This extended piece from Stephen Downes is a propos of our conversation over the last week about Learning and Education.
Half an Hour: Interview About Learning 2.0
In a nutshell, the difference between 1.0 and 2.0 is that in 1.0 students are depicted as passive recipients or consumers of knowledge and information, where in 2.0 they are active participants in the creation of that knowledge and information.
This is a good example of the kind of writing that Downes does outside of OLDaily, and you might consider adding the feed from Half an Hour to your individual ‘gators.
We haven’t really talked about the 1.0/2.0 idea here yet. Maybe we should avoid it. I’m more interested in getting all of you to break out of the “student” role and into “learner” mode but this is still a good and thoughtful piece. Pay attention especially to the biases of the questions. The question about critical thinking is a classic “better or worse” kind of question that people ask about distance education all the time. It’s a meaningless construct, sorta like asking “Which is more nutritious — apples or oranges?”
August 30th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
1.0 vs 2.0; funny concept. I can give you a perfect example of 1.0 vs 2.0 and me caught in the middle. My mother (63 years old) and my son (10 years old) and I are traveling on a two hour trip from home. My mother get aggervated at my son for playing video games and never reading books. She ask me: How will they ever learn anything if they don’t read? I never see them using their imagination! Then she started when I was young….. We all know where that story leads! Keep in mind that both of my son’s are very strong readers; reading well above their grade levels and have been reading since a very young age. I personally feel that their video games have improved their reading skills, response time, coordination, along with problem-solving skills. My mother continues to state that the boys should be learning about important things like “Tasha Tudor” (which is an author she loves). It wasn’t until I told my son to explain to her about all of his 400 and some Pokemon and each of their traits (which he has studied and read about) that she began to see that her idea of learning and his idea of learning were different but the main concept was the same. I know that this has been a long story but I felt that it really demonstrated how learning is so different for everyone. As teachers, we need to be open to this concept and realize that students may not be performing the way you want them to in your subject; not because they are stupid but because they just don’t like it as well as you do!