Perpetual Learning LO8714

Eric Snyder (egs@TCM.com)
Mon, 29 Jul 1996 07:13:25 -0400 (EDT)

Repost from Horizon list...
Eric
Eric Snyder <egs@TCM.com>

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Perpetual Learning as a Revolutionary Creation

Donald M. Norris
President
Strategic Initiatives, Inc.
stratinit@aol.com

In Transforming Higher Education: A Learning Vision for the 21st
Century, Michael Dolence and I presented the thesis that learning will
become a growth industry, again, in the knowledge age. But traditional
approaches will prove inadequate to the needs of learners. To be
successful in the 21st century, learning must be available any time,
any place, any where, and any how. It must be fused with work,
recreation, entertainment, and personal development. In short,
learning must become perpetual.

Perpetual Learning

Perpetual learning is much more than lifelong learning on steroids. It
is different from lifelong learning in every way.

Lifelong learning is an industrial age metaphor. Lifelong learning
extends the traditional learning metaphor over the individual's
lifetime. Individuals are expected to achieve their basic learning
foundation, then periodically retool when their skills become
diminished. Or they may learn for personal development on a continuing
basis. Lifelong learning is periodic and episodic. While some lifelong
learning for personal development is integrated into the individual's
life, most lifelong learning is experienced on a "time-out-for
learning" basis.

Most lifelong learning uses traditional courses and degrees. Much of
it is classroom based--or an extension of the classroom to remote
locations. Lifelong learning is administered through continuing
education units, extension centers, or other units of traditional
colleges and universities that are often seen as "second-class"
citizens in the institutional pecking order. In corporate learning
environments, continuing learning is organized as a staff function
that supports learning through "corporate universities" or human
resources staffs.

Perpetual learning is a knowledge age metaphor. Many educators cannot
imagine the concept of "perpetual" learning. Surely nobody would
choose to participate in learning all the time? How onerous that would
be!

By the standards of industrial age tools and practices, perpetual
learning is onerous, if not impossible. But the architects of
perpetual learning refuse to be bound by industrial age conventions
and assumptions. By delivering high bandwidth-based learning tools to
every desktop, home entertainment center, school, business, and
community learning center, we are creating a pervasive atmosphere for
perpetual learning. Using this atmosphere, we can break learning into
customizable units that are fused with work, entertainment,
recreation, and personal development.

Perpetual learners will learn every day, in productive learning
careers of fifty or sixty years--or more. One's basic learning
preparation will begin with the assumptions that skills and
competencies must be perpetually refreshed. Basic learners will
develop knowledge navigation and critical thinking skills and the
expectation that they will be learning every day for the rest of their
lives. The mentor relationships that they establish during that basic
training may continue throughout their lives.

Perpetual learning will not require taking time-out-for-learning; it
will be integrally fused with work and other life activities. The
seamlessness of perpetual learning tools will eliminate the energy
drain involved with current approaches to time-out-for-learning.
Perpetual learning is used not just to build human capital, the
traditional result of learning, but to add immediate value to the
individual and organization through application to problem solving.
Both individuals and teams will use perpetual learning in this way.
Perpetual learning and collaborative learning will become redundant
terms.

While one uses lifelong learning to reskill after becoming obsolete,
perpetual learning enables one to never become unskilled or untrained.
It is key to lifetime employability. Perpetual learners will take
responsibility for their own learning careers. Even those learners
working for the most responsible and far sighted employers will take
responsibility for their own learning agendas and futures.

Perpetual learners will seek formal degrees and certification of
mastery at various stages in their careers. The patterns will depend
on individual circumstances and needs. However, much perpetual
learning will be performed independent of formal certification.
Successful application and problem solving will be certification
enough. Perpetual learning will be practiced throughout our
organizations, not just in learning or human resources units.
Perpetual learning will be a line function, supported by staff.

The Birth of Perpetual Learning

Perpetual Learning is gestating in leading-edge organizations today.
But it is not being born in college and universities, or even in the
learning units of businesses. The development of perpetual learning is
occurring on the desktops of knowledge workers who are exploring the
potentials of fusing work and learning. This is the new frontier.

These knowledge workers begin by using their organization's
information systems, Intranet, and groupware to access the knowledge
base of the organization and apply it to their work. Piece by piece,
new elements are added: just-in-time learning elements for employees
that are new to the organization or have been promoted into a new
position; new marketing materials and competitive intelligence;
learning materials that are focusing on core competencies for the
employee and the organization. Over time, these learning tools are
augmented by powerful search engines and learning agents and by
learningware developed in partnership between the organization and
colleges, universities, or other learning providers. And finally, by
"snippets" of learning, Website-based learning materials, and other
examples of learning worldware that are made available for
customization by learners everywhere.

This is how perpetual learning will evolve and one day emerge from
primordial ooze. That day will come sooner than we think. While
perpetual learning will first emerge among knowledge workers in
leading edge organizations, it will quickly be discovered by learners
everywhere. The atmosphere that sustains perpetual learning will
pervade and support every desktop, home edutainment center, and mobile
digital device. It will happen without asking the permission of any
educational leader, faculty senate, or policy maker.

Perpetual Learning As Revolution

By its very nature, perpetual learning must be revolutionary. It
redefines our learning paradigm. In the face of the emerging
atmosphere for perpetual learning, even traditional learning will be
changed. By crafting a revolutionary vision for perpetual learning,
and by creating perpetual learning in that image, we will position
perpetual learning for success and rapid deployment. Moreover,
leaders of learning enterprises that aspire to succeed in the
knowledge age must be guided by strategies that comprehend the
revolutionary nature of perpetual learning.

Strategy as Revolution

Most learning enterprises have taken the strategic out of strategic
planning. Their planning is formulaic, routine, and predictable. To
successfully prepare for perpetual learning, learning enterprises must
develop the capacity to craft strategy, to vision, and to prepare for
success in any of a number future scenarios that are not
extrapolations of the past.

Gary Hamel of the London School of Economics is internationally
recognized for his capacity to help industries and enterprises to
focus on the future. In a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review,
he identified nine facets of revolutionizing organizations in the face
of knowledge age opportunities and competition (see pp. ). The
following description illustrates how the perpetual learning industry
can be both created and revolutionized in its birth. These principles
should guide educators and they position their learning enterprises
for success.

1. Radically Improve the Value Equation. What is value in the
traditional system of higher learning? The knowledge or learning value
of individual learning and its integration by the learner? Or the
certification of mastery contained in course and degree credit? Or the
application of learning to problem solving and application? In point
of fact, the value equation varies dramatically for different
learners. Individual choice is therefore critical. Our current
learning system systematically limits learner choice.

The perpetual learning enterprise must recognize these facts and
improve the value equation in several ways. First, by making it
possible to learn any way, any time, any place, any how. Second, by
enabling learners to acquire and process information in many ways and
by focusing learner/faculty/mentor interactions on high value-added
activities. Third, by enabling the fusion of work and learning so that
learning can add value immediately through application and problem
solving.

Learning enterprises must assess with steely-eyed honesty the value
they add to individual learners, as compared with other learning
providers. Then translate that assessment into their learning
offerings.

2. Separate Function (Core Benefits) and Form. The current academic
approach to learning bundles form and function together inextricably.
The core benefits from learning are provided by a mixture of faculty
activities. Faculty scholarly activity is spread between discovery
research, synthesis, teaching, and improvement of practice.

Perpetual learning will separate form and function and focus on
learning outcomes (benefits). Perpetual learning can accommodate a
wide range of learning forms, ranging from desktop to classroom. Form
and function will be fundamentally separable in perpetual learning
enterprises. This separation of form and function for perpetual
learning will cause us to examine the relationships of form and
function in traditional learning offerings as well.

3. Achieve Ease and Joy of Use. The patterns and cadences of
traditional learning are designed to satisfy the needs of providers,
not learners. Perpetual learning must be easy to achieve if it is to
be fused with work. But ease of use is not sufficient. Customers are
moving beyond convenience to satisfaction, even joy, of use. Learning
to solve problems and address personal needs can provide genuine
satisfaction and even joy to the perpetual learner.

4. Push the Bounds of Universality. Traditional learning clusters
learners and providers into groups by levels and types of learners
(e.g., K-12, undergraduate, masters, doctoral, postdoctoral) and
institutions (e.g., major research universities, comprehensive
universities, private liberal arts colleges, community colleges,
corporate universities). Different market segments are created by the
convergence of types of learners and types of institutions.

But perpetual learning can appeal to learners at all levels, in all
disciplines, and in all settings. It can appeal to learners at all
stages of their lives. It can be universal in its coverage, yet
personalized in its nature.

5. Strive for Individuality. Traditional learning is packaged for mass
market segments by level of learning and type of institution. The
level of individualization within these segments is limited.

By its very definition, perpetual learning must be mass customized.
That is, it must be customized to the need of every individual. Both
the product and the delivery must be tailored to individual needs and
preferences.

6. Increase Accessibility. Traditional academic offerings are bound by
place and by the dictates of the traditional academic calendar. Even
existing efforts to transform traditional learning into cyberspace are
bound by traditional academic calendars and units of learning.

By its very nature, perpetual learning must be available any time, any
place, and by a variety of means. Its accessibility must know no
bounds--geographically or temporally. New units of learning and
certification of mastery must be developed to further expand the
standards of accessibility to meet the range of needs of knowledge age
learners.

7. Rescale the Learning Industry. Traditional learning is limited in
its scale and scope by our units of organization--courses, degrees,
and institutions. Even when developed to curriculum and syllabus
standards, each course is a cottage industry, crafted by individual
faculty to personal standards and preferences. Learningware components
typically are not shared in widespread and meaningful way. Faculty are
collected within institutions, and although those institutions are
often arrayed within systems of institutions, these do not create real
economies or advantages of academic scale that have substantially
affected classroom learning.

The perpetual learning industry will exhibit both upward and downward
scaling. Perpetual learning will be global in scope. Particular units
or modules of learning or learningware can enjoy a national and even
global market. Some perpetual learning providers will capitalize on
global economies of scale, often in particular areas of excellence.

On the other hand, downward scaling will be achieved in several
important ways. First, mass customization will tailor learning to
individual needs. The individual perpetual learner will be able to
craft learning experiences tailored to their personal needs. Second,
modules and snippets of learning will need to be integrated and given
meaning by the faculty serving as mentors, navigators, and guides.
These roles will assume even greater importance to learners in the
Knowledge Age. Learners may retain an ongoing and frequent
relationship with mentors throughout their learning careers.

Most individual learners will benefit from both the upward and
downward scaling effects of perpetual learning.

Compress the Value Chain. The traditional value chain involves
students and faculty acting together in the classroom and
classroom-stimulated outside learning activities. These occur within
the framework of traditional courses, degrees, and calendars.

For many perpetual learning activities, teachers or faculty or
providers will be disintermediated by learners acting as their own
agents in acquiring information. Or other agents, learners, and/or
parties will substitute for faculty for some learning activities.
Collaborative learning groups will flourish. But for the learning
functions that really count--navigation, mentoring, providing
judgment, and certification of mastery, faculty will remain essential.
Indeed, both the percentage and amount of faculty time involved in
high value added activities will likely increase.

Successful learning enterprises in the knowledge age will solve the
puzzle of compressing the value change and facilitating the
availability of faculty for high value added activities.

9. Drive Convergence. The traditional learning industry is distinct
and separate. Colleges and universities are autonomous scholarly
organizations. Even corporate learning enterprises are typically
separate organizational units.

Will perpetual learning converge with other industries? Entertainment?
Marketing? Performance assessment? Quite probably. The shape and form
of the new organizations that will emerge is yet unclear.

Will the traditional learning industry be isolated from the emerging
perpetual learning industry, which will merge and converge with the
rapidly changing entertainment, marketing, and performance assessment
industries? Only time, and the strategies of leaders of learning
enterprises, will tell.

Putting Strategy and Vision Back Into the Learning Industry

The time has come to make our vision of the future of the learning
industry strategic. This requires inclusive, expansive, inquisitive,
inventive, and iconoclastic strategic thinking--and less so-called
strategic planning.

Every campus and learning enterprise should reverberate to the sounds
of the debate on the key issues of today and tomorrow. What will
learning be like in the knowledge age? What must we do to develop the
competencies necessary to compete in that new environment? How do we
begin--today?

Many of our leaders are ill equipped to catalyze and lead such a
debate. Many seem determined to drive into the future by gazing into
the rear-view mirror. But the capacity to successfully participate in
strategy- and vision-building ventures exists in all learning
enterprises. It is time to mobilize those resources and move forward
to meet perpetual learning in the knowledge age.

References:

Dolence, M. G. and Norris, D. M. Transforming Higher Education: A
Vision for Learning in the 21st Century. Ann Arbor, MI: Society for
College and University Planning, 1995.

Hamel, G. "Strategy as Revolution." Harvard Business Review,
July-August 1996, pp. 72-73.

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TARGETED COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
Ottawa, Canada
" Enhancing Corporate Effectiveness with Technology "
mailto:egs@tcm.com (Eric Snyder); (613) 722-3751
~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.tcm.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Eric Snyder <egs@TCM.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>