Week 6-Blog 3

Webinar: John Seely Brown, "A New Culture of Learning"
On February 25th, I went to the FutureofEducation.com website and listened to the recording of the webinar with John Seely Brown from February 22nd.  John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas have a new book out titled, "A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change."  A description of the book on the webinar states, " the 21st century is a world of constant change.  In A New Culture of Learning, Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of how the force of change, and emerging wave of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic."
John Seely Brown (JSB) began the webinar with talking about how education needs to be transformed, not thrown away.  We need to build up the edges (i.e., after school programs, ecology around the schools) in order to pull the core (i.e., central school system) to the edge.  JSB used the example of a school in Chicago where they built up the multi-media in after school programs, which empowered the students, making them come "alive." The increased interest, motivation, and activity of the students really made the core take notice and become more serious about mentorship and ways to create an elevated edge.  JSB says that the practices around technology are building up the edge, NOT technology itself; this has led to the steady change that is currently going on in education.
JSB also talked about the teacher becoming more of a guide or a co-learner/co-explorer with the students instead of an authoritarian.  There would be a shift in power to more of a partnership between the student and the teacher, therefore, making learning more powerful and fun for each.
JSB compares learning as to what happens inside a petri dish; it is a bounded environment with powerful nutrients where exploration happens.  There is constant change where boundaries matter.  The boundaries or constraints can be transformed into resources; we can work with them and they can become resources in a powerful way giving people new ways to use things in unexpected ways.
JSB used the example of a one-room school house where the teacher and students are constrained to one room, but re-implement these boundaries into a powerful tool by having students learn and teach from each other instead of having the teacher instruct all students at once(where students are at different learning levels).  I liked when JSB made the comment, "the best way to learn something is to teach it."
JSB also talked extensively about how students should show their accomplishments.  He called standardized tests "pathetic," which really made me laugh!  He introduced the idea of a student portfolio that shows what the student has created throughout the school year(s), this way the student can meet the teacher, reflect on past work, think about what has worked, what didn't work, and ways to improve and build on his/her work.  A portfolio highlights the student's creativity and passions and also allows the teacher to know more about the student.  JSB suggested that students write essays surrounded around making the portfolio and express how they feel about it (reflect).  He stated that the test that students take today "make no sense," and students lose motivation(often falling asleep in class).  We need to start shifting the focus of learning from the explicit (learning about) to tacit learning (learning to be).  If we encourage students to follow what they are passionate about, to reach their goals, then they don't have to constantly memorize facts and just worry about what questions will be on test.  The students will be motivated to learn when we empower their personal passions.
JSB also talked about the notion of playing, that from birth we figure out how to make the world stable and build our own frame of reference.  However, when we start attending school, we have information poured into that framework, therefore having to rebuild that knowledge.  Our world is in a state of constant disruption, but by playing(finding our orientation, our passions) we can build our knowledge and learn new things.
JSB used the term agency: how does one imagine something that is different from where they are at now and what can one do about it?  He states that agency has been stripped away in today's education; the feeling that students' can make a difference, they need the structure that provides useful constraints that can be built into resources to let them act, learn, and make the world different.
Learning in the collective is another subject JSB touched on.  He stated that when people are stuck on something, they ask the collective (or group of experts/professionals/peers) on ideas on what to do.  Then  once a person tries the suggestion(s) he/she returns to the collective on whether the idea(s) worked (giving feedback), therefore, making the collective smarter.
They last topic that JSB covered was gaming, massively multi-player online games (MMO).  JSB describes this as an ideal learning environment, where participants are operating in the collective (described above).  The MMO is a great example of how groups function, build knowledge and absorb ideas from each other.  MMO participants post new ideas/strategies on how to game, therefore, there is a flood of knowledge sharing, constant fluctuations and experimentation, and healthy competition among participants.
I really enjoyed listening to the webinar with JSB; I like the idea of learning in the collective and students having portfolios to highlight their work, their passions.  I know that JSBJSB said, sometimes teachers do not have all the answers. This was a great interview with JSB and encourage anyone reading this blog to log onto FutureofEducation.com and listen to the archive.