After viewing the stream of David Thornburg’s presentation at NECC 2009, Constructionism, Duct Tape, and Preparing Children for Their Future, one of the many ideas he presented filtered to the top of my consciousness. He alluded to previous work in which he describes how learning takes place in one of four spaces. I believe its simplicity and familiarity will make it a useful model for identifying the pedagogy of the ever-developing crop of internet applications. By familiar I mean the names of the learning spaces come from a universal view of our “primordial” beginnings; the campfire, the watering hole, the cave and life.
The campfire (instructivism). Where the wisdom of the tribe or an authority, is passed on through storytelling. In this analog, it is in the careful crafting of the “story” that knowledge, that exists external to the learner, may be imparted.
The watering hole (social constructivism). Where individuals gather around in a universal act necessary for their survival. While gathered, people shared information. An informal type of learning space in which individuals are at times teacher and learner in turn.
The cave (cognitive constructivism). Representative of a place of isolation. A retreat from distraction. A space where the individual may take time, retreat, to reflect and assimilate their experiences.
Life (constructionism). Where learning takes place in the context of creating the social and physical artifacts of daily life.
Schools are very good at supporting only a few of the spaces. More and more teachers have recognized the importance of the need to exploit all of these spaces in their own learning. The rise of EdCamps and spaces like the ISTE Blogger’s Cafe serve as important examples of this fact. Shouldn’t we be actively seeking out and utilizing technologies that can create these spaces for our students? It appears Dr. Thornburg presented these ideas as early as 2001, long before many of the current Web 2.0 applications were widespread in the educational community.
Which tool(s) are you using and which space (pedagogy) does it support?
