Another article that’s got me all fired up today is this CNET review of a John Seeley Brown speech at MIT last Friday. As Clarence points out, Brown affirms much of what we as a community has been saying about the types of changes the Web is bringing about and what it means for our practice and pedagogy. Clarence pulls some of the best quotes, but here is one that really resonates for me:
In particular, he praised situations where students who are passionate about specific topics study in groups and participate in online communities.
To me, this is the one biggest advantages of the Read/Write Web, the ability to connect to others who are passionate about whatever it is that you want to learn. How rare is it to have that happen in physical space, where everyone in the room is ready and excited to learn?
As Brown points out, for educators to really take advantage of the potential of the Internet, we need to rethink our practice. And, I think, the best way to do that is to get involved in “passion based learning” ourselves, much like what has occurred in my practice since I started blogging and connection those many moons ago. That may mean giving up something else. It may mean making a choice between something we currently do, say reading the newspaper, for something new, like reading the aggregator. But we have to find ways to do it, because our current practice will just not pass muster much longer.
The web also can put our students in touch with an authentic audience that is not only passionate, but well informed about that student’s passion.
This is why I enjoy 43Things.com. We can connect with others that are doing (or trying to learn to do) the same things. The read/write web allows us to not only learn what others are learning about, but how they are learning it and how we can connect with them so that we can learn them. It is all kept in one common area as well, relieving us of games like phone & e-mail tag when we are trying to connect with others.
To me it’s hard to distinguish “passion” from “personal”. I’ve never seen anyone who is passionate about anything not have it be personal as well. The Read/Write Web is personal. It blurs the line between personal and professional learning.
Somehow we must continue to find ways to make learning personal for both teachers and students.
Passion. Is is paramount to learning to be in a “group” who also have this same passion? Is it imperative to the success of the learning? Cannot we find this desire to explore without logging on? Will, I see so many “passions” that would die if we logged on to learn. In this cyber world of the near future, where are the artists? Budding musicians? Gifted dancers? Bowlers? Lawn bowlers? Volleyball players? What do they have to give up to get logged on? I’m just curious as I have seven kids of my own who all have passions and I don’t want them to have to give up any to log on. I’m reading more and more about the flat world that is being created and, although I think some of it is great – what are we sacraficing? Ray Bradbury may be more of a future teller than a fiction writer!
K Christopherson,
What I understood from Will’s post is that what we might have to (should ;->) give up has more to do with pedagogy than with specific pursuits. In other words, we as educators might need to give up some measure of control over the learning environments in which we place ourselves. For example, we may have to give up the practice of deconstructing and compartmentalizing otherwise natural learn processes and allow “passion-based learning” to run longer than 50 minutes. Or, hey, let’s really give something up and let students determine what they’re passionate about, when they’ll study it, with whom, and for how long!
I hear Will grappling with how to rekindle the passion for learning in our youngsters, and how to replace the drudgery of school with excited curiosity and inquiry. I see “logging on” as a means to that end and not something that necessarily replaces other “passions.” I wonder, how many passions do we give up whilst whithering away in isolated, teacher-centered classrooms, hour after hour, year after year?
http://del.icio.us/pedersoj/unschooling
Different, but interesting.