Simon Grant discusses the potential for peer-to-peer (P2P) learning and development in a complex, unequal world. He argues that centralized hierarchies and services are becoming less effective, so we must help each other learn. MyLK aims to build a digital commons where people can track their informal learning, rate resources, and get career guidance from peers. Long term, Grant envisions a global information commons and P2P services around learning, careers, and employment built collaboratively on open standards and data.

1. Simon Grant
Learning and development
in a peer-to-peer world

2. Outline
● the wider story
● the story’s logic
● how does MyLK fit in?
● longer term P2P vision

3. the wider story

4. The wider story is about (all of) us
● … some questions : about :
– learning experiences, relevant or not;
– career paths;
– careers advice …
● … for you and me …
● … maybe friends and relatives
● not just your best examples!

5. After sharing, where are we now?
● What is “peer-to-peer” (P2P) and why?
● “Commoning” of resources
– See The Commons, Short and Sweet
– or the Commons Transition Primer
● Questioning the effectiveness of
– hierarchies
– centrally planned or managed services

6. World of increasing complexity
● Compare now with 40 years ago:
– Career paths and structures
– Learning resources (knowledge and skills)
– Global society and economy
● What will happen in the next 10 years?

7. World of increasing inequality
● Currently power of capital >> labour
– compare the analysis of Piketty
● “Le Capital au XX1e siècle”
● Super-rich = super-powerful
● Drive for “efficiency” puts workers down
● Reducing care for workers’ well-being
– rather, should use the “triple bottom line”

8. World moving towards élite rule
● Complexity and remoteness mean that it is
easier for elite to ignore common people
– gated communities: out of sight, out of mind
– even benevolent rich don’t know what to do
● The more complex the world is, the easier it is
to dismiss inconvenient opinion as “fake news”
● Less and less trust in authority

9. Distraction and manipulation
● Myth: “it’s poor people’s fault for not trying”
● Entertainment / mass media / lottery culture
● Maintaining the illusion of hope
● Trying to prevent real commons using IPR
● If all else fails, use Cambridge Analytica (or
similar) to swing votes towards elite interests

10. William G Perry; Robert Kegan
● Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development
in the College Years: A Scheme (1968)
● In Over Our Heads: Mental Demands of
Modern Life (1995)

11. My e-portfolio book (2009)
● “Electronic Portfolios: Personal information,
personal development and personal values”
● It is freely available on my own web site
– a kind of Open Educational Resource
– but who rates it, and will recommend it to whom?
● Try reading Part 3 of the book for some more
optimistic related ideas…

12. the story’s logic

13. Who will help us learn in a P2P world?
● Maybe co-operative institutions?
– for some defined purposes, but mostly …
– too complex for them, so it will have to be …
● ourselves and each other – P2P … but:
– beware platforms that suck up profits (FB etc.) ;
– if we are not directly in control, sooner or later the
platform will be used to exploit or manipulate us

14. How will we help each other?
● If there is no central authority, then
build a new digital commons for learning
– like Wikipedia is a knowledge commons
● No one person can know everything
● Curation of information must be distributed
● Common standards must be agreed and
maintained, to make it understandable

15. To be effective, such a commons…
● Must set out any stages of development
– what there is for us to learn, explained accessibly
● Must allow us to find our present stage
● Must help us find useful learning resources
– rated by those who have been there and done that
● Must allow us to govern it together
– See Elinor Ostrom and her “polycentric” idea

16. Peer authority and responsibility
● No authority left with the power to ask:
– “what do you want to do” and arranging it
● Instead, need to find out for ourselves
– asking: “where do I fit in with my peers?”
● We recommend to each other
– to cope with the vast flood of information

17. how does MyLK ft in?

18. What does MyLK give now?
● It helps us find more useful learning resources
– we add information about our expertise, our interests
and our ratings, and the system delivers better quality
resource recommendations, peer to peer
● It helps us keep track of our own informal learning
– this is important – it is so easy to forget and lose track
of learning if not linked to a central conscious purpose
● MyLK uses ESCO to give multilingual occupations

19. MyLK ratings and recommendations
● Not composed by some “expert” team
● Gives peer ratings, as on Amazon, YouTube
– But Amazon, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc. are
capital controlled and exploit us (not just through
adverts) along with helping
● MyLK could become a “platform cooperative”

20. What does MyLK envisage?
● Extending careers mapping
– creating another knowledge commons
– essential for P2P course and job guidance
– even better quality resource recommendations
– also recommendations of next career steps
● Making recommendations fit people’s position

21. What P2P could follow from MyLK?
● ESCO is a very useful multilingual resource
– European Skills/Competences, qualifications and Occupations
– documented at a point in time; centrally managed
● How could we improve on ESCO?
– real-time updates from people on the job, P2P
– could show national or cultural differences
– more like Wikipedia, though very challenging!

22. longer term P2P vision

23. A global information commons
● knowledge, skills and competence
– (the EQF’s “learning outcomes”)
● credentials linked to learning
– evidence more diverse than “qualifications”
● occupations and careers information
– based on real people’s experience

24. P2P services built on the commons
● learning, education and training opportunities
● careers advice and guidance
● employment, jobs, recruitment
● help towards self-employment
● support for start-ups

25. thank you for your
attention!
asimong@gmail.com
Cetis LLP