> WE are bound by the ethics of consultant property that Rick has
> prescribed. (Rightly, I think. I probably wouldn't have begun to
> participate without it.) While I think this is honoured remarkably well,
> the thinking expressed on the list - rather than the form - of course
> cannot be protected anyway. So is the agreement worth much? I think it
> might be usefully changed but not necessarily deleted.
>
> THEY, that is the world who is not engaged with the list and who can
> access it in various ways are not bound by any agreement. They can, in
> practice, borrow freely and provide links that essentially include
> anything here in their writing (with or without credit). The ethics of
> the web seem to support this.
>
> SO, we are limited by being participants and being related by that and
> they are not. This is a strange set of affairs - that I've seen many time
> before with unsatisfactory outcomes.
Michael
We should not cry too much about "THEY". THEY may pick here and there to
make a new salad according to the latest fashion, but THEY will eventually
shoot themselves in the foot. THEY will simply try to force their salad on
the unwary customer with much external work and control. In other words,
the customer will pay dearly for such work and control. The result will be
that the customer will get something positive out of it, but no
rejuvenation and nothing of everlasting value. In other words, the
customer's landscape of spontaneity will not improve because emergences
were not involved!
I do feel sad about the unwary customers who pay unnecessary school money.
But that is the same for any aged parent who observes his/her grownup
child paying school money rather than heeding to advice. However, the
point is that only after paying such school money, is the grownup child
ready in experiences to be guided through his/her own emergent learning.
The individual learner and the learning organisation have to realise how
important emergent learning is to vitality (spontaneity). Emergent
learning should not be confused with digestive learning. Emergent learning
is the birth of a new and noble thought (Socrates). Digestive learning is
the growth of the bare new thought into a mature thought. We ourselves
make use of this list/forum/digest for digestive learning by feeding on
the many thoughts served here. I do not wish to exclude any outsider from
the feast. But what is most valuble here, is that we use this
list/forum/digest also for emergent learning. Participation (or what I
prefer to call commutation) in the birth of thoughts in our fellow
subscribers, is of decisive importance.
Note that I use the term commutation and not communication. I previously
used the word 'infrastructure', but that word lack the dynamic qualities
of the word commutation. The word commutation also conveys much better the
fact that emergences require some prerequisites. In other words, THEY who
pry on this list will remain to be blind of many things because of their
lack in commutation and hence their lack in emergences.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>