Communities of praxisthe SL and OLPC components of a mixed-reality primer

Presented at Internet Research 9.0,ITU, Copenhagen, DenmarkOct. 18, 2008

Alexandra Bal, Ryerson University, Canada

What do the OLPC and SL have in common?

Image from: fuse-project http://content.zdnet.com/2346-12554_22-37929-10.html

Mobile Learning LaptopVirtual World

1. They are Social Media.

2. They mirror cyberpunk culture.

3. They form mixed social realities.

1. Social Media- Facilitate users’ participation.

- Mediate human relationships.

- peer to peer culture based on sharing and co-production of knowledge and experience.

OLPC: Collaborative activities of physically co-present peers.

Second Life: Geographically dispersed and virtually embodied

peers.

They are becoming sociological construct: People can build their

own social organizations deployed in both virtual and physical

spaces.

OLPC and SL are designed as social constructionist environments

Individuals and groups are constructing their own learning and social reality.

Learning happens within self organizing informallearning communities.

Both physical and virtual. Source: http://marianina.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/Socialnetworkingvisualisation.jpg

Learning within Informal Communities of interests

Children are learning within informal social networks based on their interests.

Learning happens by informal sharing of experiences (Freire, 1978) with members of communities of interests.

Social Constructivism: Children learn from their and other children's experiences and social contexts (Vygotsky, 1978). Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2784915332/in/photostream/

Learning within Informal Communities of Practices

Lived experiences + Action create learning.

Learning driven by discovery and experimentation (Papert, 1992).

Children co-construct meaning and experiences via co-production of cultural artefacts (Ito, 2008).

Source: http://bp3.blogger.com/

2. Cyberpunk Imaginaries ?

Both OLPC and SL innovators make reference to cyberpunk culture.

OLPC: illustrated primer (Diamond Age).SL: The metaverse (Snow Crash).

For Stephenson: Technology is charged with ideological values and influences social change.

What type of change are innovators interested in?

Theoretical Framework

OLPC and SL designers are interested in deploying alternate social, economic and industrial models.

→ promote delocalized and self-organizing informal collectives, where social agents' actions influence social change.

OLPC = Desire to introduce new industrial framework (to reindustrialise (Tremblay, 1998; Moeglin, 2004)) to cultural production such as education based on social constructionist values.

3. Mixed Social Realities

Networks blur the boundaries between

Personal-Informal-Professional networks (Gensollen, 2007) .

→ multiple value systems coexists and creates hybrid social innovations that blend:

1. Learning Styles: From behaviorist to social constructionist.

2. Economies: Product– Services- Gift.

3. Social organizational models : Hierarchical – Networked -Self-organizing Communities.

-> Alternate industrial models can emerge from these new forms.

Traditional social constructivist social innovation model

New social

and economy models

Blend existing

of individuals and institutions (Moeglin, 2004) framework.

Different educational models correspond to particular capitalist industrial frameworks (Boltanski and Chiappello, 2001) .

Industrial Frameworks

Behaviorism: Taylorist Industry

Socialize to - Institutional hierarchies- standard use of time and space- passive behaviours and routines- Competition

70s Innovation Industries

Cognitivism: Hierarchies lessens.

The institution functions as a collective: Innovating workers share knowledge to advanceprogress within the institution.

Professional communities within Institutions.

Socialize to: - standard use of time and space,- active behaviours and routines,- Professional Social Networks,- Collaboration.

90s: Network Industries

Social Constructivism:

Institutional boundaries soften.

Value is created and shared by members of a network instead of by individual companies (Kelley, 1998).

Creation of professional communities tied to discipline instead of organization.

Socialize to - autonomy,- Coo-petition (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1997),- virtual space.

Peer 2 Peer Industries

Delocalized and self-organizingcollectives are creating their own industrial frameworks.

Informal communities of interests, of practice are rationalizing production processes and developing a collective or connective intelligence.

Formalizing the status of their collectivesin order to gain legal protection of their processes (creative commons) and organizing into rights to be non profit oriented.

Peer socialization:-work is mobile, -- Time is fluid- public spaces become workspaces,-- co-creation, co-production, -- co-working (Forlano, 2008).

Socio-constructionist Institutions

Social Constructionist:

Fragmentation of institutions lead toacceptance of peer culture within Institutional boundaries are fluid.

Creation of learning networks tied to interest and practices outsideprofession, discipline and organizations.

Socialization:- work that combines personal-informal-professionalnetworks,- mixed-space,-- co-learning,-- participants outside the institution-drive change.

Social Constructionist Framework

New social and economy models stems from the cross between values, culture and contexts of users entrepreneurs (Shah and Tripsas, 2007) who create their own social reality and influence institutions(Berger and Luckmannn, 1966)

OLPC innovators

Children are producing tomorrow's social,economic and industrialInnovations.

Conclusion

OLCP program: Short-circuiting the traditional authorities of diffusion of culture and change the nature of economic and political territories.

3rd world countries allow to bypass western world infrastructures which are controlled by bureaucratic processes developed over 100 years ago which stops innovation from being quickly adopted.

Countries without such constrains, will develop new economic and social models which, as they become economic power themselves, could influence the western world and force it to adapt.

- Global virtually embodied smart mob as a peer workforce?