Geeking Out. . .Can we learn through hobbies?

The section of the MacArthur report on Geeking Out reminded me of the fact that hobbies have been the source of some of my most personally rewarding learning. When I was young, it was making plastic model airplanes or model rockets. In college, it was salsa dancing and psychology/mythology. Once I got a job, it was finances and economics. Most of the time, I shared my hobbies with only one or two other individuals at a time, but in college I was able to share my passion in salsa dancing with an entire club. I don't think anybody would doubt that we were salsa geeks. We explored, learned, and taught each other. We gave each other feedback. We felt a sense of pride when others copied our "moves" or picked something up we had shown or explained to them. The same applied to salsa music and sharing it with the other dancers. We even shared with each other which peer-to-peer file-sharing networks (which were just taking off about 10 years ago) to use to find music online. In short, I closely identify with the experiences on geeking out which were described in the report, such as video making or rap music in MySpace.

Again, I don't find the experiences to be new to humans, but I expect and appreciate that the authors of the study are attempting to validate the geeking out that occurs online nowadays. Is it hard for me to appreciate that many people need for technology to even be validated because our school embraces technology? Am I lucky to have (been) immigrated to Digi-land at a young enough age to appreciate what natives are doing with technology? Regardless of the reason, I appreciate that technology, online special knowledge networks and online interest-based communities and organizations can provide a fantastic opportunity for learning, just as non-virtual hobbies and interest groups have too.