Subject: Empowering Learners
From: Barry Kort (bkort@musenet.org)
Date: Mon 10 Apr 2000 - 00:12:50 MEST
From: Barry Kort <bkort@musenet.org> Subject: Empowering Learners Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 18:12:50 -0400 (EDT)
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Ania Lian asks, "What does it mean to empower learners and how can we
make it possible? And where does here technology come in?"
There is an important distinction between teaching and learning. The
distinction revolves around who is determining the subject being learned,
and where the sources of information reside.
At its most extreme, this distinction shows up in the difference between
education and therapy. In education, one learns good and valuable stuff,
but one learns it well before the need for the knowledge has manifested
itself in ones life. In therapy, one learns good and valuable stuff,
but one learns it well after the need for the knowledge has turned up
in the course of one's life, and after one has already suffered some
difficulty by being unprepared.
In between these two extremes lies "just-in-time learning" in which one
senses that one is ready and motivated to learn some subject or life
skill that has become timely and important.
What are the clues and cues that suggest what we are most ready to learn
next in life? I claim that our emotions are powerful cues as to what we
most need to focus our attention and learning on. What fascinates,
puzzles, bewilders or worries you?
In empowering people to learn what they are most primed to learn next
in life, we split the difference between education and therapy,
facilitating just-in-time learning. The notion is that every day,
everybody is ready to learn *something*. What are you most ready to
learn right now? Let's learn that.
Technology helps, because people can more readily access information,
experts, and communities that match their current learning needs.
That's why I'm a big fan of online learning communities which provide
the means for people with common interests to learn with and from each
other. And for online learning communities to work, the technology must
foster and support the learning process.
My own work has demonstrated that online learning communities can work
very effectively, creating exciting and fun spaces for learners to
gather and collaborate. The challenge now is to make such online
learning communities a staple part of our 21st century information
economy.
Barry Kort
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