C is for…

I had a really hard time trying to settle on one word, or even one topic for this post.

The problem is, I have a lot of great C-words and C-concepts swirling around in my head at the moment. Conversation, Collaboration, Community, Confidence, Communication…

I attended a talk given by Etienne Wenger yesterday. Etienne Wenger, with Jean Lave, conceptualised learning as a social process, something that happens within a group or a system, not necessarily as a result of teaching – the Community of Practice.

He gave the example of learning to become a wine taster, and learning the language of describing wine. When you decide to learn about wine tasting, you make a decision to become a wine taster – you change your identity. You join a community and learn with other learners and with more established members of the community.

Initially you are on the edge of the community, a newbie who doesn’t yet know very much. But gradually, as you engage with the community (other students, wine tasters, librarians), you learn the language of the community and have meaningful experiences that let you learn more about the profession you’re trying to join, or the skill you’re trying to learn. As you become more accomplished your skills and knowledge help you gain acceptance within the community. You not only learn from the community, you can also influence it and change its accepted knowledge.

The image below is my rough transcription of Wenger’s concept of social learning –  for Wenger, learning that is focussed on the learner (rather than the teacher) places an emphasis on the individual’s experience and how he or she derives meaning from the learning, and engages with other learners and with what is being learned, to form a new identity (e.g. a professional identity – the wine taster, librarian, teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc.).

Most of the audience were interested in how you would apply this theory to make University education more meaningful to students. I think some of us (myself included) were also pondering how you can use these concepts to make learning more meaningful to staff in the workplace, and to empower them and make them more open and willing to learn new things.

I’m trying very hard to not start writing about blogging again but I can’t seem to help it – I just have to reflect on how much of a role blogging has played in helping me become part of a number of different communities (this has changed over time), and has really kickstarted my learning in many ways (to use a term Etienne Wenger used, it’s really fostered my “self-efficacy”).

I was also thinking about how, when I started blogging, I had little confidence in my own opinions and didn’t think any of my opinions were worthy of airing. I had this concept of “superstar” bloggers, who were somehow worthier, and the rest of us should just potter along and not be too loud or say anything interesting. Over time, however, all this has shifted. I’m not so worried about superstardom (whether I have it, want it, or whether it even exists at all). Blogging certainly has helped build my confidence and stopped me worrying about all that. It’s all about perception – and meaning – after all, and Super Blogger may be idolised by one person, and completely unknown to another. Whatever.

A completely unforeseen result of starting this blog that rainy night all those years ago: along the way blogging’s also made me into a confident member of my profession.