Conferència "Innovation is around the corner: Learning in the digital age" impartida pel Sr. John Seely Brown el dia 21 de desembre de 2007 a la sala Josep Laporte de la UOC

1. Creating a Culture of Learning Cartesian View of Learning
Leveraging and Extending
Open Educational Resources
Knowledge as substance
K l d bt
And pedagogy as knowledge transfer
The Social View of Learning
Leading us to think of learning like this... we participate
therefore we are
“The delivery model: “Cultivate the neat rows
I teach - you learn” of disciplinary knowledge”
understanding is socially constructed
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2. Suggesting we view learning more like this Nothing Beats Collaborative Study Groups –
especially around homework & exam preparation.
The social construction of understanding is real.
“We learn in and through our interactions
And this works virtually as well -IMing or Second Life
with others and the world”
And in virtual worlds on/off campus
The social life of learning on campus
Second Life
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3. Terra Incognita And in social networks
across communities/friends
Blogs – Facebook – MySpace – LinkedIn, …
Now study groups or just plain bull sessions
can naturally extend to peer groups galore
CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion Learning as supported through
Three tiers: a participatory medium
Harvard Law Student, Harvard Extension Student,
Internet user ‘at large’ we participate
therefore we are
As Harvard extension
Videos
Lectures
Discussion groups
Office hours
All on Berkman Island
(Second Life) understanding is socially constructed
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4. Beyond textbook learning:
Reversing the Flow
learning-about ====> learning-to-be
Explicit Explicit
Learning about Learning about
Tacit Learning to be Tacit
Learning to be
dimensions of knowledge Key: unleashing productive inquiry
(Michael Polanyi)
Open Source as a Faulkes Telescope Project
Participatory Learning Platform
The Open Source Movements:
• writing code to be read
• engagement thru useful additions
• social capital matters
A form of distributed situated learning
(cognitive ‘apprenticeship’) Physical Location -- Maui
enculturating to a virtual Students get remote access – run real experiments
community of practice pool and analyze their results with a master.
open code, open system, open community discussion
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5. Bugscope
virtual laboratory accessed via the net by kids
educating future scientists by providing
access to virtual instrumentation
Tokay Geckos
Tokay Gecko
Virtual Scanning Electron Microscope
iLabs: MIT New kind of learning/scholarship platform:
Internet access to real labs - anywhere, anytime the specialized scholar’s portal
(allows for mini-papers as well)
New ways for students to engage in research
New forms of peer review – a view into a practice
Brown Univ.
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6. Tinkering as a learning platform Life in the Digital Age –
and its death and rebirth A culture of participation:
as remix, mashups, etc Tinkering, Building, Remixing & Sharing
Noun 1. tinker - a person who enjoys fixing and
experimenting with machines and their parts.
Creating meaning by what I produce
tinkerer as experimenter: a person who enjoys testing and others build on – a remix, open
innovative ideas; source culture.
quot;she was an experimenter in new forms of poetryquot;
The Bigger Picture
Remix & Mashup
creative tinkering & the play of imagination
But it is also ‘creative reading’ like in
fandom – fans filling in the back story
in highly imaginative ways.
Ah, creating meaning by integrating
their imagination with that of the
‘author’ in remix.
sometimes seen on YouTube
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7. The Long Tail in Learning
The Long Tail in Teaching.. leveraging and supporting each segment differently
Supporting the rise of an ecology of
learning/doing niches
Ah, I am passionate about this niche topic.
I want to learn/do more!
The Brewing Perfect Storm of Opportunity Active Blending –
beyond just taping resources
Transformative Initiatives
Tying it all
OER … together:
content/tools/activities
eScience
eHumanities Open Participatory Learning
Infrastructure-
Infrastructure-
Web 2.0 & beyond with feedback/loops galore
Researching, re-searching & learning meld
Creating a new kind of ecosystems for into a new kind of distributed
intertwining learning/knowledge ecosystem with mentors:
knowledge creation, learning & mentoring peer based, masters & intelligent tutors
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8. Key traits for the 21st Century
(are we preparing our students, accordingly?) When recreation becomes
innovation an act of
re-creation/remix & productive inquiry
Culture of Learning
a culture that thrives on
participatory life long learning
and perhaps
imagination inspiration the ultimate sustainability model .
Thank You
Th k Y
and special thanks to
Emma Kiselyova
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