Use Cases

From Lifelong Learning

Use Case Examples

• What this page is about:This page will be utilized to further extend the Tools & Technology page charts. Several use cases will be discussed and displayed with more content then the simple charts used on the Tools & Technology page.
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Quantum Theory and Beer

Peter Senge (2006, P. 27) describes an activity conducted at the MIT Sloan School of Business entitled the "Beer Game." This game represents three agents in a distribution cycle: the reseller, the vendor, and the producer. Following a promotional release by the producer there is a slight increase in sales of a select brand of beer. Each agent, however, works in a vacuum only working within their context and the only inter-communication is the placement of orders. In the weeks following this promotion, a backlog of orders developed leading to chaos for all and eventual detriment for the producer.

This situation is meant to show that the production flow is not a linear path but rather a system. The reseller relies on information from the producer and vice-versa. With each party talking to an intermediary, that connection is never made.

This is where "quantum systems" come into play as part of the learning process. There often won't be time for various groups in a large system to sit down and discuss matters. Nevertheless, this is a real-time learning scenario. By utilizing collaborative web technologies such as Wikis and discussion groups, a common site can enable participants in a distribution cycle to communicate what they are doing and what they are observing. If the reseller had known about the promotion earlier or the vendor had known about an increase in demand the problem (likely) never would have occurred.

It's a Small World After All

Scattered around the globe are several astronomers working away studying the heavens. Each has access to a specific set of instruments related to their overall work. It so happens that they each are studying the same region of space. They discover an anomaly but lack enough data to describe it. Each plans to write an article on their findings or respond to an existing article about similar observations. This is certainly standard academic practice but a process that will take 6 months to a year to unfold.

What if, pretending institutional barriers didn't exist, these astronomers were part of a social networking environment for like-minded people. Common tags and postings would quickly place these people in touch with each other and make know the presence of each participants unique set of data. Further, realizing the connection they each shared a common research page could allow all the data to be collected and reviewed by each researcher. Contributions would be attributed to those who made them but a body of work could then emerge greater than any individual could produce and much quicker.

Consider the notion of immediacy in learning. In prior workflows bits of data would be scattered about in various journals. Researchers might read it and find a connection or they might not. Demonstrating an immediate use and application through the social networking process adds value to both the data and to the network it is shared within.