No Longer Relevant
Source: http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/p/p/1/relevant\_elephant.jpg
“Father, forgive me,” says the man in the confessional, “I have sinned.” We are not looking for the quick way ahead, but seeking redemption, a way of reconciling who we have been, who we are, and who we can be. When you deny who you have been, you set aside some of the core of creativity that you can draw upon.
As I embrace the Read/Write Web as a way to track and amplify my voice as a learner, I know I have made and will make mistakes. It would be hypocritical for a teacher to chide his/her students, a break with the ideals of lifelong learning—that naturally INVOLVE making mistakes—to say, “Delete your Facebook accounts before going to get that job,” as some suggest.
Instead, a leader who is integrated says, “If you put yourself out there, if you show who you really are, then make sure that you put yourself ALL out there. Don’t just show yourself exhibiting actions that could be critiqued by an employer, show those actions which will redeem you as a human being and potential employee and lifelong learner. And, if they’re not interested, then they’re not the best employer for you…pursue passion-based learning and see where it takes you.”
Is this too…pie in the sky? Too idealistic? If so, let’s remember this particular part of The ClueTrain Manifesto, shown to be so prophetic:
Who gives us permission to explore our world? The question implies that the world in fact belongs to someone else. Who gives us permission to communicate what we’ve experienced, what we believe, what we’ve discovered of that world for ourselves? The question betokens a history of voice suppressed, of whole cultures that have come to believe only power is sanctioned to speak. Because the ability to speak does involve power. It entails ownership and the control conferred by ownership.
Source: Internet Apocalypso, The Clue Train Manifesto
Creativity experts are challenging us to not restrict children…in their inane questions, in their passionate pursuit of their interests rather than just what we limit them to thinking about, they have the potential to better our world. Some people, though, haven’t gotten the message yet.
The world may belong to our employers, but our experience of that world belongs to each of us and our employers are poverty-stricken when they diminish our experiences as shared online in blogs, image sharing, facebook/myspace to protect a status quo that is past. If we consider that poverty is defined as the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health, being poverty-stricken as an organization might be interpreted as lacking the human capital to preserve the health of the organization.
Simply, my focus as an employer has to be on hiring people who are NOT afraid of learning, communicating and collaborating at a distance in virtual environments. If I cling to past concepts of what is acceptable, I cut starve the organization of the creativity inherent in people who are risk-takers.
Justin (The EdJurist) shares that he’s not into technology for technology’s sake. No, of course not. I’m not either. I’m for embracing the power of new communication technologies that enable me to have conversations with people I’ve never met (and, perhaps claim their words are hypocritical (sigh, sorry about the harshness of that Justin)) about our shared learning journey.
This isn’t about technology, it’s about how one person empowers learning for all through a living network of people. It’s time to reconsider our whole approach to law and the Internet, and education. Simply, force of habit is insufficient to our work. This is why this is so fundamentally powerful…precedent is no longer relevant, and negatively assessing a potential hire by the mistakes that signal their willingness to be risk-takers and virtual learners .
Made with Tuxpaint and shared under CC-SA-NC-Attrib ;->
Note to Readers: This chart isn’t backed up by research AT ALL…but should it be?
