Jim Groff, CEO of PBworks, a wiki building site, lays out a plan for "chief learning officers" to create learning opportunities designed not by authoritarian representatives of learning but by learners themselves. The vast array of information available on the Internet, allows for coursework that combines research, fact-checking, links to experts, and even courses by one of the finest universities in the world, MIT.
I have always been a proponent of do it yourself projects. There is not much that cannot be learned from a book. Gardening, sewing, plumbing, carpentry, animal husbandry, building a computer from components, photography, all of these are learned skills. Practical skills are developed through a combination of knowledge and practice. The more invested in the practice one is, the more ready for additional knowledge one becomes.
The idea that curriculum can be created by students from an array of materials that are close at hand is intriguing. Yet, having a teacher (authority) to guide one through the process can be a time-saver and finding teachers outside of regular schooling can be difficult. So it makes sense that teachers be the arbiters of learning by creating sandboxes of learning for their students. Technology is a fine tool for expanding that sandbox to a shoreline. ***
Sunday, November 8, 2009
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