All aboard the Cluetrain

So the Cluetrain Manifesto was, as we were warned, very business oriented.  As such, I could not always see how it related to education.  The big point is that the internet has created a "powerful global conversation" and people are finding new ways to interact with each other. While reading, I tried to put 'educational institutions' in place of cooperations and 'students/learners' in the place of the market.  While this did not always work, some parallels did seem to fit.  Students have there 'conversation' and educators have theirs, but how often do they coincide, or even use the same language.  Younger learners that have grown up surrounded by the vast capabilities and wonders of the internet and technology have grown accustom to a different style of 'learning' and thus have expectation for which 'knowledge' should be delivered. Students are 'connected' like they never have been before.  The internet provides a space where there is freedom to explore and everyone can learn from everyone else.  This is perhaps the largest departure from the traditional 'come to school and learn what you need to know' style of the past. I really liked the line that stated that "[t]he result is not just new things learned but a vastly enhanced ability to learn thinks."My favorite of the 95 Theses:# 2 - "Markets (aka classrooms) consist of human beings, not demographic sectors."   -->  This speaks of the identities of our learners and that the should be treated as individuals not as part of 'subgroup'# 9 - "These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge."    -->   This one seemed sort of an obvious like to education in the why learning environments are designed and utilize the capabilities of internet technologies.# 38 - "Human communities are based on discourse - on human speech about human concerns."    -->  Perhaps this one is self explanatory, but have an effective learning environment, students and teachers alike need to participate in the conversation.  Learning is interactive - an I think that is where Wenger's community practice and social learning comes in to play.  Learning solely by static lectures is long outdated.