Summary of the first week

I came away from the Google Hangout thinking that we had been addressing a crucial issue about schooling: at any time in any class there are some pupils who are able to learn by themselves and there are some pupils who need the teacher to chivvy them along. We need to be able to release those pupils who want to fly whilst at the same time teaching those who need the structure and support of a taught class. Of course, before we can do that we need to identify which pupils are in which state (and this might change according to subject, topic, time of day ...)

I came away from the discussion forums thinking that learning is really a little more complicated than most of my colleagues seemed to suggest. I believe that there are (at least) three phases of learning:

• Ripping which corresponds to Thornburg's campfire in which a teacher transmits information to a mostly passive learner. This need not be oral; the 'teacher' could be a book that the learner is reading. 
• Mixing which corresponds to Thornburg's watering hole in which a learner compares the newly transmitted learning with other ideas. These might be the learner's previous understandings which now need to be modified or even unlearned. This might take place through dialogue with other learners in a collaborative process. This seems to be similar to constructivist learning.
• Burning which corresponds to Thornburg's cave. In this process the learner consolidates and memories the new understanding. This is often done through homework, for example when the learner is writing a n essay (or a reflective blog!) on their learning. Most learners probably need solitary and peace and quiet for this phase of learning.

I think these two reflections are somehow different sides of the same coin. The teacher's skill is to make sure, for each learner, that they are learning efficiently in each phase of learning. During ripping, how should learning be transmitted: lecture, powerpoint, book etc? During mixing, how can a group conversation be structured so that all learners are benefiting? How is consolidation best achieved during burning: should the learner be writing an essay or composing a poem or building a wall?

How I like to learn

Things I like about learning:

• Reading and writing
• A bit of peace and quiet so I can think about the ideas I have encountered
• Working at my own pace

Things I hate about learning

• Role play. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I mean, yuck. 
• Big group discussions where some windbag keeps interrupting with their weird views (I have found that the real bonus of text based discussions on discussion forums and in second life is that you can chat to more interesting people at the same time as the windbag is droning on)

This is just me. I know I am a shy, weird geek and most people are normal. 

But I am finally old enough to stand up for myself and say that there are probably a small but significant if rather silent minority who do like learning on their own in quiet. You find them in every classroom. They're the ones the teachers mostly ignore but rely on to get decent results. The ones the teachers can't think of anything to say at parents' evening.

But the fashion in education at the moment seems to be massively in favour of collaborative learning. Get them into a group and they will learn. Sugatha Mitra (http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves?language=en) suggests that collaborating kids and no adults are the two essential conditions for what he calls Self Organised Learning Environments. 

And I understand that collaboration is essential. Newton's ideas didn't come from introspection, they were generated through lots of late night conversations at coffee houses. He had to have input from other people before he could create his theories. But the difference between Newton and, eg, Robert Hooke is that Newton then went home and spent two years or so in solitary thinking, reflecting on the ideas he had heard and remixing them into his own theories.

David Thornburg talks about the primitive pedagogies. He suggests that learning has evolved in humans in three ways: the campfire (where people, eg teachers, tell us stories), the watering hole (where we discuss with the rest of the tribe) and the cave (where we hide away to think). At some stage even the most collaborative learner has to file new knowledge into their brain. And I fear that some teachers with their love for frenetic group work in the classroom mistake all this activity for learning and don't give their pupils time to hide away and ponder and process.

But maybe that's just the weird geek talking. Maybe the multi-tasking kids of today really can watch TV whilst tweeting and facebooking and googling and chatting to their friends and followers. I know my step-daughter flicks from website to website before I have even had the chance to read half a page. Perhaps she is just quicker than me.

But I think (and this may be just inter-generational arrogance) that I learn faster, better and more deeply than she does. And I know (but this may be just a self-limiting illusion) that I could not learn so well if I tried to learn in her way.

I need peace and quiet.

PS: Just watched the first lecture. Glad to know that I'm not alone!