"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him as long as the fish supply holds out. But create a collective and every man will learn how to feed himself for a lifetime." (Thomas and Brown)
Before this week and reading A New Culture for Learning I had never heard of the term collective learning. Collective learning mean that humans have the ability to collect and communicate and translate complex knowledge between generations. When students or a group work to together to create and mold information it is called a collective. "It is a collection of people, skills, and talent that produces a result greater than the sum of its parts. (Thomas and Brown) Collective learning is something we do naturally as humans, but there is an importance of bringing it into the classroom as a way to gain new knowledge.
Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown's text A New Culture for Learning-Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change looks at the importance collective learning can have on us. Within the idea of the new culture of learning people learn through their interaction as others. The text states that a collective group is different from a community. In a community people learn to belong, while being part of a collective means people belong in order to learn. This to me is extremely powerful. Collectives are a content neutral platforms that will be filled based on the interactions between the participants. With collective learning you only get back what you put in.
A Khan Academy video looks at the power of humans to gain information through collective learning. The video compares monkeys and humans. Monkeys have to retrain themselves to do everything, while humans gain knowledge from each other. Through strong, precise, and efficient communication we can communicate with each other what we have learned. When things become relevant to our lives we tap into it or learn it. Meaning we don't have to know everything since we can rely on other people to teach us or show us. As human we work together with in a group with one collective memory bank to teach each other.
Technology has allowed for more collective learning to take
place. In a blog Little By Little John looks at different examples of
collective learning. One that we are all familiar with is companies
using wikis to allow people to share they knowledge they have, while
others can gain knowledge from others. Also the blog states that we can learn collectively by connecting and creating knowledge. Collective learning can also take place by working towards a similar goal. All of this seemed to be a bit more challenging before the use of technology. The information is
out there it just took more time to find.
Like what was said in the Khan Academy video a classroom can be like one collective memory bank, where all students are working to teach each other as a whole group. All of our students come to us with a wide range of knowledge and strong areas that can be used to help others learn and gain understanding a new a new area. Although we may naturally do this as human beings it is not they "typical" way students learn in school. The knowledge teachers have is passed down to the students in hopes they will retain it, but with collective learning the students are taking the knowledge they already have to help others learn and grow. "In this environment, the participants all stand on equal ground-no one is assigned to the traditional role of teacher or student." (Thomas and Brown) If this is a natural way humans learn shouldn't this be the way we hope our students learn?
Work Cited:
A New Culture of Learning-Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change-Douglass Thomas and John Seely Brown
http://onlocationeducation.com/en/world-history-glossary
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-astronomy/life-earth-universe/humanity-on-earth-tutorial/v/collective-learning
http://littlebylittlejohn.com/change11-position-paper/collective-learning-examples/
I'm trying to imagine how to incorporate this best into something like a biology class, where's there's traditionally TONS of memorization and content to go through. Imagine also organic chemistry. How to do inquiry-based learning in this type of environment?
ReplyDeleteI have those thoughts too, but mine are with my students and how culturally they don't tend to share their thoughts. I have noticed more with activities I am doing for my other class that they are beginning to discuss and talk more with each other. I wonder for biology and organic chemistry would you initially teach it and than they would work collectively to solve problems or issues related to the topic. Or with that no longer make it collective learning?
DeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteI also watched the video by Sal Khan. I thought it clearly explained how humans are able to communicate and learn as a collective.
Your final paragraph, discussing how a collective is different than a traditional classroom where the teacher teaches and the students learn, reminds me of constructivisim. I am sure you are familiar with constructivism. Constructivism, "it says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflectiving on those experiences," (www.thirteen.org). In a constructivist classroom the teacher gives students the tools they need to actively explore content; then the students "construct" their learning by engaging in real world problems and experiments. As the students do this they are constantly questioning and reflecting on their learning. The teacher is really facilitating the students in becoming expert learners, or as you mentioned in your blog the students are learning how to learn. Learning as a collective is a great way for students to learn how to learn, or for students to construct their own knowledge. Students seem to learn better when they are constructing their own knowledge. Of course, as educators we have to help our students learn how to do this and become comfortable with this idea, given all the information that is available today I think this is feasible.
Sara L.
Resource:
"What is Constructivism?" (2004) Retrieved from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/
I love the connection with constructivism. I think it a great way for students to learn and make the most of their learning. With both collective and constructivist learning students are making meaning of what they need to and connecting it to their own personal life. I am trying to do more of this with my students but they are hesitant because it is a new way of learning for them.
ReplyDelete