Contribute back to one of the other organi-sations or projects that helped you on this peeragogical journey.Think about what you have to offer. Is it a bug fix, a constructivecritique, pictures, translation help, PR, wiki-gnoming or makingacake? Makeitsomethingspecial,andpeoplewillrememberyouand thank you for it

writtenormultimediaessa

How would youdo things differently in future projects? What would you like totackle next?

Identify the main obstacles you encountered. Whatare some goals you were not able to accomplish yet

itical assessment ofprogressanddirectionsforfuturework.

Perhaps one of themost important roles in the Peeragogy project was the role of the‘Wrapper’, who prepared and circulated weekly summaries of fo-rum activity

Technology – Take time to mentor others or be mentored bysomeone, meeting up in person or online. Pair up with someoneelse and share knowledge together about one or more tools. Youcan discuss some of the difficulties that you’ve encountered, orteach a beginner some tricks

akingvisualsketches, or creating a short video

Observations from the Peeragogy project – We used a strat-egy of “open enrollment.” New people were welcome to join theproject at any time. We also encouraged people to either stay in-volved or withdraw; several times over the first year, we requiredparticipants to explicitly reaffirm interest in order to stay regis-tered in the forum and mailing list.

Connectwithpeopleinotherlocaleswhosharesimilarinterests or know the tools.

Go through the thesequestions again when you have a small group, and come up witha list of more people you’d like to invite or consult with as theproject progresses.

Activity – Write an invitation to someone who can help asa co-facilitator on your project

For a suc-cinct theoretical treatment, please refer to our literature review,which we have adapted into a Wikipedia page

create afirst post, edit, or video introducing yourself and your project(s)

echnology – Familiarize yourself with the collaboration toolsyouintendtouse(e.g.WordPress,GitandLaTeX,YouTube,GIMP,a public wiki, a private forum, or something else)

Activity – Come up with a plan for your work and an agree-ment, or informal contract, for your group. You can use the sug-gestions in this guide as a starting point, but your first task isto revise the plan to suit your needs. It might be helpful to ask:What are you interested in learning? What is your primary in-tended outcome? What problem do you hope to solve? Howcollaborative does your project need to be? How will the partici-pants’ expertise in the topic vary? What sort of support will youand other participants require? What problems won’t you solve?

Setting the initial challenge and building a frame-workforaccountabilityamongparticipantsisanimportantstarting point

Each part relates to one or more sections of ourhandbook, and suggests activities to try while you explore peerlearning.

It is clear to us that the techniques of peer production thathave built and continue to improve Wikipedia and GNU/Linuxhave yet to fully demonstrate their power in education

1. How does a motivated group of self-learners choose a subjector skill to learn?2. How can this group identify and select the best learning re-sources about that topic?3. How will these learners identify and select the appropriatetechnology and communications tools and platforms to ac-complish their learning goal?4. What does the group need to know about learning theory andpractice to put together a successful peer-learning program?

the updated design, projects are something like para-graphs that combine simple sentences. The language can be ex-tended further, and I hope that will happen in further study

From interviewing users, it became clear tomethatitwouldbehelpfultothinkofeveryobjectasbeingpartofat least one project: everything should have someone looking af-ter it! Importantly, getting back to the very beginning of this ar-ticle, each project can define its own purpose for existing

Instead of explicitly modeling “goals,”I decided that problems and articles could be organized into “col-lections,” thesamewaythatvideosareorganizedintoplaylistsonYouTube, and that the user would get encouraging directed feed-back as they work their way through the problems in a given col-lection.

For now, it is enoughto say that an institution is a bit like a language

there is a tremendousdifference between a solo effort and the distributed peer-to-peerinfrastructures like the ones that underly the PirateBay, which,despite raids, fines, jail sentences, nation-wide bans, and serverdowntime, has proved decidedly hard to extinguish. Accordingto a recent press release: “If they cut off one head, two more shalltake its place.”

“Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit” (as of 2011) asmany as 80,000 visitors make 5 or more edits per month. This isinteresting to compare with the empirical fact that (as of 2006)“over 50% of all the edits are done by just .7% of the users... 24people...andinfactthemostactive2%,whichis1400people,havedone 73.4% of all the edits.” Similar numbers apply to other peerproduction communities

the thing that really matters is the users of the code

Maybethey’ll start helping eventually, but you should startoff with the assumption that you’re going to be theone maintaining it and ready to do all the work.

The first mistake is thinking thatyou can throw things out there and ask people tohelp. That’s not how it works. You make it public,and then you assume that you’ll have to do all thework, and ask people to come up with suggestions ofwhat you should do, not what they should do.

all thelists of things to do are for nought if no one steps in to do thework

ina volunteerorganization– no one can “make”’ other people participat

ee the anti-pattern “Misunderstanding Power”for some further reflections on these matters

Add a newcomer section on your online platform to helpnew arrivals get started. Seasoned participants are ofteneager to serve as mentors

Ask participants to be clear about when they will be readyto deliver their contributions

Organize regular face-to-face or online meetings to talkaboutprogressandwhat’sneededinupcomingdays/weeks

Give roles to participants and define some “energy centers”who will take the lead on specific items in the project

Let your work be “open” in the sense described inWikipedia’s Neutral Point of View policy

Accept that people may only contribute a little: if this con-tribution is good it will add value to the whole.

Accept that some people want to watch what is going onbefore jumping in. This doesn’t mean you have to keepthem hanging around forever. After a while, you may un-enroll people who don’t add any value to the community.In our Peeragogy project, we’ve asked people to explicitlyre-enroll several times. Most do renew; some leave

For teachers reading this, and wondering how to use peer-agogy to improve participation in their classrooms, it’s reallyquite simple: reframe the educational vision using peeragogicaleyes. Recast the classroom as a community of people who learntogether, the teacher as facilitator, and the curriculum as a start-ing point that can be used to organize and trigger community en-gagement. However, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’seasy! Whatever your day job may be, consider: how well dothe various groups you participate in work together – even whenthe members ostensibly share a common purpose? Sometimesthings tick along nicely, and, presumably, sometimes it’s excruci-ating. What’s your role in all of this? How do you participate?

Methods of managing projects, including learningprojects, range from more formal and structured tocasual and unstructured. As a facilitator, you’ll seeyour peeragogy community constantly adjust, as itseeks an equilibrium between order and chaos, ide-ally allowing everyone to be involved at their ownpace without losing focus, and in such a manner thatthe collective can deliver

Mobile access - Half of America’s workforce sometimesworks away from the office. Smart phones are surpassing PCsfor connecting to networks for access and participation. Phonespost most Tweets than computers. Google designs its apps formobile before porting them to PCs.

Bookmarks - to facilitate searching for links to information,discover what sources other people are following, locate experts

Blogs-fornarratingyourwork,maintainingyourdigitalrep-utation, recording accomplishments, documenting expert knowl-edge, showing people what you’re up to so they can help out

Wikis - for writing collaboratively, eliminating multiple ver-sions of documents, keeping information out in the open, elimi-nating unnecessary email, and sharing responsibility for updatesand error correction

Activity stream - for monitoring the organization pulse inreal time, sharing what you’re doing, being referred to useful in-formation, asking for help, accelerating the flow of news and in-formation, and keeping up with change

Profiles - for locating and contacting people with the rightskills and background. Profile should contain photo, position, lo-cation, email address, expertise (tagged so it’s searchable). IBM’sBlue Pages profiles include how to reach you (noting whetheryou’re online now), reporting chain (boss, boss’s boss, etc.), linkto your blog and bookmarks, people in your network, links todocuments you frequently share, members of your network

Some of those consumer applications are simple to replicatein-house. Others are not. You can’t afford to replicate Facebookor Google behind your firewall. That said, there are lots of ap-plications you can implement at reasonable cost. Be skeptical ifyour collaborative infrastructure that doesn’t include these mini-mal functions

Personalize my experience and make recommendations,like Amazon.• Make it easy for me to connect with friends, like Facebook.• Keep me in touch with colleagues and associates in othercompanies, as on LinkedIn.• Persistent reputations, as at eBay, so you can trust whoyou’re collaborating with.• Multiple access options, like a bank that offers access byATM, the Web, phone, or human tellers.• Don’t overload me. Let me learn from YouTube, an FAQ, orlinking to an expert.• Show me what’s hot, like Reddit, Digg, MetaFilter, or Farkdo.• Give me single sign-on, like using my Facebook profile toaccess multiple applications.• Let me choose and subscribe to streams of information I’minterested in, like BoingBoing, LifeHacker or Huffpost.• Provide a single, simple, all-in-one interface, like that pro-vided by Google for search

In an ideal Workscape, workers can easily find the people and in-formation they need, learning is fluid and new ideas flow freely,corporatecitizensliveandworkbytheorganization’svalues,peo-ple know the best way to get things done, workers spend moretime creating value than handling exceptions, and everyone findstheir work challenging and fulfilling

workscape designer’s goal is to create a learn-ing environment that increases the organization’s longevity andhealth and the individual’s happiness and well-being

A major component of informal learningis natural learning, the notion of treating people as organisms innature. The people are free-range learners. Our role is to protecttheir environment, provide nutrients for growth, and let naturetake its course.

Formallearningtakesplaceinclassrooms; informallearninghap-pens in workscapes. A workscape is a learning ecology. As theenvironment of learning, a workscape includes the workplace.In fact, a workscape has no boundaries. No two workscapes arealike. Yourworkscapemayincludebeingcoachedongivingeffec-tive presentations, calling the help desk for an explanation, andresearching an industry on the Net. My workscape could includeparticipating in a community of field technicians, looking thingsup on a search engine, and living in France for three months.

Formallearningtakesplaceinclassrooms; informallearninghap-pens in workscapes. A workscape is a learning ecology. As theenvironment of learning, a workscape includes the workplace.In fact, a workscape has no boundaries. No two workscapes arealike. Yourworkscapemayincludebeingcoachedongivingeffec-tive presentations, calling the help desk for an explanation, andresearching an industry on the Net. My workscape could includeparticipating in a community of field technicians, looking thingsup on a search engine, and living in France for three months.

Formallearningtakesplaceinclassrooms; informallearninghap-pens in workscapes. A workscape is a learning ecology

Howard Rheingold: Remember you came togetherwith your peers to accomplish something, not to dis-cuss an agenda or play with online tools; keep every-thingaseasilyaccessibleaspossibletoensureyoure-alize your goals

A good place to begin for any group of co-facilitators work-ing with a wiki are Wikipedia’s famous “5 Pillars.”• Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.• Wikipedia writes articles from a neutral point-of-view.• Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify,and distribute.• Editors should interact with each other in a respectful andcivil manner.• Wikipedia does not have firm rules

Beawareofmutualblindspotsinfacilitatingandobservingothers.

Watch out for different rhythms of intervention

“The Community Tool Box”

Toomuch autonomy for participants and laissez-faire onyour part, and they may wallow in ignorance, mis-conception, and chaos

oo much coop-erative guidance may degenerate into a subtle kindof nurturing oppression, and may deny the groupthe benefits of totally autonomous learning

elf-direction,which is the core of all learning

Too much hierarchical control,and participants become passive and dependent orhostile and resistant.

differentiatedperception of the field of experience is facilitated.

threat to the self of thelearner is reduced a minimum

Forexample, self-help groups are composed of people who gather tosharecommonproblemsandexperiencesassociatedwithapartic-ular problem, condition, illness, or personal circumstance

Significant learning requires that there be somekind of lasting change that is important in terms of the learner’slife; in peeragogy, one way to measure the effectiveness of co-facilitation is to look for a change in the peer group

Co-facilitation can be found in collaborations between two ormore people who need each other to complete a task,

done in service to the group and the group dialogue andprocess

Facilitation can be particularly helpful for individualswho, based on a certain level of insecurity or inexperience, tendto lurk rather than participate

And so the art world became the site of extensive talking—talking emerged as a practice, as a mode of gathering, as a way of getting access to some knowledge and to some questions, as networking and organizing and articulating some necessary questions. But did we put any value on what was actually being said? Or, did we privilege the coming-together of people in space and trust that formats and substances would emerge from these?

extensive talking

this might require that we break somewhat with an equating logic that claims that process-based work and open-ended experimentation creates the speculation, unpredictability, self-organization, and criticality that characterize the understanding of education within the art world

Perhaps most importantly, I want to think about education not through the endless demands that are foisted on both culture and education to be accessible, to provide a simple entry point to complex ideas. The Tate Modern comes to mind as an example of how a museum can function as an entertainment machine that celebrates “critique lite.” Instead, I want to think of education in terms of the places to which we have access. I understand this access as the ability to formulate one’s own questions, as opposed to simply answering those that are posed to you in the name of an open and participatory democratic process. After all, it is very clear that those who formulate the questions produce the playing field.

“Academy” might instead encompass fallibility, which can be understood as a form of knowledge production rather than one of disappointment.

the development of a contested common ground.

How can it be more than the site of shrinkage and disappointment?

Often these practices end up being low-key, uncategorizable, non-heroic, and certainly not uplifting, but nevertheless immensely creative

not reacting to realities, but producing them.

taking those questions into a less regulated and prescribed space

And there were other questions about the museum’s knowledge vs. our own knowledge

“What does it mean to own an image?”

modes of attention

The seminar class, the think tank, the government department, the statistician’s bureau are sites for the production of questions, but we were suggesting others born of fleeting, arbitrary conversations between strangers, of convivial loitering and of unexpected lines of flight in and out of the museum as in the Ambulator project (Susan Kelly, Janna Graham, Valeria Graziano).

“What can we learn from the museum?”

the people who are already working there and who bring together unexpected life experiences and connections, the visitors whose interactions with the place are not gauged, the collection which could be read in a variety of ways far beyond splendid examples of key art-historical moments, the paths outward which extend beyond the museum, the spaces and navigational vectors which are unexpectedly plotted within it.

The access that was given was not aimed at producing institutional critique or exposing the true realities of the institution. Instead, it aimed at eliciting the unseen and unmarked possibilities that already exist within these spaces

Each of these teams pursued a line of inquiry into what we could learn from the museum beyond the objects on display and its educational practices.

“actualization,”

By “potentiality” we meant a possibility to act that is not limited to an ability

So the museum in our thinking was the site of possibility, the site of potentiality.

In asking what we can learn from the museum beyond what it sets out to teach us,

When we say that these institutions of ours could be so much more than they are, we don’t imply that they should be larger, or more efficient, or more progressive, or more fun (though they certainly should be more fun). Instead, we wish to say that their reach could be wider, that they might provide sites for doing so much more than they ever thought they could.

“You want to politicize education? Let’s really politicize education. Let’s make it a principle of actualization that really does touch the institutions of culture—not by producing perfectly trained, efficient, and informed workers for the cultural sector, but by thinking of the cultural sector as a market economy, and bringing the principles of education there to operate as forms of actualization.”

surpass their current functions.

How might we also perhaps apply them to our institutions?

“academy” (as a moment of learning within the safe space of an academic institution) was a metaphor for a moment of speculation, expansion, and reflexivity without the constant demand for proven results

knowledge economies

liberalizing shift

does an “educational turn in curating” address education or curating at precisely the points at which it urgently needs to be shaken up and made uncomfortable?

leaving behind the practice that was its originating point?

what constitutes a “turn” to begin with?

ask whether this umbrella is actually descriptive of the drives that have propelled this desired transition.2