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The World Really Is Your Oyster

Written by: Donna Karlin

Article Overview: People learn more in online communities. The physical environment is too structured and doesn't allow for individuality. Learning how to learn globally..

The World Really Is Your Oyster

One afternoon, my son and I were having this amazing conversation. He had borrowed my book Wikinomics and I knew he would be fascinated not only by the content itself but by all the insights and ideas that would fly through his mind because of it. Global collaboration might be a fairly new concept for many of us boomers, but for the younger 'up-and-coming' generation who have been raised on technology, it's not so new (or so he told me about 10 times in the conversation).
Knowing his brain would be percolating, I asked him to throw some of those ideas at me so I could talk to him about them and perhaps write about some of them.

Here are a few of them...

He spoke both of education and the work place and made a comment that stuck in my mind which was "The traditional education system is failing not because of bad teachers, bad kids or low standards but because the content is not interesting and the environment isn't stimulating, but the rest of the world is. The educational model as we know it has lost its relevance. People learn more in online communities. The physical environment is too structured and doesn't allow for individuality". We then spoke about open courseware and all the knowledge available online as well as increasing field trips etc.

I agree whole-heartedly. We then spoke of the work place and the anonymity of some of the places people 'live in' for half their day. I look at government departments where offices are a sea of cubicles with no individuality other than perhaps a plant or a picture as there is no room for much else. There are no walls per se so you're limited to what you can hang on a fabric covered metal frame. How in the world is a person supposed to be stimulated when surrounded by claustrophobic walls of blank fabric, poor lighting and air quality and when separated from others by sight but not sound. Many have to wear headphones to keep the noise out so they can think straight. We also spoke of lateral moves to other parts of the organization so you can learn and know what the rest of the organizational world is doing.

These environments are not only stagnating and limits our creativity but boxes us into parameters that don't allow for expansion of thought and possibility. For many, thinking global is very overwhelming. For many reading this book it is beyond imagination. For those like my son it's the only way to think and create.

This has really made me think how I could work broader, incorporating the thoughts, ideas and ways of being of people from all of the world and what that would mean in my work and my clients' lives. The question that comes to my mind is "What aren't you doing that might open up a world of possibility for you?"

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Article Tags: anonymity, bad kids, bad teachers, boomers, coming generation, cubicles, education system, educational model, field trips, global collaboration, government departments, individuality, insights and ideas, lateral moves, metal frame, open courseware, physical environment, poor lighting, traditional education, wikinomics



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