The Learning Project at St Mary’s

Perhaps we have just accepted as legitimate the old semiotics of learning such as economic language (outcomes, products) or industrial langauge (control and discipline). I like the idea of the ecology of learning (Elliott and Piatek 2007), or more usefully, the semiotics of connection.  Considering what the world needs of our learners, it is becoming apparent that the most successful, adaptive and resilient learners are one who can create connections bewteen knowledge and skills, who can operate within and capitalise on networks of all types.  This semiotic of connection may look like this:  (Thanks to mindmeister for the mind map software)

Click the mind map to consider how this semiotic relates to your understanding of the way people learn.

Sounds harsh, but if you are a teacher and your opinion goes something like this: “Technology has its place, but all of this MySpace and blog stuff is just a disruption to real learning” then your opinion is anachronistic, irrelevant, or worse, unethical. Your students’ world exists on the other side of a significant gulf of understanding and experience. You, dear teacher, are receding from their view.

Ever since the Expanding Learning Horizons conference in Lorne, VIC this month, I have been thinking about how best to challenge my colleagues about their own learning and about their digital lifestyle beyond the classroom. I am delighted to say that we are moving, and not slowly, towards a narrowing of that chasm. So watch this space as we move with confidence into a next-ed environment.