Tuesday 25 March 2008

first internettime community online discussion: please join


topic: will informal learning erase itself by establishing a global head master?

A couple of blogposts ago I mentioned the hypothesis that informal learning is a passing educational phase. I posted this hypothesis on the internettime community and Jay Cross suggested to have a first online discussion on this topic through an online meeting tool (in this case it would be skype, but more tools to come).

Join the first internettime community online meeting:
Friday 28 March 2008 at
15.00 o’clock GMT (London, UK) = 11 o’clock EDT (MontrĂ©al, CAN) = 8.00 am PDT (California, USA)
Tool used: Skype

Hypothesis: Informal learning adds to the rise of digital knowledge, the increase of knowledge will stimulate the demand/need for a global brain, the global brain will become the global head master, the global head master is a global gatekeeper of knowledge (due to the algorithms on which it is based) and hence the installment of a global brain will reduce worldwide learning to 19th century old school learning (again).

So informal learning will give rise to that what it aimed to overturn: old school classroom methods.

Train of thoughts:
=> knowledge is based on filtering and organizing information;
=> informal learning = learning between peers;
=> peers add to the global, digital knowledge sphere;
=> digital knowledge keeps expanding;
=> emergent intelligence of peers will give rise to a global knowledge cloud;
=> humans loose sight of the bigger picture of a certain topic, because of the knowledge explosion;
=> the knowledge cloud will stimulate the need to structure the knowledge chaos that has emerged;
=> a ‘global brain’ will be put into place based on chosen algorithms;
=> because it is a global brain, it will no longer be able to exchange with other global (= really knowledgeable) brains of the same knowledge depth;
=> humans will rely on the global brain to get knowledge/information in real time;
=> humans will be less driven to question the global brain because they know ‘it’ builds its knowledge on every knowledge out there, where one human can only gasp an increasingly small fraction of knowledge;
=> hence the global brain becomes the head master of knowledge;
=> the combination of informal learning and digitalization has given rise to ... 19th century old school learning wherein the global brain knows practically all.

Upside: we are living in the (only) Informal Learning Era of human kind.
Possible downside: algorithms can be maliciously constructed to censor knowledge or erase it.

For a lengthier set of ideas look here.
(this debate was fuelled by Robert Panetti, Jay Cross and Ignatia but we are looking for others to join and get the debate going)

Hope you can join the discussion. If you know of anyone who could be interested in this topic, ask them to join as well.

(my skype name: ignatia_dw)

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