Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0

Annotation

In this article, John Seely Brown, former Chief Scientist of Xerox-PARC, describes how the increasing demand for advanced learning coupled with the advent of Web2.0, collaborative environments is creating a “perfect storm of opportunity” for a switch from a prevalence of Cartesian learning/teaching pedagogy to a flourishing of a more social/constructivist view of learning.  He characterizes this as a move from “learning about” to “learning to be.” Brown doesn’t diminish the need to know “about” something, he just thinks that the need for explicit knowledge needs to flow from an authentic desire to “be” someone or something in a situated task. This is what Dewey called “productive inquiry.” Brown emphasizes, through a series of examples, that it is the advancement of technology that allows us to pursue this type of education more practically. He notes that the ability of learners to find niche communities of inquiry ignites their passions to acquire both deep knowledge about a subject and the general skills necessary to be a part of that community of learners.

Brown, J. S., & Adler, R. P. (2008). Minds on fire: Open education, the long tail, and learning 2.0. Educause Review, 43(1), 16. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume43/MindsonFireOpenEducationtheLon/162420.