CHAPTER 1: ARC-OF-LIFE LEARNING
Quote: "Play, questioning, and - perhaps most important - imagination lie at the very heart of arc-of-life learning." Chapter 1 emphasizes the definition of what learning entails in the twenty-first century. Learning from others through playing, asking questions, and using one's imagination, have always been the way children learnt in their early years of life. With the resources of networking beyond the playground, and across the world, reaching various age groups, the "new culture of learning" is about the "collective," the "community," and the "citizen"; all of which requires participation and support from one another to build on areas that are unfamiliar, and areas that are of interest and passion. This type of learning, rather than teaching, needs to be continuous as we age and as times change. |
Connection: This book continues the trend of the various books and videos I've already referenced in my previous blog posts, especially to the teachings of Sir Ken Robinson. When looking for his talks on YouTube, I also came across this great visual representation of how the school system needs to change in order to have "life long learners" called "The Future of Learning":
CHAPTER 2: A TALE OF TWO CULTURES
Quote: "...learning should be viewed in terms of an environment - combined with the rich resources provided by the digital information network - where the context in which learning happens, the boundaries that define it, and the students, teachers, and information within it all coexist and shape each other in mutually reinforcing way." When understanding what the "new learning culture" is, the key word here is, "coexist." Learning is best seen as a "symbiotic" relationship between student, teacher, and resources, the individual and the world wide web, as part of one environment and as "organic" and non "mechanical."
Question: If engagement requires the embodiment of the world "within" and culture cannot be created but adapted to, where does it all begin? With the creation of most things, there was a beginning, a foundation that was build on to what exists today. Where does the act of creation from beyond the available resources come into play? How do we bring something new to the table instead of just "re-creating"?
Connection: This chapter completely reflects my experiences in this course thus far. To be part of this Internet Culture, I've been trying to quickly learn the use of various applications, including Weebly, Pinterest, and Twitter. These various networking programs have been created to adopt members who want to be part of each. There are limitations and boundaries, but they are all resources for a greater type of learning. To be able to understand the capabilities of each, it has helped me to intertwine them to convey my own work.
Epiphany/Aha: The part in this chapter that really got me was how "people today often describing schools as "broken."" I am a victim to this. Even in the video I've included in Chapter 1, noted schools as "broken." To visualize the education system as an environment rather than a machine, "it makes no sense to talk about them being broken because environments don't break." Therefore, I must re-evaluate how I understand the change in learning, as not a problem to be fixed, but rather as solution to a better means.
CHAPTER 3: EMBRACING CHANGE
Quote: "As information is constantly produced, consumed, updated, and altered new practices of reading, writing, thinking, and learning have evolved with it." When we look at the term "evolution" we can imagine the slow change that occurs in environment and the transformation of inhabitants that go along with it. The same could be seen with the evolution of learning, and how we have progressed from how knowledge is acquired. Through technology, interactions within these "informational spaces" are gradual and contain endless "new possibilities, rather than something that forces us to adjust." The idea is that this change is natural and should "embraced."
Question: Not everything that changes is for the better of society though. Look at cancers, deformities, abnormalities that cause more damage than good. Viruses, obscene content, predators, all of which are part of the online network. Therefore, what are the ideal fundamentals and basics that should be taught at the traditional level? We are still in the process of change, so what is priority?
Connection: After reading this chapter, I immediately thought of this YouTube clip I came across when looking up the various videos to respond to. "The history of technology in education," goes through the timeline of "technological" tools in the classroom, and clearly depicts what has changed and what hasn't. The teacher-student relationship in education is still prominent and is probably one of the factors that is still existent; how the teacher teaches, and how the student learns is what's focused.
Epiphany/Aha: This chapter has reminded me of how standardized testing, along with evaluation in general, is questionable of its efficiency. The example given of learning taking place without any formal testing, is with the Harry Potter books, "To most people, that doesn't sound very much like "real" learning. What good are made-up facts absorbed from a fictional universe?...The important thing about the Harry Potter phenomenon is not so much what the kids are learning, but how they were learning." With change in resources, content, teaching methods, and physical space the consideration of assessment needs to also be included in the discussion.
References:
The Future of Learning. (2012, March 1). 2 Revolutions. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoSJ3_dZcm8
The history of technology in education. (2011, October 3). SMART Technologies EMEA (Education). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFwWWsz_X9s
Thomas, D. & Brown, J. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (Kindle Ed.). CreateSpace.