Conflict
Chapter Four of M. Syverson’s The Weath of Reality was both commendable and interesting. I have to commend Margaret for addressing a negative aspect of the ecology theory. This proves that she is being honest to the ideas she is proposing.
The negative aspect she discusses is conflict. When many people come together to collaborate written ideas, there is conflict. Sometimes enlightenment results from impassioned dialogue / conflict. Enlightenment is the progression towards an answer or truth, therefore conflict can result positively. On the other hand, sometimes personal agendas of the players shift unknowlingly. Side are taken regardless of the ideas expressed. Players become narrowminded. They think of new ways to creatively refute fellow players, instead of thinking about the ideas themselves. In other words, players become focused on the conflict between each other, rather than the conflict of ideas. I find this negative aspect of the ecology to be commonplace on internet forums and lists: many people enjoy arguing for the sake of arguing or to prove they are right – instead of striving towards an infalliable truth.
April 3, 2008 at 8:51 pm
So many people, especially in education, suffer from “not invented here syndrome”. There are so many teachers who believe that because they have been teaching for over 20 years or more that they are experts with no need to learn anything new or change. That usually pits them against folks who are investigating and learning about new ways of doing things. I can see how attempting to introduce a concept like the learning record into a school could set off a fire storm of conflict as the learning model set up by the record requires that teachers focus more on the student and less on the grades.