America needs a complete overhaul in its thinking about education, says John Seely Brown, a researcher who specializes in organizational studies with a particular bent toward the organizational implications of computer-supported activities.
“I think of this world of exponential change,” Brown says of our world which is constantly changing and evolving. The way most people live today is completely different from how people lived 100 years ago. It’s because of this constant change that we need to make sure the important things – education, for one – don’t get left behind. “We really have to step back and rethink dramatically what education is about,” Brown says.
WATCH as Chief of Confusion John Seely Brown talks with genConnect about what we should expect from education:
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Brown expects three things of education: knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
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Knowledge is usually taught using a “push technique,” he explained, where information is pushed into the students’ minds so that it can be remembered at a later time. However, with today’s technology, we are able to pull knowledge from the Internet using our phones, tablets, and laptops anytime, virtually anywhere.
“Wherever I am, I suddenly encounter something I don’t quite know about, and I can pull the information from the ‘net at the moment of need,” Brown adds. This introduces a new “pull technique,” where students instead should be taught to ask questions, be curious, and learn how to search for the answers they are looking for.
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Skills are picked up with mentoring, he stresses. It’s all about finding the right network of mentors in order to develop the proper skills you’re looking to hone.
Lastly, according to Brown, dispositions can’t be taught, only cultivated. This is something schools have to allow to happen. Relating back to knowledge, students should learn that it’s okay to question things.
These three things together, he adds, is what makes “learning an adventure.”
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The post John Seely Brown: Make Learning An Adventure appeared first on genConnect.
