What are the challenges in shifting content from "what" to "where" and "how"?

The way we teach and present students for years has been to pour as much information as we think they should know into their brain and hope they understand it all.  The shift in education is occurring and teachers are focusing on educating students using a the natural way they learn.  Children are naturally inquisitive.  With the new culture of learning the focus of learning  is no longer on what they need to learn, but where can they find the information and how that information relates to them. "The shift to where alone is significant, but perhaps more vital is the fact that it also opens up the other two dimensions that emerge as cornerstones of the new culture of learning."  (Thomas and Brown)

Play is an important part of making the shift from what to where and how in the new culture of learning.  Play is not just a part of the human experience but it is part of what is meaningful in human culture. "When we build we do more than create content.  Thanks to new technologies, we also create context by building with a particular environment, often providing links or creating connections and juxtapositions to give meaning to the content."(Thomas and Brown) Games and play are not only fun but they create an engaging environment that provides interaction, competition an can also create meaning.  In Laura Sharps article she refers to this as stealth learning.  "Stealth learning is when an instructor uses clever, disguised ways to introduce learning objectives through non-traditional tools, such as games, to encourage students to have fun and learn." Using games and play in the new culture of learning decreases the passive learning and provides students the chances understand the where and how of things.  

I think one of the biggest challenges of making the shift to the new culture of learning is the fear of letting go.  When we just let students play and explore we as teachers are no longer in "charge", they are creating their own learning and putting knowledge into a context they will understand.  We may have no clue where the learning will take us, and that may make some teachers nervous, but in reality doesn't this lead to the best learning? When students work together to build their learning students are learning how to craft the context. 

For some students exploring their own learning can provide challenges and frustrations.  They may not have the natural ability to shift to the where and how because they have spent many years learning in a traditional classroom setting or they may not have the background knowledge of the what to understand where to find the information or how the information works. As teachers it is our job to help guide students be confident in this new culture of learning and children can surprise us with the learning they can do if you just let them play. "Teachers and students are sometimes surprised at the level of technology-based accomplishment displayed by students who have shown much less initiative or facility with more conventional academic tasks." (Effects of Technology on Classroom and Students)  I have seen this with my students I have been a bit hesitant to do things with my students because of past resistance to student directed but but they have amazed me with their enticement and inquisitive nature with technology and games. 

 A New Culture of Learning-Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change-Douglass Thomas and John Seely Brown

Stealth Learning: Unexpected Learning Opportunities Through Games
http://www.gcu.edu/Academics/Journal-of-Instructional-Research/-Unexpected-Learning-Opportunities-Through-Games-.php

Effects of Technology on Classroom and Students
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html