Extend your reach*
You are seeking out help or information from both experts and fellow lifelong learners.
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Expert knowledge resides not only in published books and websites, but also in people. Typically, you find an expert by asking someone you know, by discovering a name in an article, or by looking up a who’s who register of expertise.
Your ability to find an expert to answer to your question is limited by the breadth of your acquaintances.
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Therefore, extend your reach by posing your question to a forum or bulletin board and invite others for input.
Internet forums can extend your reach well beyond your immediate acquaintances by enlisting those you do not know who are willing to help. If your question is interesting, they may pass it on to an expert or another group for responses. Typically, one response leads to others that together, elaborate, contradict or even reformulate the original question. This is the essence of co-construction of knowledge.
Where and how such a request for information is posted influences how it is received and who responds.
You may need a fairly well developed conceptual framework within which to place the response because experts do not often provide as much context you may need (Ackerman & McDonald, 1996).
Lifelong Learning design pattern map. Click to enlarge.
The “extend your reach” pattern was originally published March 31st, 2005 on The Common Loon.
31 Mar 2005
