Chapter 4:
Quote: “It is impossible to predict what that collective will look like, and once it forms, equally difficult to manage it in any traditional way. Unlike a classroom where a teacher controls the lecture, the organic communities that emerge through collectives produce meaningful learning because the inquiry that arises comes from the collective itself. At this point one might be tempted to ask how we might harness the power of these peer-to-peer collectives to meet some learning objective. But that would be falling into the same old twentieth-century trap. Any effort to define or direct collectives would destroy the very thing that is unique and innovative about them” (Thomas & Brown, 2011, chapter 4, section 4, para. 4)
I chose this quote because I think it is another fine example of why this new culture of learning perspective will be so hard for teachers, schools, and districts to adopt. The reader is given a warning that any effort to define or direct collectives would essentially destroy the value of having the collective, but no concrete plans are really laid out as an alternative.
Question: Do these organic communities provide students with enough learning for them to be successful in the modern world?
Connection: During one of our viewings/readings last semester, it was mentioned that many people nowadays utilize user-made instructional videos on the website YouTube in order to learn new skills. Although this example is not specifically like some of the collectives mentioned in the text, it stood out to me because it illustrates how an effective collective forms: the initial user seeks to explain or communicate knowledge without being prompted at all, and other users can seek out this information when it is needed. The collective beings to form around the content of the original poster without any teacher or school system being involved.
Epiphany: As the book mentions, collectives can expand to eventually encompass users who know the answers and can help users who are still learning. However, much of this knowledge has come from generations that focused on knowing how to find, recognize, and record facts. Will these collective-style learning hubs still be helpful/successful decades from now when the vast majority of contributors will not have grown up with the same style/type of education that today’s users have?
Chapter 5:
Quote: “Sharing something personal with a collective, therefore, is very different from taking something private and putting it into the public domain. Collectives are not simply new forms of public spaces. They are built and structured around participation and therefore carry a different sense of investment for those who engage in them” (Thomas & Brown, 2011, chapter 5, section 1, para. 7).
I chose this quote because I think it defines a key change in mindset when it comes to students and people sharing information, an area where I am particularly apprehensive.
Question: If collectives must form organically and are based on each student’s interests, can they be utilized in schools at all? And if so, how?
Connection: I often struggle with posting information to the web because I have a very conservative view of what is private information (information essential to my identity) and what is public. When working with my students last semester, I was surprised how quickly and easily the students signed up for Vine accounts and began posting videos of themselves doing silly things for a film class. They hardly hesitated at all, whereas I probably would have taken ten minutes to read through the fine print before even making an account—which, in all likelihood, I probably would have decided against doing in the end anyway.
Epiphany: I like the idea of redefining the debate as being between the personal and the collective rather than between private and public. Often times, I worry about sharing something with the entire public when, in reality, only a few members of a specific collective would actually be interested in what I am sharing. And, often, those individuals have a positive connection with me and not a negative one.
Chapter 6:
Quote: “Despite twelve years of grade school and three years of college, those students had never before felt as though their passion, the thing they truly cared about, actually mattered” (Thomas & Brown, 2011, chapter 6, section 4, para. 6).
I chose this quote because this is a very personal issue for me. I want students to see value in what they are doing and develop a personal connection to the subject matter. However, many of them have been trained to follow a system that tends not to take their own opinions and preferences into account.
Question: How do you help students connect their learning to their own lives and values, especially when this is something that the current education system has not been doing and that many students are conditioned against doing?
Connection: When I used to run a writing center on a high school campus, I would help students write their college application essays every fall. These essays were often very hard for the students; they’d spent years writing about what they thought about specific topics they had been given, but many had never thought or written about themselves. I would spend anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours helping students just begin to uncover who they are and what they want to do in life—something I feel they should have started thinking about years ago.
Epiphany: I think starting with answers and figuring out questions is an interesting and promising concept. Instead of asking students to find a specific answer that is already known (something somewhat uncommon in actual research), it does seem that it would be more beneficial to ask them to look at a result and figure out what kind of questions were asked/could be asked to decipher its meaning (something that is more common in actual research).
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (Kindle Edition). Retrieved from Amazon.com