The speed with which a large amount of up-to-date information is becoming available makes me wonder if learning anything besides how to access and use this information will even be relevant in the future, whenever that may be. Given that so much learning nowadays is spent internalizing the learning of others before us (in a sense "re-creating the wheel") learning is still mostly internal. The article on connectivism refers to a situation of learning being external. Could it be that eventually, internalized learning of content will be mainly replaced with externalized learning?
For example, presently to extract oil from the earth requires a team of geologists, engineers, accountants, lawyers, etc, each of which is an educated/experienced expert in their field. They have all internally learned some specialized content. With this content, generally speaking, they work on projects throughout their careers. What would happen if this knowledge and information were to become externally learned? Could anyone begin to step in and apply that knowledge and information to a new project? Already in 2001 at the oil company where I worked previous to teaching, databases and how-to guides of best practices were being created to shorten the learning curve of employees beginning new projects and to ensure that knowledge did not disappear with retiring individuals who had internalized it.
If this is in fact a possible trend in learning, individuals may only internalize the learning surrounding how to use externalized learning for a particular need, i.e. project. Maybe this means that part of teaching will become educating students to complete projects/tasks with the knowledge and information of others rather than their own self-constructed knowledge--quite a reversal from the current model of "doing your own work" and not plagiarizing.
Compared to my parents' generation, my generation is known for working for many different companies and even in many different careers. Compare that to the baby-boomer model of one career, one company (or, at least, very few). Will the next generation even identify themselves with a specific career at any point in their lives? Or will they just jump from project to project as consultants who use a common base of externalized learning?
Love your example about the oil company and how it could relate to the learning experience at school. I wonder if the difference is that content is no longer the critical focus of learning - instead it's being able to learn something new and then apply that skill in context. Or that everyone has access to the same content, so being able to regurgitate that same information is not what we're looking for. Now it's creating something new, contributing to society, sharing your personal perspective and interpretation. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWill a widespread shift in this direction ultimately lead to a lack of quality content being available to connect to? Are we focusing on connectivity to the detriment of quality content creation?
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