Actions for sharing my learning

Below, I’ll present two actions (that I’m already familiar with) of sharing learning by focusing on those features that I can improve, change or do differently.  


Action A: creating small, non-hierarchical, working groups on the occasion of a project.

As I have already mentioned, I work mostly as a freelancer (architect, designer, educator, author) collaborating occasionally with other freelancers for a shorter or longer period of time and in various working environments. In order to improve the processes of sharing learning and extract the best from these communities I decided to modify two essential features.

 Firstly, I realized that I can change the composition of my working teams. Until now my teams were created with participants, who were practicing the same professional activity (they were either architects or artists). Consequently the possibilities for sharing learning were predictable, conventional and unsurprising. However, people learn from a diverse range of other people and that gave me the idea that I could flavor further my working teams, by starting cooperating with more diverse professionals from other disciplines (engineers, graphic designers, architects, physiologists, etc).

Secondly, I realized that I can expand the boundaries of my working teams, by starting collaborating with people that are outside my living and working environment. Until now my teams were created with participants, who were belonging to a limited context. However the ideas of possible “cognitive traps” made me realize that this practice (the exclusive collaboration with friends and colleagues) resulted into the formation of narrow working groups with limited developmental opportunities and under fixed hierarchical structures. Thus, on the occasion of a next project I would attempt to make an open call to several stakeholders and try to bring together “unknown” participants, who would be keen to share their knowledge and experiences under a communal target.

Action B: creating a virtual learning community

While, I own and administrate a popular internet site, for designers and architects, nevertheless the current opportunities for participation and involvement are limited. Inspired by the ideas about the expanding possibilities of the internet and in an attempt to convert this site into a vivid learning community I decided to change some essential features.

Firstly, I realized that I can encourage further participation and involvement by allowing other professionals to upload and present publicly their written thoughts, images, projects, articles etc. Secondly, I decided to supplement the site by adding a forum, where all members (me, other professionals, students, amateurs, etc) would be freely allowed to communicate and interact with each other.   Contrasting, the above actions for sharing learning (working team + virtual learning community), I would note that the first is limited both to the number of participants and to narrow geographical boundaries while the second is not.

Concluding, I would highlight that the personal role I would like to undertake in these communities, would be the role of the mediator, organizer, encourager, etc, and not the role of a typical knowledge provider.