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Collaborative development of dispersed experiential opportunities.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Educational experiential learning offerings must be adjusted to provide relevant opportunities for the advancing change-based environment. Leading collaborative experiential instructors can develop opportunities that allow students to co-construct their knowledge for working in the advancing workplace environment. This paper suggests experiential activities that incorporate the virtual or dispersed domain, teamwork, networks and the need to develop knowledge for problem solution options. It's time to experiment to ensure experiential learning opportunities provide students with insight for the changing times.

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The world of work is changing (Carnevale, 1995; Drucker, 1994; Fullan, 1993) and advancing forces are creating a "fundamentally new world" (Homer-Dixon, 2001, p. 48). The pressure on the "culture, structure and strategies" (Limerick, Cunnington & Crowther, 1998, p. 8) is causing work environment adaptations (Choo & Bontis, 2002). Experiential models must integrate the constructs of the emerging environment to prepare students for the advancing new world.

Significance of the problem

Greider (1997) expressed strong concerns that the number of individuals that will not succeed "will far outnumber the winners!" (p. 3) as the transformation to the advancing change-based environment requires new capabilities (Limerick et al., 1998; Howard, 1995; Somerville & Mroz, 1997). The change-based environment is subject to linear and discontinuous forces (Homer-Dixon, 2001; Howard, 1995) and necessitates the ability to manage within the presented conditions. Thus, experiential offerings must be "appropriate to the demands of a different era" (Bolt, 1996, p. 164) to provide students with the best possible advantage for a successful transition.

Experiential Opportunities that Provide Insights for the Times

The changing workplace is not clearly defined and this is problematic for instructors preparing students for an environment that will be significantly different, and yet cannot be absolutely predetermined (Homer-Dixon, 2001). However, this research is underscored by the belief that the currently understood change-based work conditions can be extrapolated from the literature to provide a framework for experiential opportunities that offer insight into the emerging era. This paper offers a literature review of selected key forces of change as foundational components for the development of experiential learning opportunities to prepare students for a place in the change-based workforce.

Methodology & Review of Literature

A literature review was used to determine the key constructs of the change-based work environment. The challenge was to select a few key forces of change applicable to the creation of experiential opportunities that can represent the change-based work environment. The...

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