Learning Environments
Knowledge Networks 2: Thinking in the 21st C

 
 
Thinking in the 21st century

So what is different about the 21st century? We have developed the capacity to no longer be dependent on "gross" tools such as Google to access information. It wasn't information that teachers or students actually required and this is one of the greatest misconceptions about the "information age". What we really wanted was a collection of resources that would assist students in building an understanding of concepts and ideas. In a nutshell we needed a subset of the Internet, coupled with a huge library of purposefully produced, Knowledge building items which could be brought together to produce pedagogically sound, scaffolded frameworks that students could work their way through to build understanding of ideas and concepts. Having established this model, the focus is then extended from knowledge building to an even more important human pursuit; that of building within our students the capacity for wisdom: the use of knowledge in a manner that benefits self and community. The ultimate mission of schools is not just knowledge, because knowledge can be used destructively just as it can constructively, but rather the ultimate pursuit of schools is wisdom, with the result that the knowledge which students gain is used to benefit every member of our society.

We have written papers in the past that proposed a model for thinking in an education framework. This model http://www.i-learnt.com/Thinking_What_is_2.html suggests that thinking takes place when our worldview is modified in some way. In order to modify our worldview, some event, discourse or interaction initiates a challenge to our present world view, and a cascading collection of processes takes place in our minds involving thinking processors, thinking skills processes, and through the use of thinking tools and our interaction through our information/sensory environment and complex and little understood process leads us to a new worldview which may or may not more accurately reflect reality.

Incorporated into this model must be an emphasis on the fact that as human beings we are not logical, rational and deductive by nature but rather we are silly, irrational and passionate and so even after modifying our worldview based on valid intellectual processes, we discount the logical outcome for one that defies all logic. You only have to question a car salesperson or any real estate salesperson and with some reflection they will acknowledge, at least anecdotally that this is true. A person approaching a real estate office will tell the real estate sales person in a very logical deductive fashion that they are looking for a small colonial cottage with a pretty garden and a picket fence. The real estate salesperson shows them a collection of such houses but no sale takes place. On seeing the client two months later they inquire as to whether the purchase was made, and without batting an eyelid the client replies that they had purchased an apartment unit on the 15th floor of a high-rise building. Likewise logic would say that purchasing expensive, red sports cars that can travel at a quinzillion kilometres an hour is a completely illogical and a silly thing to do but we would all just love one (well I would)! This is the nature of being human.

So knowing these things, and bearing in mind that one of our desires as educators is to ensure that our students have the capacity for "lifelong learning", how can we provide students with knowledge building environments which allow them to use their thinking skills and while acknowledging the inherent penchant for "silliness", build their own knowledge bases and conceptual frameworks? The implications of lifelong learning are a universe away from the glib use of the phrase in public and political forums. To become a lifelong learner it is necessary to understand the art of teaching, as you can only learn if you can teach yourself and you can only teach yourself if you understand what thinking is, what knowledge is, and how you access the most appropriate tools in order to build a framework of understanding.

Knowledge creation depends upon our ability to access appropriate knowledge building resources, and engage in a range of discourses with a wide variety of resource people, using a broad range of communication media. Over the past few years schools have been inundated with a range of tools that have given the impression that they are "knowledge networks" but in fact they mostly constitute tools that manage data, set tests, store grades, measure attendance and "push" content onto the desk of students. These are not knowledge networks.