ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what type of learning is needed to foster fast transformative change if the hope of dealing with wicked messes of environmental, social and economic disconnects is to become a reality. Marrying social technologies to educational platforms such as edX and Coursera provides for collective leadership development in communities of change, allowing interconnectivity and communication on a global scale. On such virtual learning platforms it is important that content and delivery embrace and deal with the four key properties of transformative learning: (i) complexity, (ii) contingency, (iii) contradictions and trade-offs and (iv) uncertainty and ignorance.
The U.Lab massive open online course (MOOC), with its core of Theory U’s personal change process and capacity-building framework developed by Dr C. Otto Scharmer and team at MIT’s Presencing Institute (www.presencing.com), claims to provide one such innovative learning opportunity. Theory U suggests innovative communication practices and analytic processes to build relational skills. Through facilitation, highly diverse groups across diverse cultures, stakes and expertise, may allow transformation through ‘sensing the emerging future’ on a global scale.
