Sunday 22 April 2012

Something very interesting happened at Moodle Camp

We built 10 new e-learning modules
Something very interesting happened at a recent gathering of LEAD Fellows and friends from all over the LEAD network. The event, which took place in London, was called ‘Moodle Camp’. Working in teams, we designed and built 10 new E-Learning modules covering a range of leadership and sustainable development competencies. These new modules will be tested on LEAD Fellows, and then launched in June 2012 at Rio+20. We achieved our goal.This was good.

Learning to take risks
On the 3rd day of the Moodle Camp, we shared the modules with an invited group of experienced leadership and sustainability practitioners from different organisations. I felt we were taking a risk. What if we failed to produce anything worth sharing? How might this affect our reputation as a learning organisation? But succeed we did. Our guests were curious, insightful and enthusiastic. They gave us much constructive feedback that we will incorporate into the beta version of the modules. 'It was good', they said, 'that we had involved them before the modules were finished.' Everyone went home tired and happy. Knowing when to take a risk is a leadership skill.

So what?
“So what?” you might say. E-Learning is not so new. LEAD has specialised in leadership and sustainable development for almost 20 years. If you put a group of LEAD Fellows in a room for 48 hours, and they succeed in creating some E-Learning modules on leadership and sustainable development, what is so interesting or surprising about that? 

What LEAD Fellows love to do
“I agree with you, it's not particularly surprising”, I would say. But that’s not the point. We’ve all seen LEAD Fellows in action at national, regional and international sessions. LEAD Fellows love to work in teams of people from different cultures and sectors. LEAD Fellows take a systems approach; they listen and ask questions, see and think differently, share knowledge, challenge constructively, take risks, explore and uncover innovative solutions. That’s normal for LEAD. 

What was really interesting was learning together
What was really interesting at Moodle Camp was not just that we succeeded in designing and building 10 new products against a very tight deadline. What was really interesting was that we were learning all the time about what makes an engaging E-Learning module. We were learning all the time from, and with each other.

How did we do that? You’ll have to read part 2 of this blog.

To learn more about LEAD go here www.lead.org