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Today I worked providing I.T. assistance during some research methods exams that were taking place in the university. The first exam session was a little chaotic. We had numerous issues for which we had to call in additional support. We tried all sorts from moving both people and computers around, trying out the use of different network locations with different folder access privileges and so forth. By experimentation I finally worked out what the issues was, and all subsequent sessions ran smoothly and uneventfully.
In theory that makes me indispensible, but should it? One of the plus points of networked learning is that it removes hierarchies and empowers individuals horizontally. However it would be very inefficient practise to restrict the information to the brain of the individual who thought it up. That is when social media and web 2.0 jumps on board. A decent crowd sourced knowledge base could carry that information for the future users of a system, whether that be administering an examination, setting up a software platform, or whatever.
In fact, yesterday I was installing a software platform. Or at least trying. Now it is a common case that when we are having issues with IT, we draw to their online wiki/knowledge base or whatever. The problem can be that these are often quite flat in their design. They contain a number of linked articles, which when you get down into the depths of computer programming languages are both so specific and so many that searching or browsing just doesn’t take you to the help.
We live in the world of information abundance. The generation where ‘knowledge is power’ is rapidly departing our midst, and I might go as to say that for the current generation, the power lies in wisdom. That might be wisdom to think as the end user would, and sort/present knowledge base articles in a layout coherent to the task they are doing.
In terms of learning, the learning that we can do for which our networked position adds value, is experiential in nature. I would be quite anti-competitive to sit in the information I hold, but my skill to solve the future problems cannot be transferred. Any new candidate for the job must learn through their own experience and interest, to gain their own perspectives and thought processes. Since everybody is different, networked experts benefit more from working together and thus social learning perpetuates.
The skill here is relaying that information in a genuinely useful manor to the poor geezer who has to use it next. How often when trawling the internet for solutions do we wish that somebody had that job?