not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. —Isaac Asimov
calls out for an updated approach. We
need virtual libraries that host genuine
knowledge and that enable learners of
all ages to interact with one another in
knowledge creation, as they currently
do on Wikipedia.
In a 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Bala Iyer and Thomas H.
Davenport published a provocative
article that outlined Google’s business
strategy: Practice strategic patience, rule
your own ecosystem, exercise architectural control, build innovation into
organizational design, support inspiration with data, and create a culture
“built to build.” This approach of
continual innovation supports Google’s
mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Today, we use Google to obtain information. Imagine being able to access
organized learning in the same manner.
In a concept I call the LearningSphere, a
free and open-source Web-based portal
and platform would enable learners to
access organized inquiry, demanding
courses of study, and communication
capacities that would join people all
over the world in mutual discovery.
Evolving technologies are making this
concept more plausible. In a recent
article, Gerald Huff and Bror Saxberg
(2009) describe what they call a “full
immersion” learning experience. Instead
of thinking about the new learning and
communication technologies as “
technology,” they suggest that in the future
we will incorporate a whole array of
technological options into how, when,
and where we learn. We will cease to
think of technology as something that
has its own identity, but rather as an
extension of our minds, in much the
same way that books extend our minds
without a lot of fanfare. According to
Huff and Saxberg, immersive technologies—such as multitouch displays; tele-
presence (an immersive meeting experience that offers high video and audio
clarity); 3-D environments; collaborative
filtering (which can produce recommendations by comparing the similarity
between your preferences and those of
other people); natural language
processing; intelligent software; and
simulations—will transform teaching
and learning by 2025.
Technology Meets
Socratic Inquiry
In addition to having free access to
knowledge and using immersive tech-
nologies, we also need a method of
systematically applying knowledge to
As part of their discussion, let’s say
that the teachers and students have co-created a middle school earth science
curriculum titled Water for the World.
This curriculum would be a blend of
classroom, community, and online activities. Several nongovernmental organizations—such as Waterkeeper, the Earth
Institute at Columbia University, and
Water for People—might support the
curriculum, which would meet national
and state standards and include lessons,
activities, games, quizzes, student-created portfolios, and learning
benchmarks.
The goal of the curriculum would be
to enable students from around the
Just as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989,
the wall of conventional schooling
is collapsing before our eyes.
real-world challenges. Here’s where
Socrates can help. He believed that
learning came from within and that the
best and most lasting way to bring latent
knowledge to awareness was through
the process of continual questioning
and unconventional inquiry. For
Socrates, answers were always steps on
the way to deeper questions.
So imagine that a group of teachers
and middle school students decides to
tackle the question, What is justice?
Young adolescents’ discovery of injustice
in the world is a crucial moment in their
development. If adults offer only self-serving answers to this question,
students can become cynical or
despairing. But if adults treat the
problem of injustice truthfully and
openly, hope can emerge and grow
strong over time.
world to work together to address the
water crisis in a concrete way. Students
might help bore a freshwater well,
propose a low-cost way of preventing
groundwater pollution, or develop a
local water treatment technique.
Students and teachers would collaborate
by talking with one another through
Skype and posting research findings
using collaborative filtering. Students
would create simulations and games
and use multitouch displays to demonstrate step-by-step how their projects
would proceed. A student-created Web
site would include a blog; a virtual reference room; a teachers’ corner; a virtual
living room where learners communicate with one another in all languages
through natural language processing;
and 3-D images of wells being bored in
Africa, Mexico, and Texas.
