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John Seely Brown on Interest-Driven Learning, Mentors and the Importance of Play

in the past, it was likely to be very hard to find other people around you with your specialized interests. For example, when I was obsessed with building transmitters and radios as a kid, there were maybe five other kids in the entire state of New York who were also designing electronic equipment. I had no cohort group. Today, no matter how specialized a kid’s interest is, he or she will find a cohort group. When my godson was 9, he became fixated on penguins. He went on the internet, and he found himself a group or a collective that was deeply engaged with penguins. I said to him one day, “Well, who is this group?” And he said, “Well, they have a funny name.” And I said, “What’s that?” And he said, “Johns Hopkins!” He’d locked into a research group at Johns Hopkins! Yes, as a 9-year-old.

I personally feel that in order to get hooked on something—well, that’s the role of a great teacher, a great mentor. The role of the mentor is to get you to discover things you might not actually know you were interested in, to confront topics you may not be very good at understanding, but once discovered, you will.

Students working in cooperative groups can create a Scoop.it! about a topic of interest or study. Teachers can create Scoop.Its! about topics they are studying for professional development. Teachers can create Scoop.Its! about topics their students will be studying. Students and Teachers can look at existing Scoop.Its! to connect with others who share their interests and learn about interesting things. Here are some interesting Scoop.its! that I found about learning innovatively:

Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development.

‘follow’ people who share your interests or who seem to tweet interesting stuff.