LO: learning or teaching list? LO24480

From: Sajeela M ramsey (sajeelacore@juno.com)
Date: 04/27/00


Replying to LO24458 --

Malcolm and other Learners,

I appreciate what seems to me to be Malcolm's voice of reason. As I
understand it, Malcolm seems to be suggesting what I hoped to say in my
less diplomatic previous e-mail in response to Winnifred's original
appeal:

I stated in so many words that we are not exempt from the pitfalls of
communication, whether it is on line or in person. Malcolm undersored what
I was trying to say when he wrote "there is a process continually at work
in large groups and organizations by which certain opinion leaders come to
the forefront, and by the force of their personalities, the insistence of
their opinions, etc. cause/allow others less forceful to feel undervalued
and thus leave." And/or "a range of further possibilities, most of which
remind us of the extent to which our processes on the L-O list mirror the
wider world from which we come."

When I requested that those who need to write longer messages refrain from
doing so (and perhaps should simply write a book instead), it is because
(and this an assumption worth gathering data about), I believe the
majority of people will end up as Malcolm has disclosed (and others for
that matter, including myself have said in their own words) that he ends
up "generally screening out the longer, more abstruse discourses of our
worthy colleagues, simply because they don't help [him] learn."

For a variety of reasons, it is difficult for me personally to learn from
monolithic diatribes. And this is the important point which I believe
Winnifred raised in the first place:

Are we participating to learn as a group? If so, then this begs the
question:

What indeed is the form that is useful for the majority of people's
learning? I do not wish to exclude certain learning styles, but if most
people are not learning from longer abstract postings, then perhaps it is
not the best use of this medium for those particular authors.

I feel it is well worth our time as a group of learners (and yes, I am
advocating) to ask ourselves indeed, as Malcolm has suggested, "What am I
doing to further the whole, speak to the entire "room", as compared with
responding or answering one other person?". Perhaps the issue for folks
is that if we adress our communications to only one or two people, in a
manner that most people choose not to keep up with (i.e. delete the
message without even really reading it) then this tends to set a pattern
where only one or two people end up "speaking", making learning difficult
for the group as whole. I know this is the issue for me.

So perhaps Malcolm's suggestions might temper this tendency and restore
the conversation to a more whole one.

Quiet morning rain,
Sajeela
_________________________________

Sajeela Moskowitz Ramsey, President - CORE Consulting
Center for Organizational Renewal and Effectiveness
2432 Villanova Drive/Vienna, VA. 22180
703 573 7050/ SajeelaCore @Juno.com

-- 

Sajeela M ramsey <sajeelacore@juno.com>

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