Education

One thing that strikes me about Brown and Duguid's discussions of learning in The Social Life of Information is that their model is very different from much that the US educational system has to offer. B&D emphasize that learning is an on-demand activity, and that "learning about" is different from "learning to be". In effect, the context of learning is what allows learning to happen, not the process of transmitting information itself.

Although there are many programs that no longer take this approach, the typical model for school learning in the US is that of a teacher lecturing to a room of students. It's hard to imagine a process that is less hands-on and participatory. If there's a need here, the need is "I need to pass this exam to get a good grade." No wonder students don't retain information past the end of the class! School is a separate universe from the rest of life, while Brown and Duguid argue that it needs to be an organic part of an individual's life.

In practice, this may be a difficult model to achieve. The current US school system has universal standards and benchmarks. Brown and Duguid envision something much more decentralized and able to adapt to the situations of unique individuals. Rather than one standardized process, there needs to be many different processes to suit different professions/occupations/fields of study, not to mention the different temperaments and backgrounds that students bring with them.

I'm reminded of the video we watched at the beginning of this class, "A Vision of Students Today." Those students were saying things that fit very neatly with what B&D are saying in their book.