interact and collaborate within a broader learning ecology so that performance accelerates. During these discussions, it’s inevitable that somebody raises their hand. “Wait a minute,” they say, “isn’t this just knowledge management all over again?”

The New Reality: Constant Disruption

We now face something entirely different. Today’s core technologies–computing, storage, and bandwidth–are not stabilizing. They continue to evolve at an exponential rate. And because the underlying technologies don’t stabilize, the social and business practices that coalesce into our new digital infrastructure aren’t stabilizing either. Businesses and, more broadly, social, educational, and economic institutions, are left racing to catch up with the steadily improving performance of the foundational technologies. For example, almost forty years after the invention of the microprocessor, we are only now beginning to reconfigure the digital technology infrastructure for delivery of yet another dramatic leap in computing power under the rubric of utility or cloud computing. This leap will soon be followed by another, then another.

From DSC:As an educational technologist, I can instantly relate to the blazingly-fast speed they are referring to. The questions are:

• How do we set up the best learning ecosystems given such rapid pace of technological change?
• How long will those elements last (and/or what principles/tips/tricks can we employ to have things around long enough for a solid ROI)?
• How do we best equip our students?

For one thing, we must all learn to be very, very flexible…and adaptive. Change truly is not an option if you want to be marketable and relevant. And, you MUST BE PLUGGED INto a network or networks.