How can we strengthen the fabric of learning technology in our organizations
or businesses? From the perspective of Hal Schlais, Director of Learning Technology
Development, University of Wisconsin System, you need a combination of the longitudinal
connectivity of the organizational system to the day-to-day activities at the working level,
a holistic approach. The individuality at the working level "creates pattern, texture, richness
and strength in the instructional and learning support structure" of the system. A recent
book by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information, reinforces
this perspective - that knowledge and education are evolving from the powerful use and
interaction of new technologies with existing practices and structure. It is through
appropriate and positive collaboration and balancing, they believe, that an ecology is
realized and different institutional arrangements begin to evolve. This month's FOCUS
article is a case in point. (Rosemary Lehman) (For a review of The Social Life of
Information see TTT in the UW section of this issue. )