A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change

Anybody who cares about how we might engage a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and possibility needs to read this book. Educators especially need to pay attention.We want to instill a passion for learning, but we typically address our desire by first thinking about designs - of syllabi, curricula, distribution requirements and more. Thomas and Brown invite us to change our starting point by asking how people learn today in a world with unprecedented access to information.The authors invite us to recall that disturbing memory - even when America was poised to invade Iraq, most US citizens could not find Iraq on the map. But some, Thomas and Brown suggest, would simply draw on their internet facility to find the answer. While we should expect more of a citizenry in what they know, we should also think anew about how people learn.Yes, people learn in classrooms, but the authors encourage us to think about how people develop their knowledge beyond the classroom. Colleges are great not just for what the professors offer, but what the students do with their assignments off hours. To be immersed in a world of learning, as Thomas and Brown say, is the real inspiration I recall from my college days at Davidson, and what I now see among my students at Brown. But thirty years make a difference.My college learning depended on terrific anchors - an honor code that assured integrity, a set of distribution requirements that inspired breadth, and a college culture that could move my passion from golf to sociology. Today's culture of learning, the authors propose, flows more, relying less on preexisting stocks of knowledge or fixed cultures of intellectual authority and more on a passion for learning that itself is a form of play.My students and I discussed this book in our class on knowledge networks and global transformations yesterday. These digital natives debated it - how American are the assumptions? How much can we trust that this new culture of learning moves toward truthfulness rather than truthiness? Are there ways to move digitally produced collectives toward more ethical behavior, and away from destructive practice? It was a great discussion, evidenced by how it continued well beyond the classroom.As I listened, I wondered whether in fact I was observing just what Thomas and Brown were describing - this different culture of learning in action, and whether, in that assembly, I was seeing in formation that next incarnation of the thing which made Brown University famous more than three decades ago: its new curriculum.Universities and colleges are embracing, at different paces, the revolutions in information and communication technology, from digitalizing libraries to blended online and onsite learning. But after this volume and its classroom discussion, I would like to understand better the effect and potential of this new culture of learning in higher education. And it begins with these questions:Do Thomas and Brown capture this new culture well? It strikes most of my students to be on target, but it does call out for more research.How does this new culture of learning combine with traditions in liberal arts? There are complements to be sure, but there are some real tensions that need to be faced.Even as the information revolution promises to globalize knowledge, it proceeds with the accents of its vanguard. Are there ways that the global conversation might find and elevate the diversity that the authors themselves acknowledge to be the fount of creativity?"Where imaginations play, learning happens". That's the message, that's the invitation, and that's the hope. And next time we figure out how to assess our institutions of higher education, let's identify the spaces for imagination in our local worlds of learning.

I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It is weak, simplistic and in some cases flat wrong.I was hoping this work would reflect the same reasoned insightful treatment Seely Brown and colleagues provided in earlier works such as "The Social Life of Information".But this book - if you can even call it that - is 180° in tone and tenor from that earlier work. The only thing this book does is make it clear that people who write pop management tomes should stick to what they know and leave the important issues of learning and education to those who know how - not just know about.Thomas and Brown offer some enticing examples of what they call "The New Culture of Learning" but the subsequent discussion is simply a stringing together of aphorisms, overly enthusiastic interpretations of anecdotes and an almost total lack of familiarity with cognition, learning and education research. Their "evidence" is almost all anecdotal based on their own limited experience. It is most noteworthy by the absence of truly key work by recognized experts, scientists and the very academics they criticize. But this doesn't seem to be a problem for the authors. They preach. predict and prescribe with abandon.Using terms from The Social Life of Information, these authors preach from a standpoint of "knowing about" rather than "knowing how". The fact that they hold positions at a university does not make them educators. To me - this work smacks of a rushed attempt to crank out something to sell consulting and speaking services - not a serious view of learning. It is rife with trendy thoughts - not a serious work examining actual trends. There really is nothing new here and quite a bit that is very old - yet no credit is given to original sources.What some see as leading edge - and the authors present as descriptive of the present and predictive of the future "culture of learning" is laughably old school. They fail to acknowledge or even mention the work of Dewey, Vygotsky, Bandura or the pedagogical approaches of Reggio Emilia, Waldorf or even Montessori - not to mention a host of others. These foundational building blocks of learning and education are more relevant and informative and have been available for 50 to 100 years.One example of how silly it is to view this work as new is that fact that Thomas and Brown are being heralded forIt would appear the present authors felt they could put that fine old wine in a new bottle and none would notice. It would seem Thomas and Brown didn't bother to ask their own "critical" question of "where." This is the central weakness of this book. It is a weak attempt to reframe the discussion of learning and education in terms the authors introduce but fail to adequately define or support with evidence while ignoring others' work that is on firmer footing, supported by evidence and in many cases preempts Thomas and Brown's ideas.After finishing this little booklet I was left to wonder - have either of these gentlemen been in a classroom recently? - or ever taken a course that included a lab? Have they interacted with learners in a 21st Century learning environment? Had they done any of these things they would realize what they identify as "traditional" and "new" are neither. Their traditional approach has been obsolete for decades and little used with the rigor they imply. Their new is now mainstream. Yet they barely mentioned truly new approaches to learning and teaching - if at all. Rather than acknowledging where we are with regard to learning and education the authors seem intent on criticizing the remnants of tradition, creating new jargon, confusing the issue and claiming they discovered the new world. Like Columbus - they are sadly late to the party, yet they will probably get credit for "finding" something others have known for a long time.Should one think this review is too harsh, I recommend searching for serious book reviews reviews by people who are actively engaged in education, learning and teaching.

Thomas and Brown provide a brilliant summary of what is happening to the world of learning in the internet era.There was a time when the only ways to gain knowledge were limited and often convoluted. Knowledge was parcelled up by experts and delivered in a format that was suited to their way of thinking.The limitless access to information that we now enjoy has democratised the learning process by making pretty much any information available to pretty much anyone.This means that teaching and learning has new roles. The content provider is obligated to make their content as engaging and relevant as possible. The teacher has to be an enabler, helping learners to discover, interpret and use the content that is available to them and to judge its integrity. And finally, the learner takes on a much more accountable role in the process; they must assume responsibility for setting out and pursuing a learning journey, seeking input, coaching and mentoring to overcome the difficulties they encounter.We are seeing this transformation happening all around us, every day. Just watch what happens when someone posts a problem they are tackling on Face book or Linked in - friends and colleagues pile in to help out, recommending sources of help and the like. Thomas and Brown, describe this phenomenon as 'Arc of Life Learning', and they see this as a healthy and life long pursuit.This all requires a new way of thinking about the process of learning, but I find the new 'spin' almost entirely positive.HIghly recommended book that is an easy read.

The best book I have ever read about the art of learning in the digital age. . . . .

Usually books associated with the second author are quite good. Unfortunately, this books was quite light in terms of theory and substance. The point could have been made in a chapter. I enjoyed the writing, but I am not sure there is a solid, evidence-based argument made for the claims made in the book. Some are quite reasonable, but I was looking for a well-developed, substantial argument. Not a total loss, but I would not recommend this book.

I chose two stars because the concept of game playing as a valid form of learning and the collective on line study groups.the collaborative live study groups can foster more inter personal participation and developmentGaming can become addictive and what is learned may not be as predicted. The internet as research tool or a information source or assignment that can be kept current is already established. The authors filed to convince me that their thesis is that profound but did get me thinking and maybe that in itself has merit.