At the Oates Institute (www.oates.org) we are completing our fifth year of offering online seminars using an approach that we call "connected learning." The approach is an online reflective peer group approach designed to connect learners, teachers, facilitators, and resource materials in a dialogue that enables everyone to learn from everyone
I first encountered this video depicting the nature of the Web 2.0 transition by University of Kansas communication professor Mike Wesch several months ago on Rex Miller's MindShift Innovation blog. It may take a few times through to fully grasp but it is under 5 minutes.
When I went back to school to do my doctorate at the beginning of this millennium, I felt like I was in the midst of the whirlwind of transition. And I was as we were starting to fully appreciate the transitions of postmodernity on culture and congregations. That sense led to a collaborative dissertation titled Thriving in the Whirlwind, co-authored with my Oates Institute colleague Vicki Hollon. After my journey through these last eight months, I feel like an even bigger storm is coming ashore.
