This document discusses open educational practices and generativism. It proposes building an infrastructure for lifelong learning with skills development for professional, generic, social and digital skills. It discusses four major learning theories: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism. It presents a value chain moving from information to knowledge to learning to meaning. It contrasts adaptive learning with generative learning, which expands capabilities. It poses questions about how generativism could inspire sustainable knowledge generation and help define competent lifelong learners of the future.

1. OPEN EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES AND
GENERATIVISM
CARNEIRO,
ROBERTO CARNEIRO, UCP
LISBON, 7 JUNE 2010

2. A ‘LEARNING UTILITY’ AGENDA
Build an infrastructure for Lifelong Learning
Skills for All – professional, generic, social, and
digital
Quality of Service and Standards for Learning
Invisible technologies and CoP
Balanced corporate and individual learning agendas:
embed learning in production contexts
Rewarding learning cultures, boosting motivation to
engage in effortful learning
Making room for nonformal and informal learning –
valuing real life and problem-based learning,
enhancing tacit and experiential knowledge
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010

3. FOUR MAJOR LEARNING THEORIES
Behaviourism – based on the change of reflexive behaviour
of a person with the help of external stimuli (Skinner, 1947;
Watson, 1913)
Cognitivism – based on exploring the mind (mental
processes) while observing the change of the outside
behaviour (Gagné, 2004; Piaget & Inhelder, 1969)
Constructivism – based on the premises that a learner
actively constructs his/her own understanding through
reflection on individual experiences and “talking to the world
and letting the world talk back” (Bruner, 2004; Smith, 2002)
Connectivism – our brains are changing and even formatted
by technologies and our behaviour is shaping through the
uses of technologies; know-how and know-what are being
supplemented with know-where as the understanding of
where to find the knowledge needed (Siemens, 2005)
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010

4. THE VALUE CHAIN: REACHING FOR MEANING
INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE LEARNING MEANING
META META META META
DATA INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE LEARNING
Complex
Qualitative
Simple
Service
Quantitative
Product
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010

5. GENERATIVISM VS ADAPTIVISM
ADAPTIVE LEARNING GENERATIVE LEARNING
Adjusting to change Expanding capabilities
(preference for ‘fit’) (preference for ‘stretch’)
Coping with threats Enhancing creativity
Reacting to symptoms Looking in new ways
Capturing trends and Adressing underlying
incorporating early signs causes
Eliciting flexibility Thinking differently
Projecting trends Anticipating futures
Seeking conventional Rewarding knowledge re-
knowledge (RV) construction (SV)
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010

6. GENERATIVISM: QUERIES AND CROSSROADS
Can generativism inspire a sustainable spiral of knowledge generation, sharing and re-
generation, re-
generation,
generation, embodied both in new knowledge objects and new learning subjects?
Does generative OEP conceal the potential to unleash the latent productive and creative
energies of people in organizations in order that ICT and new media finally fulfill their
promise to enable and empower vibrant learning communities of practice?
learner-
If OEP are regarded as a key ingredient of new lifelong learner-centred designs how
should we define a ‘competent learner of the future’: one who is endowed with the
mastery and use of a whole new range of generative learning competences?
self- (self-
Would enhanced generative skills in self-regulated (self-directed) learning and social
(dialogic) learning spark a disruptive change in the pace of OEP uptake and diffusion?
self-
How may the OPAL quality guidelines and self-assessment tools for OEP be best shaped
self-
to support self-sustained generativism and advanced lifelong learner competences?
Could generativism position itself as a central concept for a renewed Web 3.0
user-customised, ontology-
(semantic, learning, smart, user-customised, evolutionary and ontology-rich in nature),
one that would leverage OEP and allow the intelligent use of open resources to become a
truly transformative and creative learning experience?
Should neotenia emerge as a major field of OEP research in order to allow for increased
adult- (teacher-
generativity in quality adult-adult (teacher-learner, HE and AE) interactions?
…?
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010

7. A SENSE OF PURPOSE: CULTIVATING WISDOM
Three kinds of progress are significant for culture:
progress in knowledge and technology; progress in the
socialisation of man; progress in spirituality. The last
is the most important…technical progress, extension of
knowledge, does indeed represent progress, but not in
fundamentals. The essential thing is that we become
more finely and deeply human.
Albert Schweitzer, “The Teaching of Reverence for
Life”, pp. 33-41
Copyright © Roberto Carneiro, 2010