In the process of working through out technology plan at our school,
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to frame the directions that the
Read/Write Web is taking learning. The other day, in fact, a colleague
and I did a presentation for our Ed Tech Committee outlining the
pedagogies and “toolpaths” that we see coming down the road.
Stephen Powell posted this model of learning on his site last week and it captures a lot of my own thinking as well:
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An emergent model of learning (adapted from Jarvis 2001 – additions in Italic Powell 2005)
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| Domain | Traditional | Emergent |
| Study | Education | Learning |
| Locale | School/Other Institution | Everywhere – work home, etc. |
| Time | Childhood/early adulthood | Lifelong and life-wide |
| Style | Teacher centred | Learner-driven |
| Delivery | Face-to-face | Distance and e-learning |
| Target group | Universal to max school age – elite Theory/Abstract | Specific and mass |
| Focus | Theory and abstract | Practice informed by theory |
| Discipline | Single | Multi-disciplinary and Learner defined |
| Mode | Learning by rote | Reflective and critical thinking |
| Form | Instructional | Constructivist |
| Purpose | Qualification | Action/Application |
| Philosophy of learning | Teacher as expert | Teachers as facilitator and co-learner |
| Agenda | Pursuit of scholarly knowledge | Citizenship and social inclusion |
So much of this is driven by what we can now do with the Internet: we
can learn everywhere, at any time, and we decide what we want to
pursue. There is so much more that is at my daughter’s fingertips than
was available to me. The key is how to help her become driven to learn
and use all of these resources. It didn’t really happen to me until
well into my 30s. And the Internet has had so much to do with it. It
really amazes me.
I also love the last two lines in the table, the idea that teachers are
not just facilitators but co-learners with their kids, and that the
whole point of education is to be a better global citizen. Both remind
me of Alan November who says that we should never be asking questions
we know the answers to, and that we should be teaching kids how to be
stewards of the Earth. Amen to that.
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