First BB question and I need to blog before posting

What is Distributed Learning? What does it mean to be a teacher or learner? How should we be designing our schools (and broader learning environments I think)? These are the questions this week for our Introduction to Distributed Learning class.

I have so many tangential thoughts about this subject (what…me have tangential thoughts? No… say it isn’t so!). I think it would be best to blog about the subject a bit (maybe even over a couple of days) before I post to the listserv/newsgroup/notesfile/bulletin board/blackboard (so many different titles for basically the same asynchronous communication construct.

So- what is distributed learning. I’ve read several articles on the subject.

Here are a few links for anyone who might be interested:
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7359
http://techcollab.csumb.edu/techsheet2.1/distributed.html
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm9943.html
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~soules/improv1.htm
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/dlc.html

Here is one memorable definition:
“Distributed Learning is not just a new term to replace the other ‘DL,’ distance learning. Rather it comes from the concept of distributed resources. Distributed learning is an instructional model that allows instructor, students, and content to be located in different, non-centralized locations so that instruction and learning occur independent of time and place. The distributed learning model can be used in combination with traditional classroom-based courses, with traditional distance learning courses, or it can be used to create wholly virtual classrooms.”
Steven Saltzberg and Susan Polyson (1995). Distributed learnin on the Wold Wide Web. Syllabus, Sept. 95
Quoted in What is Distributed Learning? Maureen Bowman
http://techcollab.csumb.edu/techsheet2.1/distributed.html accessed/downloaded July 30, 2004

The problem I have with the above definition is that it is both distance and web centric even though it claims that the DL of Distributed Learning is not a replacement for the DL of distance learning.

I believe that distributed learning can occur whether the community involved is itself distributed across time and place or is in one time an place (synchronous virtual or synchronous physical). For me, distributed learning is about how the information and knowledge is shared and communicated among all the members of the community (novice, practitioner, master). In a more traditional setting the teacher teaches and the student learns. The teacher (or Master) controls what is presented to the learner (or Novice), when and how it is presented, and how the learner’s knowledge is assessed or validated. In a distributed setting, the master (or masters) have a great deal of knowledge to share and do share it but the novice(s) also share among each other and, hopefully, w/ participating practitioners and masters. The novices not only actively participate in the learning for the whole community but also help to set the direction and pace of the learning.

The most potent thing about the concept of distributed learning is that not only are the knowledge and resources distributed (residing w/ various individuals, in various places, accessed via various modalities) BUT the act of teaching and learning is itself distributed throughout the community. The novice learns from the practitioners, the master(s), and also from the other novices. The practitioners and masters (if they are open and astute) also learn (from each other as well as from the novices).

It is like the BellyDance community on LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/community/bellydancing/) – all levels of dancers (novice, practitioner, and master alike) participate in this community. The community is focused on our collective interesting Middle Eastern Dance. The discussions range from specific experiential descriptions; requests for advice (on music, technique, costuming, social situations, business practice); requests for referrals to performers, instructors, musicians, designers, etc; and just plain venting about whatever situation we might feel moved by. This community is neither a school nor another organization whose mission is specifically education but it is a prime example of a distributed learning community. All of us learn from each other and each of us share what when know as we can. What is always fascinating to me is how often the same questions are posed again and again (generally by a new novice member) and the same or similar answers are given again and again by different people. Those of us who are practitioners or masters generally answer a question once or twice and then the mantel falls on some of the more experienced novices or beginning practitioners to answer it the next time it is posed. None of us want to answer the same question again and again.. but somehow those questions are asked and answered and the community (along w/ its members) evolves, grows, and transmutes.

This is true in =pad as well – but in a different way. =pad is a notesfile from the old PLATO/NovaNET system – for years it was a fairly open community, but recently, in the interest of self preservation, has become much more selective in granting membership. Because it has been sometime since any novices joined the community, the community has become less of a distributive learning environment and more of a distributed social environment where we converse w/ each other; amuse each other; occasionally ask for and offer useful information to each other; and often push each others buttons for the sake of communal entertainment. I must admit, in terms of distributed learning definitions, I’m not sure where this tangent about =pad fits in.. but it felt right to write about it.

Ok… so back to distributed learning… maybe – as I wrote the other night – one of the better examples is Jazz and Blues music. I won’t go into detail on that again – I already blogged about it. But – there is another kind of improvisation… Theater! In the best improve (at least in my person experience) each participant must make a concerted effort to involve all the participants AND the audience (who often become participants themselves) in the dialogue, activity, action, and collaboration. To me – this is also distributed learning… very dynamic distributed learning in fact.

Hmmm...one more thought tangent that I want saved for later: There is an old saying (I thought it came from Kung Fu or some similar practice... but I can only find it in reference to playing bagpipes and uilleann pipes)... the saying goes like this...
An anonymous bit of Irish folk wisdom asserts that “It takes 21 years to call yourself a piper—7 years to learn the instrument, 7 years to practice, and 7 years to play.” I've always liked this definition and have often applied it to other aspects of my life such as Dance (where I am at the "play" stage) and Yoga (where I am at the learn stage. I've also thought of it in terms of learner = novice, practitioner = practice, and play = master.

Ok… this is long… it is late… I still need to eat dinner… and I’m starting to think in circles… So… I’ll re-read tomorrow and try to consolidate my thoughts for a BB post.

Tonight, I close w/ a little Leonard Cohen (for some reason it seems appropriate).

You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum.
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum.
Every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.

Anthem ©1992 Leonard Cohen Stranger Music, INC. (BMI).