learning – D’Arcy Norman dot net

Dewey on social learning

D'Arcy Norman — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:50:41 +0000

John Dewey, **in 1916**1 [wrote about the social nature of learning](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education/Section_2#The_Social_Environment), and how learning is about more than having access to content:

>The importance of language in gaining knowledge is doubtless the chief cause of the common notion that knowledge may be passed directly from one to another. It almost seems as if all we have to do to convey an idea into the mind of another is to convey a sound into his ear. Thus imparting knowledge gets assimilated to a purely physical process. But learning from language will be found, when analyzed, to confirm the principle just laid down. It would probably be admitted with little hesitation that a child gets the idea of, say, a hat by using it as other persons do; by covering the head with it, giving it to others to wear, having it put on by others when going out, etc. But it may be asked how this principle of shared activity applies to getting through speech or reading the idea of, say, a Greek helmet, where no direct use of any kind enters in. What shared activity is there in learning from books about the discovery of America?

Full text of Democracy and Education is [available on Wikisource](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education), or at a library near you. The more you know…

Dewey, John. (1922). Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. The MacMillan Company. New York. (it appears as though the book was written in 1916, but not published until 1922. Still, a long, long time ago…

Bill Fitzgerald on education as consumption

D'Arcy Norman — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:21:57 +0000

[Bill pulls responses to 3 recent articles](http://funnymonkey.com/consumption-and-brand) (and I’d argue a fourth – the [Bill Gates “education is the web” thing](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gatesfoundation.org%2Fannual-letter%2F2010%2FPages%2Feducation-learning-online.aspx&ei=629lTKvpLYScnwfxr9WuDA&usg=AFQjCNGJ9lROOodaYWEh4-NAvdRt3qYqeA) ) together with a single sentence:

> Just to emphasize, whenever anyone talks about “delivering” education, the implication is that learning is a passive activity that can be brought to people – in other words, getting us back into “consuming” mode.

Learning is active. There’s no getting around that. Therefore, an effective education involves **much** more than simple content distribution. Framing education as being a series of exercises in content consumption (no matter how great the content may be) doesn’t serve anyone well. It’s also not as simple as grafting on a layer of social networking on top of content. Education and learning are so much more than that.

SCoPE Seminar: Blogging to enhance learning experiences

D'Arcy Norman — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sylvia mentioned this in an email discussion putting some ideas together for the Northern Voice Social Software for Learning Environments session we're wrangling, and I promptly forgot to check it out. Oops.

Anyway, she's coordinating an online seminar through SCoPE titled "Blogging to enhance learning experiences" – it's a moodle community with a fair amount of activity (and many familiar faces). It runs from February 12-25, so it's already under way.

Definitely worth checking out. I'll be mostly lurking, but will try to participate in the buildup to Northern Voice (our session is on the 24th)

To contribute to the discussion on SCoPE, you have to register in that instance of Moodle. After doing that, be sure to tweak your account's email subscription settings (to Digest mode) to prevent getting reams of email duplicating every forum post…