Subject: How to leverage dialogue, discussion & debate

Posted by Chad Green on 8/19/2010
In Reply To:How to leverage dialogue, discussion & debate Posted by Gene Bellinger on 8/18/2010

Message:

Hi Gene,

Kudos to you for creating the idea of a Wiki community for systems thinkers! I enjoy reading the daily posts that your site posts to my e-mail account.

I clicked on your link below and found the reference below most salient:

How cognitive surplus will change the world (Shirky, June 2010) http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html

This reminded me of John Burke's TV series "The Day the Universe Changed" which argues that we humans tend to "institutionalize" what we enjoy or appreciate in life in order to protect it from further change. Given the rate of global integration through innovative technologies, I'm afraid this natural inclination is going to have to change as well! Take the notion of innovation, for example. Is innovation primarily the domain of think tanks and ivory tower institutions? Not anymore, folks. Anyone, anywhere can incubate innovativeness, and that includes K-12 systems. My office, too, has access to the latest top academic journals just like any other top academic institution, and yet it's all accessible for free (given the right connections, of course)! Just show me how to process this high-level information, and I'm off to the races on my own. Don't give me pablum a la the What Works Clearinghouse!

Toward the end of video, Clay Shirky drops this line by Dean Kamen: "Free cultures get what they celebrate." This quote should be shared across cyberspace, it rings so true! But if we wish to celebrate systems thinking as a valuable construct for public education, does that mean we should go about telling everyone just how important it is from our perspective? No, that would defeat the purpose. The best way to celebrate our field is to apply it in every social interaction, no matter how big or small the situation. Only after others have witnessed its value through direct experience will they begin to understand and value its use in public education.

Gene, as for your VSI Relationship Model, I would like to see a developmental growth model approach that animates how the idea for your site first germinated (i.e, the initial perturbation or mind map), to the creation of your role as community organizer, to your creation of the virtual community, the three components of which perhaps forming a dynamic intersubjective structure (mind map, organizer, virtual community) leading to the creation of an accessible knowledge base of explicit knowledge, which led to other components or operational roles, etc. Basically what I'm saying is that it would be interesting to see a visual representation of your site's present and future states.

Best,
Chad