What Happens in Co-creation of Knowledge? Micro-Interactions in Social Learning

Do we simply socialize for socialization's sake? Or do we socialize because of expected outcomes? I think the desired outcomes have much to do with the quality of socialization.

Many social learning or collaborative learning approaches focus on the "tools: software, web-service, gadgets, etc." that facilitate socialization and learning. They pay less attention to what truly happens in the "creation of new knowledge" that brings results.

This challenge presents two problems:

1. If we are unclear on how the "the knowledge creation" works, we may not get the results.

2. If we focus on tools, we will find them useless after we master their technical features.

In my inquiries about creation of knowledge, I stumbled upon this paper by Christine Woods and Barbara Simpson of The University of Auckland.

http://vftstation.vftdev.com/~vftlps/tp/r&d/micro-interactions/micro-interactions_Woods_Simpson.pdf

This paper proposes that understanding micro-interactions is a key to creation of innovations. There are four levels to identify which must converge and diverge into the Living Present. The four levels are: Anticipated Strand, Skills Strand, Realized Strand, and Social Strand. People's identity in each strand are woven together to create the texture of the Living Present. It is in the living present that knowledge and people converge or diverge -- it is where collaboration leads to innovations. Woods and Simpson cited two case studies on how they applied their studies.

This paper made me think about the process of "creation of knowledge" in social learning.

Please send me email if you have thoughts and materials on this.

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"