#14 on AI+ee learning

Via our XtremeJoomla discussion, I decided to make a synopsis on Lendsey Godwin and Soren Kaplan’s Designing ee-Learning Environment-Lessons from an Online Workshop, published on Innovate Online Journal (http://innovateonline.info/?view=issue) Volume 4, Issue 4, April/May 2008. I suggested to our team to well document the processes and maybe it can end up into a potentially publishable work.

Here is my summary and reflection:

The whole concept of ee-learning came from some program offered in the field of organizational development . The program innovated a term-the appreciative inquiry which is an approach in the OD learning. Cocreated by David Cooperrider, appreciative inquiry is a strength-based management philosophy and whole-system change methodology (Cooperrider and Whitney 2005) that is said to be "revolutionizing the field of organizational development” (Quinn 2000, 220) through its application of guiding principles that focus an organization's energy on success and possibility.

Before going to next section, I quoted the definition of appreciative inquiry (AI) from this paper as follows:“Appreciative Inquiry is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. In AI the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point moments, lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions of wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul-- and visions of valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt, AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.” (Excerpted from - A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney).

The AI ee-learning, in this article connects to several theories, such as Klob’s experientical learning (as we read in the early of this semester) and Gardner’s multiple intelligent learners as well as a little bit from Tapscott (1998) and Dede’s (2005) technology impact on the current generations. The following section provides the details of the main theme.

The concept of ee-Learning is defined by Steve Eskow (Trevitte and Eskow 2007), describing a hybrid approach to pedagogy that combines online learning with experiential, offline, hands-on learning. The electronic component was influenced by the learning platform provided by iCohere (see the note at the end of this section), the overarching design of the learning was informed by the experiential learning theory outlined by David Kolb, and a colleague of Cooperrider. Kolb's experiential learning theory proposes that "knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb 1984, 41). While many discussions on experiential learning focus only on the experience portion of the theory, Kolb's model suggests that learning actually takes place through a four-step process called the experiential learning cycle in creating an experiential learning in online environment. I transferred it to our current on-going project- Xtremejoomla.(Note: iCohere, it is an organization that provides web collaboration software tools for association, governmental organizations, and communities.)

The steps in the experiential learning cycle include
1. having a concrete experience- such as we are going through the Joomla learning process with real minds on and hands on concrete experience.
2. reflecting on that experience- we reflect on our blogging on the way through each step in our Joomla learning
3. conceptualizing abstractly about the experience- during the Joomla journey, we meta-cognitively construct concepts and the hands-on experience about our learning, such as reifying each step according to the 7 AL learning principles by adding theoretical foundation, pedagogical practice aligning with curriculum design with outlined lesson plans, using Internet, and media enhancement in the pedagogy and curriculum via collaborative processes in synched manner and so on.
4. actively experimenting with a new behavior- we are actively playing out various collaborative roles and learning different kinds of behavior in our learning process.

This workshop provides the following weekly learning agenda, some of which relate to our project:
1. A weekly "live meeting". We did a couple of times. But we did not set up a weekly agenda.
2. Learning activities. These offline activities required students to apply the concepts of AI to their organizational experiences and gain hands-on learning of AI as a philosophy and a methodology, either with other students or on their own. We do have our learning activities, but are in a semi-structured way – I think
3. Readings. Articles on the theory and application of appreciative inquiry, in conjunction with case studies and tools created by OD practitioners, illustrated how AI has been applied in various organizational contexts. We are focusing on AL principles. But AI is appropriate to blend into our current project. We could add a reading list for all of us to engage with.
4. Learning presentations. Prerecorded lectures from Cooperrider, along with video case studies from organizations, were available on demand to help students gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and applications of AI. In this case, we all can make a mini breeze presentation to showcase what and how we understand AL+AI in the XtremeJoomla project
5. Reflective prompts. These questions encouraged students to make links between the theory and their own experiences and invited them to share their reflections. I think our blog supposed to function in this way.

Blending Technology and Content to Support ee-Learning
In their designing the workshop, they realized that technology and content needed to work together to facilitate the range of learning experiences in the experiential learning cycle. The online iCohere environment, which includes discussion boards, live-chat tools, file-sharing options, and an expandable reference library, was designed specifically to support ee-learning. Participants began the workshop by reviewing a narrated presentation that introduced the workshop site's various features, including specific screenshots of the environment.

Bridging Online and Offline Environments
In addition to creating a virtual environment that supported a range of experiential activities, they also wanted to complement participants' online learning with offline applications. Each week students were required to engage in an offline, job-specific application project based on the weekly topic. In our case, we did it in a more less structured way of when online and when offline.

The Learning Cycle Transcends Virtual Boundaries
The question of how people learn in online environments has prompted energetic debate. Like Kolb's experiential learning theory, Gardner's (1993) multiple intelligences theory suggests that individuals have different preferences and aptitudes for different types of learning. Further, Tapscott (1998) and Dede (2005) have outlined the impact of increasingly ubiquitous technology on the current generation's learning styles and abilities. They have seen that age, cultural background, and geography (since some of our participants come from regions of the world where Internet connections are still rare or inconsistent) can all impact a student's confidence level with online tools and thus the learning experience itself.

It's Not Really About the Technology - as they proclaimed it!
They have found that successful ee-learning does not necessarily require the most sophisticated technologies available. Rather, the key factor in designing ee-learning environments is intention. Trainers and educators who use online pedagogies must create curricula purposely designed to include the various elements of experiential learning: reflection opportunities, active projects, and conceptual resources. Without such intention, technology features—rather than educational outcomes—can begin to drive content.

Virtual Connections are Real Connections
To help students make meaningful connections with each other, they began each workshop with a paired interview activity. This is similar to our peers to peers collaborative genre in our project.

Conclusion
Their workshop translated appreciative inquiry, an experiential approach to organizational change, into an online workshop, they see the potential for other theories and approaches that are typically delivered in a traditional face-to-face setting to be delivered effectively online. As long as theories and concepts are applied to specific real-life issues, there is potential for creating a vibrant ee-learning environment where participants engage in applied work offline and share their reflections online.

This article also concluded an important challenging confronting the ee-learning: the time commitment from both participants and facilitators. That is very true in our case too. Like in our XtremeJoomla project, we all have various roles to play and works to be done which sometimes make a gathering either synchronously or asynchronously both online and F2F very challenging, not to mention a group of 94 participants across 17 countries in their workshop!!!

Reflection:

The ee+AI learning as I call it, is another innovation added to the online learning environment. I appreciate the creative and pragmatic idea of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) searching for the best in people, organizations, and the relevant world around our daily lives. It involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. In this sense, I consider that AI tend to facilitate the high end of population and condition, because I have a tendency to look at an innovation that has the potential to narrow the disparity among human being's developmental possibility.

The AI concept also reminds of my reading through Reiser and Dempsey’s “Trends and Issues in Instructional design and Technology, 2nd ed.). One of the chapter details the framework of HPI/HPT tying to Shultz and Becker’s (the Nobel Economics winners) concept of Human Capitals. They proclaim that it is human or non-instructional factors that need to be well addressed, investigated as well improved in the performance. They explicate that knowledge and performance capabilities of population (more than the natural resources) correlate to the economic success of a country. I perceive the relevant idea in Cooperrider et al’s AI.

The Al and AL do focus on the zone of optimal performance of human capacity, but AI seems gearing toward one end of the spectrum.

I also observe some similarity to what we learned in class across AI and AL, such as learner-centered (i.e., based on Gardner’s multiple intelligence and learning style/preference in AI), collaborative and interactive learning, experiential leraning (Kolb), online synched environment (more in AL's GoNorth), pedagogy aligned with constructed curriculum with detailed outline lessen plan, media enhancement, which are also more articulated in the AL. AI also has adventure ingredient with online and offline features, depending on the aspect of adventuring. The other minor difference is that AI tends to focus on adult learning experience, for the reflective and inquiry components are more emphasized in the meta-cognitive or abstract/conceptual level.