PSA posits that designing DLE involves addressing the whole person as needed. The challenge is to determine what that includes. People are very complex, as are the societies they create, and each system or collection of functions affects the others.
We see in the established educational institutions that a big part of what they are designed to do is deal with the whole person’s needs and the “society” of the school’s needs, only a portion of which have to do with learning. We can learn from this that addressing the whole person is very difficult, and involves a lot of “plant” and “structure” and “personnel” that we might not think to address with DLE.
Reality is that for DLE and online learning to succeed, it will also have to be good “at the other things”, as President Kennedy listed when he called for putting a man on the moon.
Businesses also are examples of dealing with the whole person, as they must to manage and achieve best productivity from employees. Since business always seeks to avoid any unnecessary costs, we in OTL can learn from observing what part of the person they determine they must address, and what they can ignore.
Of note here is that businesses seem more interested than previously in whole person kinds of employee needs…such as might be addressed by mediation and yoga.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Mindful-Work-—-David-Gelles.pdf”]
And this from the Guardian who worries that whole person needs should be addressed just for the essential well being of people, and not as part of their productivity. This can be debated obviously, because well being is also related to being productive. And it’s of interest when one starts to try to determine the fundamental purpose of learning and education. More on that in future posts.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Meditation-sweeps-corporate-America-but-its-for-their-health.-Not-yours-Oliver-Burkeman-Comment-is-free-The-Guardian.pdf”]