A CHAT-based Case Study of Informal Adult Learning and Technology: BarCamp, the Unconference

This paper presents and discusses findings from a pilot case study about Bar Camps. BarCamps are an open technology movement collective learning event. They are gaining momentum as sites of resistance to the idea of ‘owning’ technology knowledge and known for cutting across boundaries to invite learners to learn through shared activities. The findings are organized and discussed based upon constructs of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, CHAT. Introduction This pilot case study originates in the authors’ interests in the open technology movement and in better understanding informal community learning. We selected Cultural Historical Activity Theory, CHAT, as the study framework. We envision learning as an outcome of everyday activities and believe that it is important to understand the ways that we learn collectively. Our research concurs with Youn and Baptiste (2007) in suggesting that it isn’t necessarily fruitful to separate individual learners or subject-object, and that a part of breaking apart that dualism is to explore how artifacts can serve as multi-directional conduits. The framework will offer a way to understand a collective learning event or activity as integrated individual learning, rather than separate learners fitting together to make a whole. Arguing, in a sense, that the sum of the parts is greater somehow than the finite vision we often have. Our application of CHAT in this instance also draws upon Sawchuck’s paper regarding antipoverty community organizing (2011). Open source gatherings such as a BarCamp are intentional acts of resistance – they are conceptualized to some degree as counter culture sites of collective, egalitarian learning though BarCamps do not claim an activist agenda. We believe that the framing of this pilot work with CHAT will allow both an understanding of the informal, collective learning that occurs in BarCamps and perhaps a richer understanding of the nuances of the theoretical framework itself. Open space technology and BarCamps Open space technology (OST) is one type of non-formal learning that began in the early 1980’s. The idea is: as few ‘formal’ rules as possible, create a collective agenda in the moment based upon the attendees, and share knowledge (rather than selling or hoarding it), use as much of it as activity or experience based as possible, and create an informal, collective learning community. OST was created as an organizational management tool, but the ethos was quickly picked up by technologists who wanted to freely share technology knowledge. The OST meeting style creates a non-formal, public pedagogical space in which participants can discuss technology issues in a democratic style that favors adult learners. In other words, it is an intentional way of being – rejecting the notion that knowledge is and should be ‘held’ by individuals and instead it promotes the idea that knowledge is co-created and shared. This way of being suggests that we should all routinely interact in ways that promote shared learning and knowledge creation without concern for knowledge ownership or top-down approaches to communities of learners. Open Space World describes open space environments in this way: “it's been called passion bounded by responsibility, the energy of a good coffee break, intentional self-organization, spirit at work,