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.
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.
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