A response to my co-learner Keith on connectivism

Hi Keith, http://keithlyons.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/cck08-week-9-stacks/
Great to see your nice photos.  So you have enjoyed a wonderful time there.
I echoed with others in that you have summarised a lot of other blogs that I think wow, it’s just wonderful to read your blog.
I am also impressed with your Utopian view on connectivism.
I could see the diversity of views amongst co-learners and our teachers, and that could be pretty interesting when it comes to collaboration of projects or working in networks. 
On one hand, we might have been “brainwashed” in our previous education to work in teams, emphasising the importance of team leadership and team working.  On the other hand, we are now considering the networking phenomena, and network learning, where individuality, autonomy and diversity is emphasised.
I still believe that group work is important, in order to achieve vision and mission.  However, I don’t see much liberation allowed from a top management’s point of view, due mainly to the different needs of its participants.  Can you please everybody (including the stakeholders)?  And the slogan of customer first is still predominant.
What do you think will be impact of these back to our organisations – management and leadership in particular? 
I love to see how such integration could become a reality at work. 
I have witnessed the quality journey throughout the 80s till now.  As a big fan of Total Quality Management (TQM), I was intrigued by the Quality Circle movement, with grassroots involvement supported from the top especially first in Japan, then in  the western world, then the customer service movement, Just in Time (JIT) movement, followed by process re-engineering, benchmarking, best practice, Six Sigma and Lean, and customer first etc. now in the business world. 

As an engineer and educator, I think it would be necessary to learn from that quality journey, so as to ensure an adequate support from government, business and educational institution in this educational development. 

In other words, networking could not operate in a vacuum, one needs support from various parties such as communities, businesses, government and institutions to make it sustainable.  And a smooth transition from one stage to another stage of development will ensure that “no teachers/learners are left behind”.

I am interested in this connectivism journey, and would like to compare and contrast its journey with that of the quality movement as mentioned, and to see how it goes.

It has been a nice weekend here in Sydney.  So, I hope you have another wonderful weekend.
Cheers from John.

 https://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com

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