Chapter 4 - Learning in the Collective
Quote: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him as long as the fish supply holds out. But create a collective, and every man will learn how to feed himself for a lifetime” (Thomas, 2011, p.53). Not only did this quote make me laugh out loud, but it fully explains the concept of a collective that is described in chapter 4. A collective is the process of people working together to collaboratively learn through group participation on a topic. This is a fundamental part of the new culture of learning.
Question: What is the best way to present this type of learning to administrators who still place a large emphasis on standards and objectives? Collective learning environments cannot be directed or defined without ruining innovation (Thomas, 2011).
Connection: A collective learning environment that is described in this chapter is exactly what our Google+ community is doing for my classmates and I in our program. We are all learning independently with support from our professors, but by sharing our learning with each other, we are collectively learning things that are better than the sum of its parts.
Epiphany/Aha: An epiphany for me was another quote that states “Learning from others is neither new nor revolutionary; it has just been ignored by most of our educational institutions” (Thomas, 2011, p.51). This is so true! Teachers are told to allow students to learn from each other, however, certain restrictions apply. We still need to control what they are sharing with each other and monitor this learning to ensure certain objectives are reached. The concept of a collective is that objectives won’t apply because you don’t know where the learning will go, but allowing students to collaboratively learn is a great idea.
Chapter 5 - The Personal with the Collective
Quote: “Because learning with digital media occupies a space that is both personal and collective, people can share experience as well as knowledge. Here, people are not just learning from one another, they are learning with one another” (Thomas, 2011, p.67). I chose this quote because chapter 5 discusses how the media can be viewed as having two separate spheres: the public and the private. However, with the new type of learning that exists with collectives, these two distinctions are not appropriate. Instead, we can describe two domains that are intertwined and overlapping: the personal and the collective. Most online media cannot be divided into public and private, but the personal and the collective are better domain descriptors.
Question: It’s going to be difficult to get parents to see the distinction between the public/private and the personal/collective domains. Many parents don’t participate online like our students can and therefore are still concerned with internet safety. How do we get parents to understand that learning in a collective is beneficial for their children?
Connection: I am currently participating in a collective with my 20Time project. I am creating games using coding on a program called Scratch with others doing the same thing. This is a type of collective because everyone participating is interested in coding and creating games or animations. It is also personal because people are sharing their individual work and commenting on others. Collectives are built and structured around participation (Thomas, 2011) and that is exactly what Scratch does. It’s fascinating to see what other people have created and then I can incorporate small parts of their work into my own. It’s an amazing environment for learning, so I can see its value in the classroom as well.
Epiphany/Aha: An Aha moment for me was when they redefined the domains for online participation from public and private to personal and the collective. Now that I have participated in a collective and seen it’s value I know that you cannot separate online participation into only public and private. The domains are much more fluid and sometimes you can participate without including anything personal, but most times it overlaps.
Chapter 6 - We Know More Than We Can Say
Quote: “But tacit knowledge, which grows through personal experience and experimentation, is not transferrable - you can’t teach it to me, though I can still learn it” (Thomas, 2011, p.77). I chose this quote because chapter 6 focuses on how schooling in the past has focused on teaching knowledge, but the new culture of learning focuses on tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge you gain through personal experiences and interactions. It cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but we can allow students time to practice experimenting and interacting with others to gain more tacit knowledge (Thomas, 2011).
Question: Thomas (2011) mentions that measuring tacit knowledge is difficult. If this is the type of knowledge that we want students to practice and get better at, how will we measure it? Or is it implied that measuring knowledge (tacit or otherwise) is not something that should be emphasized in schooling?
Connection: As I was reading this chapter I began thinking about how I was as a student in school. Thomas (2011) states “The skilled student today learns how to watch the teacher closely and thereby infer what questions will be on the test” (p.78). I never did this in elementary through high school. I did my homework, tried somewhat hard (I was not the “best of the best” type of student), and did fine in school. However, in college it was a totally different story. We had to write papers that required critical analysis. We had to complete research that was important (I was a psych major). And the answers were not “right there” like they always had been. I did so much better in college than I had in any of my high school classes, and I cared too. After reading this chapter I know that I was using my tacit knowledge, which I had never been asked to use before. I would go to class and watch the professors, ask questions and interact with them to figure out the solutions to problems. And let me tell you, my classes in college were much more worthwhile than any of my high school classes.
Epiphany/Aha: It was an aha moment for me when Thomas described tacit knowledge. Who knew this would be a type of knowledge that could be valued? It is not something that can be taught, but I know it’s a valuable tool for students to have, especially when they are asked to think critically. Asking questions, synthesizing information, and inquiry based learning are things that students need more experience with.
Resources
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a
world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform.
Quote: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him as long as the fish supply holds out. But create a collective, and every man will learn how to feed himself for a lifetime” (Thomas, 2011, p.53). Not only did this quote make me laugh out loud, but it fully explains the concept of a collective that is described in chapter 4. A collective is the process of people working together to collaboratively learn through group participation on a topic. This is a fundamental part of the new culture of learning.
Question: What is the best way to present this type of learning to administrators who still place a large emphasis on standards and objectives? Collective learning environments cannot be directed or defined without ruining innovation (Thomas, 2011).
Connection: A collective learning environment that is described in this chapter is exactly what our Google+ community is doing for my classmates and I in our program. We are all learning independently with support from our professors, but by sharing our learning with each other, we are collectively learning things that are better than the sum of its parts.
Epiphany/Aha: An epiphany for me was another quote that states “Learning from others is neither new nor revolutionary; it has just been ignored by most of our educational institutions” (Thomas, 2011, p.51). This is so true! Teachers are told to allow students to learn from each other, however, certain restrictions apply. We still need to control what they are sharing with each other and monitor this learning to ensure certain objectives are reached. The concept of a collective is that objectives won’t apply because you don’t know where the learning will go, but allowing students to collaboratively learn is a great idea.
Chapter 5 - The Personal with the Collective
Quote: “Because learning with digital media occupies a space that is both personal and collective, people can share experience as well as knowledge. Here, people are not just learning from one another, they are learning with one another” (Thomas, 2011, p.67). I chose this quote because chapter 5 discusses how the media can be viewed as having two separate spheres: the public and the private. However, with the new type of learning that exists with collectives, these two distinctions are not appropriate. Instead, we can describe two domains that are intertwined and overlapping: the personal and the collective. Most online media cannot be divided into public and private, but the personal and the collective are better domain descriptors.
Question: It’s going to be difficult to get parents to see the distinction between the public/private and the personal/collective domains. Many parents don’t participate online like our students can and therefore are still concerned with internet safety. How do we get parents to understand that learning in a collective is beneficial for their children?
Connection: I am currently participating in a collective with my 20Time project. I am creating games using coding on a program called Scratch with others doing the same thing. This is a type of collective because everyone participating is interested in coding and creating games or animations. It is also personal because people are sharing their individual work and commenting on others. Collectives are built and structured around participation (Thomas, 2011) and that is exactly what Scratch does. It’s fascinating to see what other people have created and then I can incorporate small parts of their work into my own. It’s an amazing environment for learning, so I can see its value in the classroom as well.
Epiphany/Aha: An Aha moment for me was when they redefined the domains for online participation from public and private to personal and the collective. Now that I have participated in a collective and seen it’s value I know that you cannot separate online participation into only public and private. The domains are much more fluid and sometimes you can participate without including anything personal, but most times it overlaps.
Chapter 6 - We Know More Than We Can Say
Quote: “But tacit knowledge, which grows through personal experience and experimentation, is not transferrable - you can’t teach it to me, though I can still learn it” (Thomas, 2011, p.77). I chose this quote because chapter 6 focuses on how schooling in the past has focused on teaching knowledge, but the new culture of learning focuses on tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge you gain through personal experiences and interactions. It cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but we can allow students time to practice experimenting and interacting with others to gain more tacit knowledge (Thomas, 2011).
Question: Thomas (2011) mentions that measuring tacit knowledge is difficult. If this is the type of knowledge that we want students to practice and get better at, how will we measure it? Or is it implied that measuring knowledge (tacit or otherwise) is not something that should be emphasized in schooling?
Connection: As I was reading this chapter I began thinking about how I was as a student in school. Thomas (2011) states “The skilled student today learns how to watch the teacher closely and thereby infer what questions will be on the test” (p.78). I never did this in elementary through high school. I did my homework, tried somewhat hard (I was not the “best of the best” type of student), and did fine in school. However, in college it was a totally different story. We had to write papers that required critical analysis. We had to complete research that was important (I was a psych major). And the answers were not “right there” like they always had been. I did so much better in college than I had in any of my high school classes, and I cared too. After reading this chapter I know that I was using my tacit knowledge, which I had never been asked to use before. I would go to class and watch the professors, ask questions and interact with them to figure out the solutions to problems. And let me tell you, my classes in college were much more worthwhile than any of my high school classes.
Epiphany/Aha: It was an aha moment for me when Thomas described tacit knowledge. Who knew this would be a type of knowledge that could be valued? It is not something that can be taught, but I know it’s a valuable tool for students to have, especially when they are asked to think critically. Asking questions, synthesizing information, and inquiry based learning are things that students need more experience with.
Resources
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a
world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform.