Dear Organlearners.
Greetings to you all.
In a recent contribution I wrote about the four Ws of learning: "what",
"way" (how), "why" and "when".
The "when" of learning is very important for me. It involves what I like
to call the Law of Requisite Complexity. A person needs to learn certain
things before a particular learning can be attempted. When one of these
requisite things had not been learned, we can almost guarantee that the
particular learning will fail. Thus the "when" helps us to distinguish
between knowledge and learning. The requisite learnings of the past have
become one with our knowledge. Thus some integral knowledge is required
for each new differential learning.
A fellow learner began a recent private reply with "wow". It suddenly made
me realise that learning has more than four Ws. The "wow" can mean "aha"
in the emergent asymptote of learning or "hmm" in the digestive assymptote
of learning.
I then began to wonder how many important facets of learning begin with
"w"? Here are some of them.
"wad". It refers to lump of soft substance used to absorb a schock or plug
a hole. The "wad" of learning tell us that learning prepares us to absorb
the shocks of life and fill up the holes of ignorance through which lots
many valuable things. A LO provide far more wadding than an OO (Ordinary
Organisation).
"wade". It means to move through anything viscous or as far into it as
possible. The "wade" of learning tells us to avoid superficial and
mediocre learning. In a LO the learning wades into Personal Mastery and
Team Learning guided by a Shared Vision.
"waft". As verb it means to drift gently and as noun it means a hand
signal. The "waft" of learning tells us that learning make us both gentle
and significant. Learning organisations differ remarkedly in "waft" from
ordinary organisations.
"wage". It means to engage strenously and maintain vigorously as if by
pledge. The "wage" of learning tells us that learning gives us endurance
to ovecome risks. When "wages" are paid in a LO, they sustain rather than
merely pacify.
Well, I have not even finished with the first letter "a". And I want to
come to words like "weld" and "will". But I will leave it to you fellow
learners to see what you can come up with. Perhaps these Ws alone can give
us a nice overview of learning.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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