Earlier today I was sitting in the Apple Store as my laptop churned away in front of me and I finally got around to reading “Minds On Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0,” an article by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler that appeared in Educause Review back in 2008.  This piece is one of the most forward-thinking and articulate explanations I’ve yet read of many of the educational, cultural, and technological principles that underlie mindfish. 

“Minds On Fire” expounds on a beneficent vision of the future of the internet and its role in education. The authors state that “Web 2.0 is creating a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of learning.” Whereas the long history of education has been characterized by a “broadcast” type pedagogy in which students learned about subjects based on what teachers told them, Brown and Adler foresee a future in which learners will learn to be by interacting more directly with teachers, mentors, peers, and subject matter. This is a principle that has informed mindfish from day one.  As the article states, “The emphasis is building a community of students and scholars as much as on providing access to educational content.” Brown and Adler see the web as “a participatory infrastructure for supporting communities of learners” and “a new, user-centric information infrastructure that emphasizes participation…over presentation.”  I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, JSB and Adler even go so far as to say, “The most profound impact of the Internet, an impact that has yet to be fully realized, is its ability to support and expand the various aspects of social learning.”

At mindfish we’ve been thinking about learning and technology for some time now.  And while many of the ideas that Brown and Adler advance are not news to me, what makes this article stand out is the stature of the authors and the lucidity that they’re able to bring to these exciting concepts.  John Seely Brown was the director of Xerox PARC for all of the 1990’s. Richard Adler is a researcher at Palo Alto’s Institute for the Future.  These are not technological dilettantes. The fact that such preeminent technologists believe education is the most powerful application of the internet itself should give us all pause.  Indeed, the authors go on to discuss The Decameron Web, a project at Brown Univeristy that is building a social learning community around Boccaccio’s early Renaissance literary masterpiece. I smiled as I read and thought back to my overblown (and probably pompous) post on the Renaissance and state of technology. The folks at Brown sum it up better than I did: “We fundamentally believe that the new electronic environment and its tools enable us to revive the humanistic spirit of the communal and collaboratively ‘playful’ learning of which the Decameron itself is the utmost expression.” In short, technology is driving a latter-day cultural and educational Renaissance. We live in an age where technology can help us understand and learn about the world around us in new and powerful ways. Not only do we have the tools to unlock the secrets of timeless literature like The Decameron or learn about almost any other conceivable subject, but with the right intentions we also have the power to access the potential within ourselves and aid in the growth and fulfillment of those around us.  It’s an exciting time. 

Thanks for your words John and Richard.