Christopher D. Sessums :: Blog :: Consultants as Bumble Bees

Educational consultants are like bumble bees. They go around from flower to flower picking up tiny bits of pollen and deposit them in each flower they visit.

As I thought about this image in class tonight, I found myself considering the possible similarities between the role a consultant plays and a few of the principles found in connectivism:

* Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
* Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
* Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
* Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
* Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
* Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

It seems a learned consultant recognizes that there is more than one way to look at a problem or set of issues. A consultant (hopefully) brings to each client a specialized understanding or knowledge of where to find the information desirable to the client. A good consultant recognizes that she or he has a capacity to know more and is only as effective as the client is prepared to be(e).

I then began to wonder, as a consultant, when do you stop advising a client? For example, when you are officially through working with a client, what happens when you glean new or additional information that would be beneficial to the issues you were engaged in? Can you afford to maintain connections and offer continual learning once a project is complete?

Siemens suggests that seeing connections is a core skill. Every good consultant I have ever worked with had, in my perception, an uncanny ability to see things that I or my team could not see on our own. Where does this ability to make connections come from? Perhaps it is the very essense of what connectivist principles recognize. It is not only being current, but knowing the past as well.

I thought the bumble bee was a nice metaphor for thinking in terms of connections and learning ecologies. Bumble bees are often thought of as industrious, servants to a greater cause, members of a hive. They serve as a good socialistic metaphor as well. Bumble bees are not usually classified as pests either. They are partially responsible for flowers blossoming and the fruits and vegetables we enjoy.

Of course I could probably go on and untangle other perceptions of bees, both positive ("honey") and negative ("drone"). But for now, I think I'll simply enjoy the buzz.