Owning Learning - the theme of OEB16

Yes, my thoughts exactly - December is like a million years away, or at least 10 months. The theme of Online Educa Berlin (or OEB) 2016 has been fixes as 'Owning Learning'. As usual the conference has a number of sub-themes, and special tracks for video, business and future learning. Actually, the call for proposals is open if you are interested.

As it goes with themes, it is all in the eye of the beholder. For me the theme of 'owning learning' is a very interesting and relevant one. We have been seeing a rise in self-driven learning, and if not self driven at least learner-centric training designs. This is part of a wider trend where consumers - in the large sense of the word - are taking back ownership, become more vocal about their needs, and expect more individualized treatment. The learning industry is no exception. Interesting questions about the ownership of learning include:
- Who own the data that is generated during the learning process? (learning analytics)
- How much ownership can people take of their learning realistically, and in what circumstances? Is it different for novices versus practitioners? Does self-driven learning only work for a minority of people? Is there a mindset problem with people taking ownership of their learning?
- How can institutions (schools, business, non-profit, government) accommodate more learner-driven learning? Can it be counted upon as you could (let's assume) count on the outcome of formal training programs?
- What kind of technology supports this ownership best?
- Ownership of learning at best is a divided one: so how does the collaboration between yourself, others in your learning network, institutions (L&D department, your university), etc look like?
- Is this whole notion of 'owning your own learning' actually a healthy one? Is it sometimes an excuse to absolve universities and employers of their responsibilities? How does the essential element of serendipity enter your learning - is there a danger you lock yourself up in your own mindset?
- and so on

But for me, THE key point is the relationship between owning your learning and being responsible for it. Both go hand in hand. Wanting to tune your learning journey to your needs, but holding (or sometimes 'blaming') the environment, the teachers or whatever institution for the result doesn't work. Via a blog post of Harold Jarche "learning responsibly" , I stumbled upon following graph:


I'm already looking forward to OEB16 - a million years from now. Or ten months. Make that nine.