To those that have questioned whether all online participants must actively contribute to a blog, wiki, etc. in order to actually learn, I say bunkum. Hogwash. Claptrap. Bollocks.
Learning is a process. Learning is different to all of us. Approaches to how we as individuals learn is unique and for those critics and pundits ‘out there’ who continue to perpetuate the myth that unless one is contributing back, one isn’t learning, well simply put … I have a problem with you.
As I see it, as we continue to proliferate the ways in which we can in fact contribute and/or collaborate, we will be forced to make ‘learning style’ related decisions on when we have the time and capacity to contribute and/or collaborate versus lurking.
Lurking can and should be thought of in better terms. Lurking could be equated to reading, interpreting, synthesizing or augmenting for purposes of gaining further acumen, insight and understanding. It shouldn’t be thought of negatively, per se.
Active participants don’t seem to care about lurkers either. In her 2009 paper entitled Review of Learning 2.0 Practices: Study on the Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe, Christine Redecker states the following:
“Posters and lurkers join a community for the same reasons. However, posters feel their needs are better met, perceive more benefits and feel a greater sense of membership than lurkers. Partly because posters do not regard lurkers as inferior members, lurking is not necessarily a problem in active communities.”
In essence, Redecker’s analysis indicates that those who join a community and post in fact are gaining greater benefit from the experience, however, active posters do not slight lurkers and consider them a part of the collaboration equation. And lurkers themselves may not get the same sense of membership, perhaps they are there in the first place not to gain additional friends, network numbers or membership, rather content and intellectual acumen only.
Secondly, her analysis backs the 2002 study completed by Michael Beaudoin (Learning or lurking?: Tracking the “invisible” online student) which suggests that better grades correspond to learners who are actively participating in the community versus those that are not.
But the emphasis and focus is on the direct subject material at hand. What if, for example, I wanted to begin learning about becoming an architect (for which I have no credible knowledge or background in) and I were to begin enrolling into online discussion forums of experts and spouting off as if I knew what I was talking about. I’d flame the community, I’d make a mockery of the group and myself, and I certainly wouldn’t be doing myself any good. Wouldn’t a better first step be to in fact lurk around some of the communities, read up on what an architect is or does, get myself a baseline of knowledge for some period of time … and then make the shift into participating and being an active collaborator?
There are countless other ways in which lurking (or lurkers) can benefit from simply being on the periphery and learning through the process of reading, etc. Think of Twitter or other internal micro-blogging tools, for example, and you have a classic example of lurking. Barracuda Labs, for example, found that 73% of Twitter users have tweeted 10 times or less. That means 27% have tweeted more than 10 times, which to me translates into a lot of lurking by most Twitter users. (because they are not actively posting, only reading what’s going on in the Twitterverse)
You may disagree with me, but lurking is here and we, as leaders, educators and E2.0 practitioners should embrace it.
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We are so proud to have had you at our event. Your talk was a big hit. It moved us. We can’t thank you enough.
Malin Björnell, Salesforce
Dan challenged us to have clarity of purpose, both as individuals and as an organization. He related inspiring stories drawing on his experience in business, technology and academia. As he said, ‘There is no ownership without belonging.’
Christian Pantel, D2L
Fantastic engaging talk for our global partner summit. Thank you so much, Dan!
Barb Kinnard, CEO Response Biomedical Corp
Dan not only brought his presentation to life with his charisma, but also content, style and presentation finesse. Our members were especially interested in his thought provoking and top of mind topic on the future of work and how we’re going to be leading the next generation of leaders.
Cheryl Goodwin, CPA
Dan is a conference organizer’s ideal speaker. Not only did he inspire and energize our group, but he also masterfully adapted his content so it resonated with the audience and our conference theme. As a bonus, Dan is able to nimbly navigate to adjust to a reduced time slot when other speakers went over time without sacrificing the impact of his session.
Director and General Counsel
Dan accomplished what we set out to do, which was not only to be inspirational, but also to leave everyone with tools and food for thought / self-reflection to improve their personal and professional lives.
To those that have questioned whether all online participants must actively contribute to a blog, wiki, etc. in order to actually learn, I say bunkum. Hogwash. Claptrap. Bollocks.
Learning is a process. Learning is different to all of us. Approaches to how we as individuals learn is unique and for those critics and pundits ‘out there’ who continue to perpetuate the myth that unless one is contributing back, one isn’t learning, well simply put … I have a problem with you.
As I see it, as we continue to proliferate the ways in which we can in fact contribute and/or collaborate, we will be forced to make ‘learning style’ related decisions on when we have the time and capacity to contribute and/or collaborate versus lurking.
Lurking can and should be thought of in better terms. Lurking could be equated to reading, interpreting, synthesizing or augmenting for purposes of gaining further acumen, insight and understanding. It shouldn’t be thought of negatively, per se.
Active participants don’t seem to care about lurkers either. In her 2009 paper entitled Review of Learning 2.0 Practices: Study on the Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe, Christine Redecker states the following:
But the emphasis and focus is on the direct subject material at hand. What if, for example, I wanted to begin learning about becoming an architect (for which I have no credible knowledge or background in) and I were to begin enrolling into online discussion forums of experts and spouting off as if I knew what I was talking about. I’d flame the community, I’d make a mockery of the group and myself, and I certainly wouldn’t be doing myself any good. Wouldn’t a better first step be to in fact lurk around some of the communities, read up on what an architect is or does, get myself a baseline of knowledge for some period of time … and then make the shift into participating and being an active collaborator?
There are countless other ways in which lurking (or lurkers) can benefit from simply being on the periphery and learning through the process of reading, etc. Think of Twitter or other internal micro-blogging tools, for example, and you have a classic example of lurking. Barracuda Labs, for example, found that 73% of Twitter users have tweeted 10 times or less. That means 27% have tweeted more than 10 times, which to me translates into a lot of lurking by most Twitter users. (because they are not actively posting, only reading what’s going on in the Twitterverse)
You may disagree with me, but lurking is here and we, as leaders, educators and E2.0 practitioners should embrace it.
