Toby Thompson 

Networked Learning & Community Inside Business Schools

I'm a fan of 'networked learning'. I think this concept accurately addresses the notion of community-based-learning which interests me. The definition of networked learning I like, but am not wholly comfortable with, comes from Jones & Steeples (Networked Learning: Perspectives & Issues - Springer, 2002):

"Learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources"

The point I would add is that this ICT-enabled learning need not be just educationalised or classroom-oriented learning. By educationalised I mean graduate (e.g. MBA, MSc) and open or customised executive education. The learning community referred to here need not be related solely to business school's classroom endeavours, nor to our formal programmes of education. Using this blog, I'd like to promote the value of considering non-educationalised ICT-enabled learning not just as potential channels for the delivery of pre- & post-requisites to formal management education programmes but as the natural 'site' of learning for our consumers. If this appears 'out of scope', Cranfield School of Management, for one, promotes the ethos of actionable knowledge within the commercial contexts of its application. The blurring of the distinction between classroom and workplace that the above definition affords, compliments the ethos of actionable knowledge. As a colleague states, critical scrutiny of the notion of 'community' brings with it questions around the space & place of learning. Where is the 'where' of our consumer's learning? (Not to mention the question of when does a consumer become a learner?)

As regards 'community', I take the lead from Wenger's (1998, Communities of Practice, Cambridge) definition:

"Participation [in a community]... refers not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but to a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities."

If you substituted 'certain activities' in this quote for business school executive education programmes, then these are the type of communities I feel we have an opportunity to cultivate via the affordances of 'networked learning'. And my point about all this, I hear you asking?As key opinion formers in our respective institutions, our framing of the debate solely within educationalised and institutionalised confines runs the risk of fueling the criticisms leveled against b-schools as being irrelevant, elitist and out-of-touch. Truly 'high touch' executive education has less to do with the classroom and more to do with situated and proximal application of knowledge that b-schools may or may not be in posession of.

What d'you reckon?

Mapping the Territory

My interest is in learning - principally, how managers & business leaders learn, and how business schools have a part to play in what these people learn. I work at a business school, and am responsible for developing e-learning for managers. I also have an interest in philosophy. You don't see much written about the philosophy of management learning? As my wife says, ever the one to obsess about discovering the philosophical angle of everyday situations, I have an interest in challenging common assumptions, using the tool-box of philosophy. Since I find myself involved in management education, I naturally bring philosophical questions to bare on the topic of my worklife. This blog is a way of discovering - of writing into being - my thoughts on the philosphy (or the Zen) of management learning. Thanks for reading this far...

Poststructuralism & Social Capital - eek!

Thanks David for clearing this up. I see your point, and I'm wrong to label Systematic Review as 'tacit-lite'.
My journey to social capital comes via my postmodernist sympathies. As a card carrying poststrucuralist ( ! ) I'm critical of the traditional (dominant SoM perspective?) modernist notions of a unitary, 'centred' leader/manager/executive/knowledge-worker. I don't see much dialogue around here critiquing these modernist notions. I think there is mileage in treating the leader/manager/executive/knowledge-worker (basically & generally, SoM's consumer community) as 'de-centred', 'non-unitary' and 'polysemic', where they (sic) are dependent on social networks to give their management endeavours meaning - hence my interest in networked learning, networking & social capital. I agree with your definition of SC, especially with the happy link between cooperative and co-productive tendencies. In fact I'd not seen the link quite so clearly. The lack of substantiation around the link intrigues me and leads me to assume that this may be a commercially viable area of study, and a differentiated theoretical platform for leadership, management & innovation for SoM.