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MIT OpenCourseWare

John Seely Brown: "Even when children are high achievers and facile with new technology, many seem gradually to lose their sense of wonder and curiosity, notes John Seely Brown. Traditional educational methods may be smothering their innate drive to explore the world. Brown and like-minded colleagues are developing the underpinnings for a new 21st century pedagogy that broadens rather than narrows horizons. John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox, has morphed in recent years into the "Chief of Confusion," seeking "the right questions" in a range of fields, including education. He finds unusual sources for his questions: basketball and opera coaches, surfing and video game champions. He's gathered insights from unorthodox venues, and from more traditional classrooms, to paint quite a different picture of what learning might look like. The typical college lecture class frequently gathers many students together in a large room to be 'fed' knowledge, believes Brown. But studies show that "learning itself is socially constructed," and is most effective when students interact with and teach each other in manageable groups. Brown wants to open up "niche learning experiences" that draw on classic course material, but deepen it to be maximally enriching. In basketball and opera master classes, and in architecture labs, he has seen how individuals become acculturated in a "community of practice," learning to "be" rather than simply to "do." Whether performing, creating, or experimenting, students are critiqued, respond, offer their own criticism, and glean rich wisdom from a cyclical group experience. Brown says something "mysterious" may be taking place: "In deeply collective engagement in processes...you start to marinate in a problem space." Through communities of practice, students' minds "begin to gel up," even in the face of abstraction and unfamiliarity, and "all of a sudden, (the subject) starts to make se

Open Education: Opening up eduation book (for free!) on MIT Press

Community Building: using technology to help communities find and use their voices

Borgman's great book!

this discussion by MIT's Henry Jenkins is a fabulous overview of the role Social Media played in the 2008 Presidential Campaign (and, by extrapolation) and how these technologies are shaping cultural and personal time. Very good!

Lifelong Kindergarten: Developing new technologies that expand the range of what people can design, create, and learn

Harvard and MIT's project to offer online learning to massive numbers of people around the world

Henry Jenkins' Blog: must read!

reflection/assessment: Finding ways to help students answer their own questions

reflection/assessment: Finding ways to help students answer their own questions

The Education Arcade: MIT's lab to move learning games fwd: authentic, engaging play that teaches