Notes from January 30

[steve.yost]

Hi all,

Here's my long-overdue summary of the Peeragogy meeting on Monday January 30. It's taken mostly from the notes I used for my little talk, since I sadly can't find the chat notes that Charlie had nicely made, and which I thought I'd saved.

I gave a brief review of the history of the Lexington online course collective, which is also represented on the website. I then I focused on my reflection that there's one major aspect currently missing from the site: the evolution of both my leadership role and style and the group's evolution as a collaborative. In the beginning, because I'd never done this before, I felt a need to ensure its success by being more of an organizer and top-down leader of discussions. I also worked to be sure I was on top of the material, so as to be sort of the expert, even just for each session. After a while, among the group, a culture of somewhat disciplined co-learning evolved. Before that, there was a propensity to go off on tangents or long personal tales. Group dynamics also evolved as the membership in the group changed over time. A core stable group evolved.

Having a good moderator, in moderation, is still a key role, and I'm looked to as the one to rein in any tangents and, importantly, ensure everyone has an opportunity to speak.

I felt in reflection that it's good to have a background in logic, and psychology and cognitive biases. How interesting it is that the subjects were among  our first courses.

One thing that's common to a group of our type in Lexington is a love of learning as a pleasure in itself. That is there is no personal or professional need to learn any of these subjects for career growth etc. Other instances of this model may have different emphases.

I'm sure I've left things out of the remainder here, which is from my own quick notes during the meeting, so please chime in with your own recollections if you wish:

People in our peeragogy meeting noted that there may be the possibility of an entrepreneurial, consulting role in propagating this model. Karl mentioned the University of the Third Age. Fabio mentioned his teacher's club -- he has since started a new experiment with this model. The notion of a franchise was brought up wherein a franchise sets a level of standards. Fabio mentioned a psychiatrist in Brazil who has produced a certain certification regimen for his methods. Carl mentioned the Creative Commons Model.

Steve