Humans are indeed social beings, and the new technology in social media is indeed aiding this natural tendency. I also feel like these social media are the result of the possibility for these entities to exist, and the instant gratification social and business models of the x, y, and millennial generations.

Dave, thank you for sharing Billett’s research; he is spot-on in his analyses of adult learning. As toddlers we all learn by watching and imitating, but as adults it is very much so the experiences we endure on a day-to-day basis that “create the story of our life.” In his “apprenticeship learning situations” what are classified as “learning situations?” Does he mean specific experiential learning situations like internships, etc. or more broad situations like everyday experiences we endure as members of a society? I personally like the terming, and think it beautifully equates to what we were trying to touch upon with the concept of “educating the whole student.” Any joy, pain, success, or failure in my opinion serves as a learning situation, and I believe the underlying usefulness of experiential education is not the networking, but both the encouragement and affliction these experiences can provide for the student. The classroom is a safe and usually fair place; the world is not.

Back to the concepts of engagement and ownership- indeed they are two separate entities. However, I think what we were attempting to outline was these two very separate entities can be very important factors in educating and are both found in experiential education and social media.

Jim- I enjoy the Venn-Diagram model reasoning. They can, and oftentimes do work in different patterns- there is no horse and cart theory when it comes to these two concepts. One can eventually take ownership once they find themselves engaged in a situation, and on the other hand if one begins with ownership, they are automatically engaged (if that makes any sense and are not the same things?). As an aside, the fact of how intricate this is to explain just helps to solidify how closely they are related but not the same.

But, the main fact here is engagement and ownership are both found in social media and experiential education. And when they are both applied to the general education of students the higher level of interest in something, the more apt one is to participate/take a part of the conversation, activity, or experience with them. If an experience means something of value to an individual it will remain in their cognitions, and will never be left behind. And as a student, there are many things I feel like I have left behind with the textbooks I sold back to the university book store from the past semesters. No fault of the professor, I was just merely unengaged in the learning. Same to the Globe articles I read while on the T. But when I read Howie Carr of the Boston Herald’s articles online and comment back to he and fellow readers, I take that with me, and can refer back to it months after.

Perhaps engagement and ownership also help us learn by imitation. If you can reiterate an article, a job, or research written/done by someone else, then you have truly learned it…. Food for thought.

Much is made today of the interaction and conversations that are driven by social media tools. The ability to engage with other like minded people regardless of time and geography is a very powerful motivator. You can put your ideas out there, get reaction to them and revise your ideas at a pace ever imagined 10-15 years ago. (Of course, the negative side is that you can get slammed faster than ever as well.) Humans are social beings by nature. We have always loved to learn in groups and with other like minded people. Honing our ideas in academies and forums, with groups of friends, and debating those who don’t agree with us. The new technologies make this easier to do.

You also talk about the engagement motivation in experiential education. This is particularly the case because of the involvement of mentors and experts. You can try things had have people you respect react and critique your ideas and efforts.

Ownership, in my mind, is very different than engagement. (Although, you can build ownership through engagement.) An Australian research in Adult Learning named Stephen Billett views adult learning as very much a process of “creating the story of our life.” In essence we create an narrative about ourselves which we then own. Billett sees this in apprenticeship learning situations (one form of experiential learning). We own our learning as we piece together who we are. In my view, building ownership is very much an inside job.

In the early days of blogging, most of those of us who were trying out this new online tool would post and post and post and never have a single comment from our readers. To the point that if it weren’t for services that reported how many people had viewed our blogs, we would have had no clue that anyone was actually reading them. But I can tell you, I felt a real ownership to my ideas - and resultingly ownership about myself as a blogger and a person - simply from the mere fact that I was recording my thoughts. Not surprisingly, in the early days, blogs were considered to be online diaries. Although, unlike my personal journals, I hoped someone would read them, the ownership came through my giving life to my thoughts.

I think it’s funny that Twittering and Facebooking are getting blasted for being self-aggrandizing. As if talking about ourselves, getting to know who we are, letting others know who we are and getting feedback from there are somehow bad things brought on by blogs and instant messaging. Building the story of who we are and sharing it with others is what being human is all about. It’s all about learning about ourselves, others, and the world we live in so that we can improve all three.