Apprenticeship

I recently read an interesting post by Jay Cross on the role of mentoring in our world.
http://informl.com/?p=691

Our current online tools can allow a certain degree of intimacy between apprentices and mentors. I thinking of webcams, IM, a good web-presence, etc. Where can this take us? As this interaction become more rich and compelling we could see an environment capable providing a meaningful connection between generations. Could this recreate this apprentice/mentor learning environment?

One point to consider is the noise level of our current environment. Jay Cross points out that students want to be rock-stars and fashion designers. The Media floods us with elements of our pop culture. Rock-stars and fashion designers are flashy and palatable pieces of this pop culture. Young people see these and other exciting parts of pop culture and consider them career options rather than entertainment.

I always wanted to be Spiderman.
-Andrew

Role of a facilitator

The goal of a facilitator is to create a successful learning network where participants can learn in an informal, online environment. In this setting the participants will be able to interact with each other and the identified content freely. Ideally, participants would choose their own path through the content and help one another in the process. Hmmm... This sounds great in theory, but I think the artistry will be seen in the execution.

Balancing is key. The facilitator of such a network needs to be aware of the amount of direction to give the participant. Just placing the participants in an environment with each other with the no instructions will not work. Also giving the participant too much instruction will take away from the informal environment we are aiming for. The facilitator needs to carefully monitoring the landscape and weather of the learning network to ensure that learning it taking place. Part of this balancing act done by the facilitator includes seeding the network. Participants need to be given prompts or inspirations to jump-start their interactions and learnings. Participants need to have a reason to interact and at the early stages of a learning network the reason may not be too learn to the participant. As time goes on the learning network will develop a life of its own having the wisdom of the crowd driving the learning outcomes and will need less and less input from the facilitator.