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The group dynamic in social learning spaces - how do you know who to listen to?

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 2 Nov 2012, 17:17

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Fig 1. Daniel Kahneman

People go with the flow and chose the easy option of agreeing when they are:

  • working on something else that requires a lot of effort
  • in a good mood
  • low on a scale of depression
  • a knowledgeable novice in the subject rather than a true expert
  • powerful, or are made to feel powerful.

From Daniel Kahneman (2011) 'Thinking, fast and slow'. pp134

This gives you pause to wonder about the complexity of what takes place in a social learning environment where people are offering their ideas. You want to hope that falsehoods will be knocked down while truths will be agreed upon, however, depending on the people and how the discussion is moderated you could theoretically end up with the opposite going on. Not only should students in such spaces be advised on how to behave in order to get the 'right' learning outcomes from the experience, but it is vital that the subject matter expect/moderator plays their role scrupulously.

Questions:

  • Is the learner who is an unhappy, powerless expert likely to offer the more objective response?
  • Is a grumpy, depressed subject matter expert who may run a cold class of greater value as an educator than the new college kid who is full of ideas and bounces around like Tigger?
  • And if the happy, succesful novice is heard more often and supported by the community how do you make room to hear from the less confident, sad geek?

Guardian Book Review

 

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Design Museum

Understanding what primes us to behave in a certain way must have impacts on social behaviour

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 2 Nov 2012, 07:50

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Fig.1. Eyes & Ears - A public awareness film produced featuring the Emergency Services and members of the cast of Byker Grove

Understanding what primes us to behave in a certain way must have impacts on social behaviour, from the London Riots of 2011 and police behaviour at Hillsborough in 1989, through to schooling, training, coaching and e-learning - and of course, how hypnotists play their tricks.

  • Are we so vulnerable and easily led because we cannot think about too much at the same time?
  • How must this influence the savvy learning designer?
  • Surely the context of any learning environment must be highly significant, from the buildings and resources, to your peers?

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Fig. 2. A Oxford Tutorial - now as in the 1950s

  • Do Ivy League and Oxbridge Colleges have a centuries old model that works still in the 21st century?
  • Why do some libraries work better than others and why do we like to meet for coffee or for a drink?
  • Are we primed to open up, to be more or less receptive to ideas?
  • What therefore does the loan learner do studying at a distance, even if they are online?
  • What makes the experience immersive?
  • Synchronous learning in a webinar or seminar?
  • Active engagement in a discussion, multi-choice quiz or virtual world?
  • And how might they prep their context?
  • Close the curtains, dress to study?


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Fig. 3. Thinking, fast and slow

I was introduced to this concept by Daniel Kahneman in his 2011 book 'Thinking, Fast and Slowly' in the Linkedin Group for alumni of the Open University MBA Module 'Creativity, Innovation and Change'.

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