Productive Syncretic Engagement for Knowledgeable Network Performance

• In Event: Participatory and Community-Driven Design in Research on Learning

Abstract

Knowledge workers and connected learners are inevitably presented with practical, conceptual and ideological nonconformances as they learn and act in contemporary networked media ecologies. Knowledgeable performance in such networked contexts is not necessarily developed or evaluated per disciplinary norms, and indeed learning and work may appear to be relatively undisciplined. This study examines cases of learning in an open ed-tech innovation network, showing how individuals adapt different “modes of syncretism” to deal with network nonconformance and organize for possible futures. New concepts for understanding and designing for productive engagement and knowledgeable performance are proposed and demonstrated. The goal is to better account and design for the learning in complex networked contexts that are not strongly organized by a particular discipline.

Author

• Adam Papendieck, The University of Texas at Austin