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A 125-140 SENGES I Altres.Qxp:Prova 2 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert Entrepreneurial learning in the networked age How new learning environments foster entrepreneurship and innovation MAX SENGES JOHN SEELY BROWN HOWARD RHEINGOLD Computers and the Internet started in the later half of the 20th century as instruments of research – and thereby of learning. Today, they have become an omnipresent part of our daily routines by becoming much easier for us to use. During this evolution they have also become consumer products and, at least partially, lost their original educational potential. It is the social peer production aspects of the online environments as well as the hardware platforms described in this article, which makes us subsume them as social technologies specifically favorable for entrepreneurial learning. 126 Talent management Learning for cultural learning can be framed around the traditional Hellenistic knowledge dichotomy: episteme and and technological techné. Episteme stands for big picture learning3, citizenship in the 21st for learning about the world as a whole and one’s position in it. It represents education to- century wards cultural citizenship4, i.e. the responsibili- ties and contributions one makes to the society Knowledge work reverses several negative (de- by participating in the community and generat- humanizing) trends of the industrial age, but ing culture. Techné instead focuses on learning while the demands of the workplace have about special traits, i.e. learning the techniques changed, the educational system hasn’t. Rather of a profession and producing economical value than developing in parallel with technology and by performing the tasks associated with it modern businesses, education is still dominantly through the division of labor – this knowledge geared to condition its subjects to embody what allows for what Delanty (2001) dubbed technolo- Germans dub «Fachidioten» – people who are gical citizenship5. well suited to adapt into hierarchic organiza- tions, and to perform repetitive tasks. By focus- The overarching competence we are concerned ing on the potential of innovative socio-techno- about is enabling students to perceive the world logical learning environments, we address this (and esp. social technology) as a learning oppor- discrepancy by proposing an enlightened tunity space. This technology can be used for humanistic educational paradigm. critical inquiry that allows them to develop as humans and as professionals. It is a, if not the, central challenge of educators to provide stu- The paradigmatic shift from dents with the skills of critical inquiry. the current system is moving away from educational institutions towards Today, the world’s knowledge is literally in the learning environments where air6, an ephemeral library to be retrieved by the individuals are encouraged to liberate right device and the right search term. But a great deal of misinformation and disinformation themselves from the «self-incurred is also in the air. How does one find out what tutelage». one wants to know by asking the right question online? Equally important, how does one know The first paradigmatic shift from the current that the results returned from such queries are system is moving away from educational institu- factually accurate or true? Hence, we see a need tions towards learning environments where for training, both in the art of inquiry and critical individuals are encouraged to liberate themselves analysis. This question relates back directly to from the «self-incurred tutelage»1 and to devel- Freire7 and Postman8. op an internal locus of control – thus making free choices about who they want to become. Differently put, the aim of the approach de- When all information is available, scribed is to generate entrepreneurial mindsets. the educator’s challenge is to identify We define entrepreneurship as the practice of and select materials. identifying and creating all kinds of opportuni- ties and then taking action aimed at realizing Curiosity is the motivating force for learning in them2. We see this proactive target mindset as all humans, but is often blunted by traditional the basis for enlightened self-realization. «delivery of knowledge from expert to novice» pedagogy. With a movement away from the Next to fostering an entrepreneurial mindset knowledge container delivery method to a more in the students, the objectives of humanistic active inquiry method, we witness the renais- paradigmes / Issue no. 1 / December 2008 127 sance of curiosity. Curiosity is the most impor- addisco (never ending learning). The equation of tant motivating force for inquiry – which is how this learning engine can be formulated as: knowledge is discovered online. curiosity + thematic scaffolding = infinite self motivated learning Curiosity as cognitive fuel Historically, the thematic scaffolding was done by elders who passed on their knowledge. Over The core philosophical objective of curiosity is to time, more and more “knowledge transfer” tech- cause learners to release themselves from their niques have been developed. The result of this «self-incurred tutelage»9 and «dare to know» (sa- model is our current system, which so woefully pere aude). To come of age cognitively means to neglects curiosity13. Instead, pre-packaged develop an internal locus of control and realize knowledge containers (standardized lesson- that one has free will and accountable agency. plans, textbooks, and the unfortunate first gen- Once realized, this fundamental component of eration approach of e-learning, where learner’s an entrepreneurial mindset10 instigates continu- interactions are reduced to a click on the “next ous venturing towards a better understanding of page” link) are forcefed on the learner who is life (episteme) and an improvement in methods expected to sit back and consume (at least the (techné). basics) without asking too many questions14. But for now, let’s leave the ends aside and return Vygotsky bounds learning within what he to the fuel itself – curiosity. calls the zone of proximal development, which he defined as «the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by inde- It is important to allow students pendent problem solving and the level of poten- to learn how to interact with others tial development as determined through and how to be socially online. problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers».15 Cu- Curiosity11 is the behavior that represents a riosity researcher Day16 describes a system with fundamental component of neophilia, defined a “zone of relaxation” and a “zone of anxiety” by the New Hackers Dictionary as «the trait of surrounding what he calls the “zone of curiosity” being excited and pleased by novelty».12 Colin where ideal learning conditions prevail. Campbell, professor of sociology at the Univer- sity of York in the UK, assesses neophilia to be The net is so versatile that it can be the suitable an explicitly modern disposition: «Pre-modern zone of curiosity for most learning endeavors17. societies tend to be suspicious of the novel. It Next to the intellectual skills of cyber literacy, it is a feature of modernity that we are addicted is important to allow students to learn how to to novelty». In many ways this mindset is em- interact with others and how to be socially on- bodied through the archetype of the British line. Alongside the technical skills of creating explorers, the trappers scouting the Wild West, and sharing informational social objects, the and more recently, in hackers. learners must master social skills, like facilitat- ing a debate, dealing with disruptive partici- pants, asking for assistance, etc. These scenarios Perpetuum Addisco expose users to very similar challenges to of- fline social interactions. The search for the perpetuum mobile is almost as historic as the alchemists’ dream of turning metal How then can we translate these concepts into into gold. In the world of meta-physics there innovative tools and services that allow for better has always been what we humbly call perpetuum learning? 128 Talent management The perfect cyber-storm world, thereby increasing the likelihood that a for learning critical mass is reached. Several early phenomena in the social technolo- Open Educational Resources gies environment portend the promise of truly amending the educational practices and system Secondly, networked technology allows for edu- to comprise the humanistic approach outlined cators around the world to digitally create, share, above. and remix their course materials. This movement, which has been dubbed Open Educational Re- sources (OER), has recently been building large The Long Tail of learning repositories. Once an educator has contributed his material to this pool of common resources, In his seminal article «The Long Tail,» Chris it evolves and becomes part of a universal Anderson18 presented an astonishing analysis knowledge base, which both educators and of how online business changed the fundamen- students can access. Courses can be translated tal market conditions. In all classical markets, into other languages and localized to fit more businesses have traditionally made the lion share topically specific cultural contexts. of their sales from the most popular best-selling products in their catalogs. While this continues to be true, the internet allows vendors like Ama- Networked technology allows for zon to offer an enormous variety of niche prod- educators around the world to digitally ucts which are sold slowly but steadily through- create, share, and remix their course out the year. The volume of these sales is lower, materials in so-called Open but the cost to store them as commodities is also Educational Resources. lower because the products are stored in low budget warehouses. Anderson’s surprising find- ing is that, taken together, these millions of The most prominent OER initiative, which pio- niche products can create a serious business. neered and popularized the idea around the world, was born when the Hewlett Packard Foundation funded MIT’s Open Courseware Those students who participated in (OCW) initiative in 2001.
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