The path of learning which starts from  group learning and moves to individual learning and then move back and forth from group to individual is a continuous action in circular motion  which never ends.  The day we are born till we stop breathing, we keep on absorbing like a sponge from our environment and search answers from the environment, ponders over our observation  and then our actions reflect our learnings. The strength of our learnings is decided by our engagement with our tribe, its culture, beliefs and  our untiring reflections on the entire system, sometimes supporting the systems ( social, political, cultural) and when not satisfied with these systems we rise and change.

Similar is the experience ONL team tried to build in the course by weaving the learning intricately in the threads of collaboration, cooperation and co creation, the true essence of learning. This is our journey of social becoming as a teacher and taking with us the experiences of the ONL course in our classrooms and systems, our reflections motivating us to bring or strongly push changes in our own environment.

 

The book, “ Igniting the Collective Spark: The Nature of Thinking Together” examines the concept of the “collective spark,” detailing how teams can transition from simple cooperation to a unified social mind that fosters creativity. Together, these materials advocate for a student-centered approach that prioritizes emotional connection and professional development to ensure academic success. A learner recognizes the value of a learning community and experiences the benefits of social learning through a process of identity transformation, mutual recognition, and the realization of collective intelligence that exceeds individual capacity.

The other resource by Dr. Etinenne Wenger presents his social learning theory, which challenges traditional views of learning as merely the acquisition of information. Instead, he defines learning as an inherent, social process rooted in everyday experience and stresses that curriculum is living not static which keeps on growing and changing its shape based on the shared practice and beliefs of people engaged with it. Its not just one community which engages for knowledge generation rather the layers of interaction between multiple communities create a landscape of practice where they navigate through complex information to produce Knowledgeability ( ability to navigate this complexity) in vertical (expert-defined facts) and horizontal landscapes (meaning-making through experience).

Looking back to ONL, the learners are from different disciples, different institutions an different countries which gives ample space to explore complexities and jump from vertical to horizontal whenever needed.

 

Dream: A ONGU( Open to Nations Global University)