Thoughts on Thought Leadership in Education

My thoughts on 'Thought Leadership’, especially in the context of education.

Leadership is about influencing others and in the case of Thought Leadership in Education, I believe, it is about influencing others with your ideas of constitutes good education.

This thinking has direct bearing on me because I am keen on influencing others about how the information technology revolution has placed us in the midst of a paradigm shift, just like advent of language, writing and printing-press had earlier done, that requires us to reconsider what is relevant education and how it should be imparted and learnt.

Thought leadership in education need not be coercive leadership or a leadership that influences others through economic inducement rather, in my view, thought leadership has much to borrow from ‘soft power’.

SOFT POWER AND THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

According to Professor Joseph Nye[i] soft power is ‘attraction that leads to acquiescence’ as opposed to hard power that is either coercive or is based on economic inducement.

When others admire your values or your ‘story’ they want to emulate you, and such influence requires neither force nor money. This is soft power in action.

Thought leadership too should be based on tenets of soft power. Your ‘idea’ or ‘story’ alone must be attractive enough to influence others. For example, I would like to advocate the idea that the ‘next generation educated person’ needs to cultivate dispositions that the current formal education rarely provides. These dispositions include – self-learning, self-understanding, deep and independent thinking skills, narrative skills and ability to collaborate.

How can a thought leader propagate his or her ideas?

TOOLS OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Memes

First, a thought leader should be clearly able to articulate the difference between ‘What is’ and ‘What is Possible’.

Then, a thought leader should know how to create interesting ‘memes’ for ‘What is Possible’ and propagate these memes using different means, including electronic ones like tweets, SMS, blog, Facebook presence, Scribd, SlideShare and more.

Art of the Narrative

Art of Story-Telling has much to offer in creating interesting memes. Stories rely on an optimal mix of ethos, pathos and logos to make a point. That is, stories have a right mix of facts, emotions and rationality that influences others. While creating memes, a thought leader should come up with different arguments for ‘what is possible’ ideas that are based on facts, emotions and rationality.

A story progresses on conflict and its resolution. In the context of education related memes the 'conflict' would be the underlying fears and hesitations learners may have in adopting the new ‘what is possible’ idea. Usually such conflict is fear or failure or ridicule in trying something new, or fixity with current idea, fallacious thinking or simply inertia. A thought leader must understand these underlying conflicts that will impede adoption of the idea and use ethos, pathos and logos to suggest resolutions.

Myths

Thought leaders should analyze ‘myths’ to learn about wide temporal and spatial dissemination of ideas. For example, Joseph Campbell[ii], an expert on myths, has explained in detail the ‘Hero’s Journey’ metaphor so often used in myths. In this metaphor an individual receives a ‘call to action’, is reluctant to heed the call because of fear of failure or ridicule, finally goes on the journey, meets and clears obstacles, has an epic struggle and finally returns as master of both the worlds.

A learner is like a ‘hero’ who has to be taken on a journey by the thought leader. The thought leader starts by explaining ‘what is’ and ‘what is possible’ and using ethos, pathos and logos first cajoles the learner into embarking on the journey, then helps the learner overcome hurdles, the epic struggle could be with un-challenged, pre-conceived notions the learner holds and if the thought leader is successful in influencing the learner then learner will be master of both worlds.

NETWORKS OF INFLUENCE

Instead of a having a limited, time-bound ripple effect that creates a small sphere of influence, technology today permits the thought leader to create a ‘global network of influence’ where ideas can propagate at the speed of light.

In networks of influence conversation is the capital[iii]. Conversations help bring depth and clarity of understanding and help influence a large number of people through word-of-mouth (in this case electronic mouths like Facebook and Twitter). Conversations propagate the energy of the thought.

MOTIVATION 3.0

Thought leadership influence is based on what author Daniel Pink[iv] has described as Motivation 3.0. That is, instead of depending on the lower level needs in Maslow's pyramid, thought leaders should look at the new operating system of motivation – a system driven by Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

In other words, ‘what is possible’ is driven more by learner becoming autonomous and self-led, a master of the particular craft, and pursuing challenges that go beyond self-interest and give meaning to learner’s life.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ROI

Thought leadership, like soft power, has a diffused general influence and may not elicit an easily observable specific action.

Similarly, the reciprocity may also be diffused and delayed and may not result in an immediate exchange.

A thought leader thus needs to have tremendous patience and resilience to try out different memes to reach out to people with different dispositions, experimenting with different combinations of ethos, pathos and logos.

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[i] 'The Benefits of Soft Power' article by Joseph Nye - http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4290.html

[ii] ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ – a book by Joseph Campbell

[iii] ‘Conversational Capital’ – a book by Bertrand Cesvet and others

[iv] ‘Drive’ – a book by Daniel H Pink

NextGen Learning Platform (#MSLFM11)

The NextGen Learning Platforms should facilitate - Curation, Contextualization, Collective Wisdom, Conversations and Personalization.

Ideally the platform should have these features built-in, but there are always new third-party tools coming up that perform these functions better. Hence, either the platform should have the capability to integrate new third-party tools.

Even without a learning platform that provides these features, learner can use use tools like Diigo and features like ‘hashtag’ collation and sharing to bring coherence in a learning experience. For example, I could use the StickyNote or Annotation feature of Diigo, add a hashtag to my note/annotation, and then share the Diigo link with my fellow learners.

I am not sure if Diigo StickyNotes are crawled by Google, if they are then curation for a particular course could be based simply on hashtags.

Coming back to the features of NextGen Learning Platform:

1. Curation

- Collate content to create new bundles. Either integrate following types of services or have similar features:

http://www.quora.com/ - where you can ask an enthusiast for help (personal curation)

http://storify.com/ - create stories using social media

http://www.curated.by – similar to Storify

- NextGen Learning Platform should have the ability to play content in native format (allow embed code for YouTube, SlideShare etc) - for instant gratification

2. Context and Collective Wisdom in the Cloud

- Content without context is meaningless

- Ability to social bookmark, annotate, highlight, add hashtags to learning modules, conversations and comments

- Like http://www.diigo.com/index

3. Conversation (including comments)

- Ability to 'push' content to email, twitter, facebook etc

- Let other learners 'subscribe' to a conversation thread or to a person - peer or facilitator

- Like http://www.amplify.com and http://www.disqus.com

4. Personalization (analytics based)

LMS or Institutional Level Personalization

- SNAPP (a software tool that allows users to visualize the network of interactions resulting from discussion forum posts and replies) - http://research.uow.edu.au/learningnetworks/seeing/snapp/index.html

- Radian6- it is a commercial software to listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social media, but it could have uses in learning if a course is using lot of social media - http://www.radian6.com/

Self / Personal Control Analytics: I think Web 3.0 – Cloud-based analytics will be very useful – where the cloud compares my browsing history with other people who have similar history and makes suggestions. There is a huge privacy row on this but I think Google and others will provide enough controls to select exactly what I want the app to track and suggest. 'People who read this also read...' will be very useful for web-based self-directed learning.

Social Graphs + Context: I think tools will come up that allow me to map Social Graphs with Context. For example, right now I know my friends on Facebook (my social graph), but tools will come up that will help me analyze how my friends engage – e.g one friend regularly reads my book reviews, while another looks at all photos I upload. From a learning perspective, while using social media for learning, such insights can help an educator fine-tune the learning experience for each participant – once they know what each student finds more interesting.

5. Fit to Roam

The learning platform should be accessible from mobile devices.

A Learning Framework for the Digital Age

Web-based learning is emerging as the second strand of education, where the teacher or parent becomes a learner facilitator, the web becomes the classroom and the learner becomes increasingly autonomous. Borrowing from different learning theories this presentation suggests a learning framework for the digital age.

A Learning Framework for the Digital Age

Interactions with Prof Pant may feel like this... beware #MSLFM11

Behavioural Economics and Learning Theory (#MSLFM11)

Economics is better defined as a study of incentives that guide or determine human behaviour. Nobel Laureate, Daniel Kahneman, laid down the foundation of behavioural economics. Elinor Ostrom work on Social Commons got her a Nobel. Behavioural Economics and Social Commons view is the new direction economics is taking and both these trends can also be extrapolated to the field of education. Social Commons in the field of education include Wiki, MIT-OCW and initiatives like Academic Earth.

Related with behavioural economics is Daniel Pink's book 'Drive - the surprising truth about what motivates us'. Pink identifies three thresholds of human motivation - Motivation 1.0, Pink says, was when biological drives, like food and security alone guided human behaviour (elsewhere described as 'Maslow's Basement'); Motivation 2.0 is extrinsic rewards (carrots and sticks) guiding our behaviour - where we largely are today; and, Motivation 3.0 is when intrinsic rewards (challenge, novelty, meaning...) guide our behaviour and Pink argues this is where we are moving towards. Pink describes the 21st century motivational operating system as 'AMP - Autonomy (self-direction), Mastery and Purpose'.

Juxtaposing these three thresholds of human motivation alongside Learning Theories reveals an interesting correlation (and also causation?):

Motivation 1.0 = Behavioural Learning Theories

Motivation 2.0 = Cognitivist Learning Theories (stockpile knowledge and learn to earn, grade as carrot and stick)

Motivation 3.0 = Humanist Learning Theories (learn to fulfill meaning/purpose in life)

As Pink puts it, "compliance gets you through the day, but engagement alone will get you through the night"!

What combination of learning theories or a new learning theory will fire-up a lifelong yearning to learn?

Teachers or Learner Facilitators? (#MSLFM11)

Can we distinguish the 'functions' of a good teacher from the 'form' of a teacher (form vs function - a table has certain essential functions but can take many forms). If so, can the 'functions' of a teacher be delivered in 'forms' beyond what we usually conceive of as a 'teacher'?

I recently visited some remote parts of India where teachers are scarce but mobile phone and Dish TV is common (which I think will also be true at many other places in the world). Thus, the importance of looking at different 'forms' that can be used to deliver the 'functions' of a teacher.

1. Parent as a Teacher

Parents are, usually, most concerned about their kids. Can the 'functions' of a teacher be imbibed by parents, especially in places where there is a paucity of teachers. What role can ubiquitously available technology play in helping parents become teachers?

2. Student as a Teacher

Sugata Mitra's 'Hole in the Wall' experiments have shown that kids can learn computer operations themselves, without any adult guidance. Mitra installed a computer in the boundary wall of his office in Delhi with a touch monitor facing outside. Outside the wall was a slum colony. Mitra connected the computer to internet and placed a hidden camera to record how the computer was being used. He observed that adults were the first people to come to the computer but lost interest as they could not figure out how to use it. However, kids under 8 years of age persisted, usually in groups of 6-8, where one was operating the computer and all the rest were guiding him/her. Kids developed their own vocabulary e.g. the cursor was 'sui' (hindi for needle) and the spinning sand-timepiece was 'dumru' (hindi for handheld drum). Very soon the kids got the hang of operating a computer. In later studies all across India, Mitra showed that simply putting content on the computer led the kids to learn that content. This experiment has been replicated successfully in many countries and is now a World Bank funded project. Can access to an enriched environment with lots of learning content and just a little guidance lead to self-learning?

3. Computer / Technology as a Teacher

'You learn best when you teach' notion led Papert and others at MIT Media Labs to collaborate with Lego to create the 'Intelligent Lego Brick' which is at the heart of Lego's Mindstorm Robotic kits. The premise is that kids can easily teach (through simple visual programming tools) the Robots and in-turn learn themselves. A more recent MIT Media Labs initiative, Scratch, is an online storytelling tool where kids can create animations and multimedia content to narrate stories and build games. While these technologies may not be able to teach the 3Rs (initiatives like Khan Academy dispute even this) other skills like media literacy, communication etc, more relevant in today's time can be learnt through technology.

I personally feel that the most essential 'function' of a teacher is to fire-up a 'yearning to learn' in their students and help the students 'learn to self-learn'. In what all 'forms' can this essence of a teacher be made available to students, especially those who don't have access to regular teachers?

Dispositions of 'Next Generation Educated Person' (#MSLFM11)

What does a 'Next Generation Educated Person' (NeGEP) look like? What forces are propelling the development of NeGEP and what are resisting? This presentation looks at the dispositions of and does a Force Field Analysis for NeGEP.

Next Generation Educated Person - 'NeGEP'