Xenophilia

or, how a love of difference is essential in making connections

Andrew Whitworth, University of Manchesterlibraries@cambridge, 7th Jan 2016

All images in this presentation are © A. Whitworth 2015 unless stated otherwise.

In 2004 George Siemens proposed connectivism as an educational consequence of increasinglydynamic informational environments

The ‘half-life’ of knowledge (time to obsolescence) isgreatly increased… This is an educational issue forindividuals, communities, organisations…

Social networks: studied since the 1960s

One’s position in a network can itself be an informational resource

e.g. Granovetter… “strength of weak ties”

Valuable informational role played by brokers, bridging different communities

Making connections is not only essential for learning…

… it is what learning is.

But connectivism goes beyond even this…

Landauer and Dumais (1997) explore the phenomenon that “people have much more knowledge than appears to be present in the information to which they have been exposed”. They provide a connectivist focus in stating “the simple notion that some domains of knowledge contain vast numbers of weak interrelations that, if properly exploited, can greatly amplify learning by a process of inference”. The value of pattern recognition and connecting our own “small worlds of knowledge” are apparent in the exponential impact provided to our personal learning.

This from Siemens (2004):

Learning does not just take place ‘inside’ theperson…

I don’t remember all the contents of the books I haveever read but have enough ‘weak’ or residual knowledgeto fulfil informational needs when they arise…

I follow ‘pathways’ through my personal ‘information landscape’… mental models or maps of the connections therein

…not to mention knowing colleagueswho are likely to have needed info.

…and these maps are, in large part,collective creations.

How one becomes ‘literate’ or ‘competent’ in a givensetting is something that is negotiated, throughpractice (Lloyd, Wenger) and reflection.

Internet technologies clearlyfacilitate this process…

But, a keyquestion…

Do we lose out when we get other people, or technologies, tomake connections for us?

…whether withinformal or formallearning.

Pariser thinks we do….

… stating that the operations of popular tools likeFacebook and Google have created ‘filter bubbles’

They push search results and news feedsbased on what we have ‘Liked’ or searchedfor previously…

Thus skewing the flow of informationtowards that which we havepreviously found relevant.

In some ways this is a sensible filtering strategy…

…but it also creates what David Shenk called ‘microcultures’.

Compare this with the Top of thePops approach to informal learning…

a boundary zone in which the newcould not just be encountered… butthat this encounter would be collective

For example…

This is not just a trivial matter.

Jürgen Habermas (amongst others) observes how this leadsto cognitive separation — fragmented perspectives and a lack of synthesis

(Hebden Bridge, 9/7/12)

…and on 26/12/15

Cees Hamelink (1976): “An Alternative to News”, Journalof Communication 20 (pp. 120-3)

His Freirean view of literacy sees itas populations learning the value oftheir own stocks of information —networks — stories — connections

Is it too much to suggest that these ‘bubbles’ are acontributing factor to increasing intolerance?

….or at least, can we postulate that there is less awarenessof difference in the ‘Internet Age’ than we might expect, despiteincreased exposure to information?

XENOPHILIA

Hence my call for…

xenos… = stranger, foreigner

Two people meeting were xenes to each other, and therefore had reciprocal responsibilities and relations

filios… = friendly, in alliance

The obvious antonym is xenophobia…

…but with xenophilia I am calling for more thanjust tolerance, ‘love and peace’

(though calling for that should never be unwelcome)

I suggest xenophilia can be a purposeful, active knowledge management strategy.

It is in boundary zones and through brokers that ‘translation’ occurs and parochialism transcended

See Wenger, Tagliaventi & Mattarelli

Allow for the serendipitous…

Thus, it can be a design principle:we can cultivate conditions in whichdifference is more likely to emergeor be exposed

Does a ‘perfect’ information system deliver only whatthe user requested?

Does its delivery mean the search is over?

Teaching through exposing learnersto diverse perspectives

Bruce et al (2006): the relationalframe of IL education

Raise awareness of difference… make it a focus of scrutiny, attention

(reflective practice….)

A brief example: The MA: DTCE(www.MAdigitaltechnologies.com)

In conclusion…. our ability to maintain connections must be sustainable

Just as the ecological sustainability oflandscapes is supported by diversity…

…so it is with informationlandscapes

XENOPHILIA

…the principle underlying the effective makingof connections?

Making connections doesn’t ‘just happen’.

THANK YOU….@DrewWhitworth1

drew.whitworth@manchester.ac.ukwww.MAdigitaltechnologies.com