In my previous post, I referenced a definition of learning I encountered in Digital Habitats, an excellent resource on using technology to support communities of practice. One of the authors, John Smith, was kind enough to drop by and offer the following perspective on learning from a book he is currently reading:
Sociocultural approaches to learning have recognized that kids gain most of their knowledge and competencies in contexts that do not involve formal instruction. A growing body of ethnographic work documents how learning happens in informal settings, as a side effect of everyday life and social activity, rather than in an explicit instructional agenda.
The quote is from Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning With New Media [p. 21] by Mimi Ito. (Many thanks to John for also providing all the reference info!) Definitely looks worth reading. I also encourage you to visit the comments area on the previous post to read John’s further thoughts about associations and informal learning.
On a related front, as I was writing a post on “content curation” over on Mission to Learn, I came across a quote on learning from John Seely Brown that I had used in a post long ago on digital curators. It jibes well with my previous post here as well as with the quote above, so I thought I would offer it up for your reading and thinking pleasure:
Learning is a remarkably social process. In truth, it occurs not as a response to teaching, but rather as a result of a social framework that fosters learning. To succeed in our struggle to build technology and new media to support learning, we must move far beyond the traditional view of teaching as delivery of information. Although information is a critical part of learning, it’s only one among many forces at work. It’s profoundly misleading and ineffective to separate information, theories, and principles from the activities and situations within which they are used. Knowledge is inextricably situated in the physical and social context of its acquisition and use.
I actually originally found this through Jay Cross’ post on documents seminal to learning and the net, which is well worth reading.
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
Jeff
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