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John seely Brown

John Seely Brown was the Cheif Scientist for Xerox PARC. He is well known for his research on inovation and learning. Brown reminds all of us of the many challenges faced in the US in oreder to improve teaching and learning. seely Brown's suggestion include:

• Re-thinking how today’s digital students learn
• Tapping into the natural curiosities and passions of students
• Leveraging peer-based learning communities
• Leveraging the open resources of the net to re-conceive schooling and learning for and in the digital age

Serious Play

Brown encourages us to find ways for kids to learn to "be" sooner, not just to "learn" sooner. One of the ways this can be accomplished is through "serious play". Examples include...

Building Guilds in WarCraft - One WarCraft guild master said that he learned much more about leadership skills through WarCraft than as the captian of his football team

Remixing – editing existing songs and video to include new content. For more information about remixing, visit http://www.diffusiononline.net/remixes.htm

Amateur Astronomers - using homemade telestopes and internet, blogs, etc to communicate. Professionals have realized that they can use these “trusted ameratures” to quickly recognize important things in the field, sometimes faster that the professionals

Blurring formal and informatl learning becomes a way of life and identy construction. Through serious play, "recreation becomes" "re-creation".

Changing our educational model

Much like Chris Thomas' ideas on mobile learning, Brown suggests that we consider changing schooling from a "push" (supply) model, to a "pull" (demand) model. This would transform education from a factory to a learning ecology, from building stocks of knowledge to supporting flows of knowledge.

John Seely Brown warns that we need to be careful to be teaching the most important skills to our students. By focusing all of our energies on "why johnny can't read" we can form a society where "johnny can't innovate".

Books by John Seely Brown

Instructional Design

Educational Technology