ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we argue for a shift in the ways we think about unlocking human potential from a deficit view of learners and a content-consumption model of instruction to an approach that views (a) learner-owned value creation as the driving force for learning and personal growth, and (b) acknowledges the role of the local ecosystem in co-producing value. We advance an ecological framework grounded in the belief that learners are capable creators who should be supported in using what they are learning to create value that matters to them. From an ecological perspective, meaning lives in the interactions of the learners with their ecosystem and in the information flows within a particular context, driven by the learner in the service of a particular goal. As such, it is essential that the ecosystem is invitational and responsive; that is, affording interpretive space through which learners co-create value from and through what they are learning. The ecological process being described here is collaborative, emergent, and grounded within a particular context in the service of locally owned and realized goals. Fidelity of any design, as such, is not about a designer's intent being mirrored by the local ecosystem. Instead, fidelity emerges to the extent that learners are able to make use of the educational design to realize goals and outcomes that matter to them as they create the value they are seeking.
