A review of A New Culture of Learning – Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change

Citation

Wollard, K.K. (2012), "A review of A New Culture of Learning – Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 26 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2012.08126baa.014

A review of A New Culture of Learning – Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change

Article Type: Book review From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 26, Issue 2

Karen K. WollardHRD Consultant at Kelly Wollard & Associates Inc., Hollywood, Florida, USA.

If you are responsible for learning in your organization, read this book. If you are interested in the future of education, classrooms, teachers and learners, read this book. If you have a teenage child who is constantly playing games, watching YouTube and updating his or her Facebook profile, read this book. A New Culture of Learning – Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change is full of revelations and concepts that give structure and vocabulary to the discussion of how learning is being transformed by the enormous flow of information the digital world provides. The future is virtual, collaborative, and imaginative.

What’s worthwhile?

This is a book that requires rereading. The first foray acquaints the reader with terms and definitions that make the underlying structures of learning more visible. Beginning with a clarification of the difference between explicit (facts) knowledge and tacit (experiential) knowledge, and progressing through the virtual concepts of “hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out,” authors Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown lead the way through how the endless digital environment is changing and challenging the way humans learn (Thomas and Seely Brown, 2011). The authors introduce chapter 7 this way:

The truism, “you live, you learn,” lies at the heart of the new culture of learning. A lifelong ability to learn has given human beings all kinds of evolutionary advantages over other animals. It is our killer app.

This book is all about how the culture of learning is changing and evolving. After the initial reading, and some time spent reflecting on the ideas through a new lens of engaging with information, the second reading makes meaning of the relationships between play, imagination and collaboration.

What’s inside?

This is a small book, 137 pages, of which 12 constitute an introductory compilation of reviews and 18 pages are notes, references, acknowledgements and author bios. In between are stories, examples and explanations offering a framework for thinking about learning.

Chapter 1 poses the simple question:

What happens to learning when we move from the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and responding to change?

The answer is to be found in play, questioning and imagination; accessing unlimited information and resources in environments that allow experimentation, collaboration, and individual industriousness. Chapter 2 challenges the assumption that teaching is necessary for learning to happen, suggesting that a new learning culture involves not learning about the world but engaging with it. Chapter 3 encourages the reader to embrace change, since little of what we know remains unchanged for long. Embracing change means looking forward to what comes next. One important outcome of this is the need to not just access information but evaluate and interpret what is found. Chapter 4 is about learning in the collective. Web 2.0 is about peer relationships, and peer-to-peer learning. A group or team of learners, a “collective” offers size and diversity to participants, helping individuals navigate through almost unlimited access to information and resources. Online, classrooms become spaces where inquiry is generated and learning is organic, social and interactive.

Merging the personal with the collective is the subject of chapter 5. Here, Thomas and Seely Brown grapple with the transparency of living digitally, blurring the distinction between public and private lives. Their view is that individuals join collectives in order to participate, remaining by choice because others in the collective share their values and beliefs. Examples of websites dedicated to personal interests (gardening, health issues, astronomy) demonstrate learning and problem solving occurring without tests, lectures, teachers or structures. Blogs are another crossing of the public and private, where individual expression is subject to the feedback of the collective of readers. Cultivating connections between personal and collective interests can lead to imaginative and effective learning environments.

Chapter 6 challenges the belief that different people confronted with the same information learn the same thing. It is likely they learn different things. Imagination and passion change both the what and the how of learning. Experiential immersion, inquiry and questioning become the new processes of learning. Chapter 7 defines knowing, making and playing as building blocks of the new learning culture. Knowing facts is less important now that online information is ubiquitous. This challenges us to consider the importance of context as we attempt to understand and interpret the world around us. Play, in its merging of meaning, interaction and competition is an emerging structure for learning. Figuring out how to win in complex games requires experimentation, failure and perseverance to solve multiple problems and locate organizing principles. Chapter 8 introduces three ways of participating in the digital world: “Hanging out” or developing a social identity while learning about the new media; “messing around” or exploring and experimenting with the technology; and “geeking out” involving the ability to navigate, participate in and explore the technological environment.

Chapter 9 invites consideration of what education looks like in a world of constant change, where online environments create massive information and interaction options. This world already exists in massively multiplayer online (MMOs) games like World of Warcraft. These games involve large social communities who must acquire knowledge, ask increasingly challenging questions, engage players to perform necessary functions, and act in highly coordinated ways to accomplish desired outcomes. Constant learning goes on within the game and outside of it. As the collective and the players play, the game changes, so that it is never the same game twice. The authors contend the most important skill for the future is “a questing disposition” that encourages innovation through multiple resources and strategies for solving problems and finding solutions. Fusing information and experimentation in new ways will define the new culture of learning.

What is the recommendation?

If you care about the future of learning, read this book more than once. It will change how you see the world around you.