Following up on my last post about The Age of the Unthinkable, what might be the response of educators to Ramo’s critique.  Given the similarities of his suggestions to the Agile Management Method, I will begin looking at the principles of the Agile Manifesto and how that document could be adapted to learning, research and organizational learning.

My Personal Learning Manifesto: Adapted from the Manifesto for Agile Software Development

I will uncovering better ways of learning by doing it and by helping others to do it.

Agile learning values the following:

• Individuals and interactions over Courses, processes and tools
• Functioning project teams over Documents, LMSs or other knowledge platforms
• Learner collaboration over Expert mind sets
• Responding to changing requirements over Following a plan

Echoing the original Agile Team I state that: while there is value in the items on
the right, preference is given to the items on the left.

Personal Agile Learning Principles: Adapted from the Twelve Principles of Agile Software

1. The highest priority is to satisfy the customer (learner) through early and continuous delivery of valuable knowledge and insight.
2. I will welcome changing requirements (even late in development) with Agile processes that harness change for the customer’s (learner’s) competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working solutions and knowledge frequently, from a with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people, project team members and learning leaders must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build learning projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to find the right solution.
6. The most efficient and effective educational methods involve face-to-face interaction.
7. Successful project milestones is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile learning promotes sustainable development.
9. The sponsors, leaders, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
10. Continuous attention to technical research excellence and good knowledge design enhances agility.
11. Simplicity is essential, whether in ideas or in design
12. The best learning architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams not from ADDIE implementation.
13. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its learning behavior accordingly.
14. Encourage synthesis, creativity and the continuous integration of new and prior understanding.
15. A commitment to open source method.

My thought processes are in an early phase on this subject.  It may be more meaningful to talk of agile research methods than learning.  To some extent organizational learning may be more like research then traditional pedagogy.  However, it does seems like a promising area for research and further reflection.