Essential Question 5

Essential Question 5: What are your thoughts about “learning in the collective”?

Before this essential question, I had not heard of the collective.  Brown and Thomas (2011) wrote an entire chapter trying to explain the collective and from that I gathered it is a collection of people that are actively engaged in the learning process.  Collectives are successful when there is participation and "improve with size and diversity" and they "are not bound by physical or geographic constraints" (Brown and Thomas, 2011, p. 53). 

I read through Chapters 3 and 4 several times and still felt unsettled with the collective due to the line on page 54 that reads, "Any effort to define or direct collectives would destroy the very thing that is unique and innovative about them." (Brown and Thomas, 2011).  This seems like a cop out and the exact opposite of a the point of a collective.  Instead I expected to read examples and stories of ways to create collective environments in our classrooms for students to thrive.

So I began looking elsewhere and came upon an essay on Kahn Academy written by David Christian. This is a small section of the course called "The Big History Project". It takes a look at history of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present and this section was specifically looking at early humans. Considering my interest in science, this made learning about the collective very interesting to me. 

Christian theorized that the key to human adaptability is the ability to pass on knowledge through the use of symbolic language.  This language gave humans "the ability to learn collectively instead of as individuals.  Ideas and knowledge accumulated generation after generation, and human technologies became more and more powerful." (Big History Project, 2013).

David Christian and The Big History Project focus on humans used collective learning in the past, but I can see a clear connection to how people communicate and learn today.  The Internet has given us the ability to make connections with people all over the globe.  Ideas are being shared and built upon at an unprecedented rate. 

So, to me, learning in the collective is inevitable and we should encourage it in our classrooms. 

Resources:
Big History Project. (2013, September 23). Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/early-humans/how-ancestors-evolved/v/bhp-threshold6
Brown, J. S., & Thomas, D. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

Christian, D. (n.d.). Collective Learning (Part 1). Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/early-humans/collective-learning/a/collective-learning-part-1

Comments

  1. Dr. FJune 26, 2019 at 5:05 PM

    Learning in the collective has been around for many years. It is how university faculty learn and how many learn when they go to conferences where they are expected to participate in the discussion. Good post.

    ReplyDelete

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