Keynote at the 2016 libraries@cambridge conference. I discuss the importance of making connections for learning, and why we should embed 'xenophilia' -- the love of difference -- into our information and education systems in order to optimise the environment for learning.

1. Xenophilia
or, how a love of difference is essential in making connections
Andrew Whitworth, University of Manchester
libraries@cambridge, 7th Jan 2016
All images in this presentation are © A. Whitworth 2015 unless stated otherwise.

2. In 2004 George Siemens proposed connectivism
as an educational consequence of increasingly
dynamic informational environments
The ‘half-life’ of knowledge (time to obsolescence) is
greatly increased… This is an educational issue for
individuals, communities, organisations…

3. 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 commu

4. Making connections is not only
essential for learning…
… it is what learning is.
But connectivism goes beyond even this…

5. 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’ the
person…

6. I don’t remember all the contents of the books I have
ever read but have enough ‘weak’ or residual knowledge
to 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 colleagues
who are likely to have needed info.

7. …and these maps are, in large part,
collective creations.
How one becomes ‘literate’ or ‘competent’ in a given
setting is something that is negotiated, through
practice (Lloyd, Wenger) and reflection.

8. Internet technologies clearly
facilitate this process…
But, a key
question…
Do we lose out when we get other people, or technologies, to
make connections for us?
…whether with
informal or formal
learning.

9. Pariser thinks we do….
… stating that the operations of popular tools like
Facebook and Google have created ‘filter bubbles’

10. They push search results and news feeds
based on what we have ‘Liked’ or searched
for previously…
Thus skewing the flow of information
towards that which we have
previously found relevant.
In some ways this is a sensible filtering strategy…

11. …but it also creates what David Shenk called
‘microcultures’.
Compare this with the Top of the
Pops approach to informal learning…
a boundary zone in which the new
could not just be encountered… but
that this encounter would be collective

12. For example…
This is not just a trivial matter.
Jürgen Habermas (amongst others) observes how this leads
to cognitive separation — fragmented perspectives and a
lack of synthesis
(Hebden Bridge, 9/7/12)

13. …and on 26/12/15

14. Cees Hamelink (1976): “An Alternative to News”, Journal
of Communication 20 (pp. 120-3)
His Freirean view of literacy sees it
as populations learning the value of
their own stocks of information —
networks — stories — connections

16. Is it too much to suggest that these ‘bubbles’ are a
contributing factor to increasing intolerance?
….or at least, can we postulate that there is less awareness
of difference in the ‘Internet Age’ than we might expect, despite
increased exposure to information?

17. 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

18. The obvious antonym is xenophobia…
…but with xenophilia I am calling for more than
just tolerance, ‘love and peace’
(though calling for that should never be unwelcome)

19. 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

20. Allow for the serendipitous…
Thus, it can be a design principle:
we can cultivate conditions in which
difference is more likely to emerge
or be exposed
Does a ‘perfect’ information
system deliver only what
the user requested?
Does its delivery mean the search is over?

21. Teaching through exposing learners
to diverse perspectives
Bruce et al (2006): the relational
frame of IL education
Raise awareness of difference…
make it a focus of scrutiny, attention
(reflective practice….)

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

23. In conclusion…. our ability to maintain connections
must be sustainable
Just as the ecological sustainability of
landscapes is supported by diversity…
…so it is with
information
landscapes

24. XENOPHILIA
…the principle underlying the effective making
of connections?
Making connections doesn’t ‘just happen’.
THANK YOU….
@DrewWhitworth1
drew.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk
www.MAdigitaltechnologies.com