The Bermuda Triangle?

A commentary in the October 17, 2008 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education by John Seely Brown explores the formation of an educational triangle based on three components: technology, passion, and learning. Similar thoughts are addressed (and fleshed out in greater detail) in Brown's article that he co-authored with Richard Adler, "Minds on Fire," as well as the forward to the recently released Opening Up Education. Because there isn't anything new in the CHE commentary, I initially did a quick skim of it and put it aside. However, it continues to pop up wherever I turn, so I thought I should spend a bit more time with it.

After introducing the notion that the Web 2.0 blurs the lines between producers and consumers, Brown discusses the difference between "learning about" and "learning to be." Stated another way, Brown contends that how we learn is more important that what we learn. He goes on to suggest that an important, and often overlooked, part of learning to be involves immersion. Initially, Brown claims that immersion occurs through interactions with others. We develop new ideas, we discuss them with others, questions arise, points are challenged, ideas are reconstructed, etc. He then moves on to suggest that simulations are the way to create an immersive situation. What happened to interacting with others? Wouldn't it be possible to have the type of immersion Brown begins with simply by interacting with colleagues around a water cooler or during a lunch break? Immersion could be created via different ways; simulations are merely one way to use technology to construct these interactions.

Another point, one which is also mentioned in the "Minds on Fire" article, is related to developing a Learning 2.0 mindset. Brown refers to a statement made by John King at the University of Michigan. King states that each year, 40,000 students are enrolled on his campus. But, because these enrolled students bring with them their social networks through Facebook, MySpace, IM, etc., the figure is actually around 250,000. Seriously? Do administrators really think that students are talking about academics with their social network? It's possible, but highly unlikely.

Before dipping into the passion of learning, Brown returns to learning about something versus learning to be a practitioner. While I like to learn by doing, I also appreciate having some background knowledge - a base or a foundation to build upon. Launching into the practitioner side of learning before learning about also brings to mind arguments made by Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) who claim that students who engage in unguided learning may lack the proper schema needed to investigate new information. More about this piece by Kirschner and his colleagues can be found here.

And finally, Brown argues that the Web enables people to identify their passion(s) and join niche communities, which facilitates learning. I agree that feeling passionate about a topic does make the learning process easier. However, I don't think this is new to the Web. Individuals have been passionate about learning topics of interest and finding individuals who share that interest prior to the Web. While the Web makes it easier and may bring together geographically disperse individuals, passion is not a new concept.

Just to recap...the thoughts presented by Brown in this commentary are not new - they are recycled from an article and a book forward - and concepts that being passionate about a topic and becoming immersed in it through interactions with others is not a novel notion either. Many individuals, and scholars too, get caught up in the "sexiness" of technology, where the focus is on racing to adopt the latest gadget rather than critically evaluating its potential and effectiveness. As a result, the primary goal of promoting and improving learning gets lost in the mix.