Reimagining Learning in a Networked World
Foundational thoughts on new models of learning in modern age
The world that we live in today has changes so fundamentally, that for someone born in the new millennia, our ways of living is visible only in the memes titled, ‘you will get this only if you are a 90s kid’. Yet there is one thing that has remained archaic despite of the desperate need for it to modernize - the learning methods.
Of course, the medium and even the subjects being taught have changed over the years, but the learning process has remained traditional. This hold true for all levels of learning - children, young adult, adult and later; and also for all kinds of learning - institutional, casual and self.
Our models of learning have practically not changed for centuries. They are clearly not adequate for moderns times. Thus, there is a need to bring up alternate models for the modern, networked world.
Lets unpack!
In this post:
Traditional Learning Model & Its Deficits
Predetermined and Compartmentalized
Authoritarian and Unidirectional
Were we every any better?
New Learning Model in the Networked World
Flip the Coaster
Decentralize
Remove Power Structure
Why now is the time to bring the change?
Traditional Learning Model & Its Deficits
I can bet that you would have never met someone who claimed to have a great experience while learning something - specially in an institutional setup. Through the schools, most of us have hated most of subjects taught. Nobody enjoys the training sessions at work. And even the thought of taking up a class scares us. Of course there are exceptions like drink along pottery sessions, but you get the point.
Let us reflect a bit. With time most of us actually develop keen interest in many subjects that we didn’t like in school. At hobby classes, we hate the classes not the hobby. At work as well, we don’t like the training even if we like the work itself.
We do not dislike learning, or the thing that we are learning, we hate the way we are put through learning.
The traditional model of learning leans heavy on authority as the source of knowledge. We are told what we need to know, then we memorize what we have been told and finally provided problems to solve, to demonstrate that we remember what we have been told. Our learning process is predetermined, compartmentalized, authoritarian and unidirectional in nature.
Predetermined & Compartmentalized
The traditional learning models that we have been following has essentially evolved during the industrial revolution. The purpose of any of kind of learning at that time was to achieve a specific outcome in terms of being a useful hand at the factory. By design, learning models undermined individual curiosity and disallowed pursuit of abstract. It was expected to churn out workforce with skills just enough to be able to deliver expected task in their role.
All our current learning models are predetermined - for most scenarios there are specific sets of courses that we can take at every level within the confines of a syllabus on which we will be tested to determine if we have learnt. Irrespective of their individual interest or capability, a high school students will learn exactly the same set of predetermined subjects, with predetermined scope to perform on a predetermined test.
The problem? We are all not made the same. We have distinct individual traits and interest. Being put in a model which qualifies and validate you on a preset test curbs our curiosity and willingness to explore. Why try to learn anything else, when we already know what it requires to be labeled as learned?
Understand compartmentalized learning as information silos, and one by one bringing in learners to each of them to consume information available and then leave. One day you enter a silo about planetary motion, memorize all the information cramped in there, take a test to prove your ability to memorize and forget about it the following days. On another day, you step in to information silo of ancient history, again memorize, take test and forget.
In each compartment you get information, but do not learn the relation between those information. The model doesn’t encourages you to identify the evolution of planetary understanding while reading ancient history. We are just told to remember compartmentalized information.
The problem? Compartments make memory testing easy, but curbs learning. Our understanding of the world doesn’t come from individual information. It comes from identifying relation between those information. By consuming information, we just come to know the known. To be able to explore the unknown, we need ability to discover relations, among known information, which has gone unnoticed.
Just knowing is not learning. Learning is more than consuming and memorizing information.
Authoritarian and Unidirectional
We have for generations grown in to the current learning model and imbibed it such that it almost feels like the most natural thing. That is the fundamental nature of well executed authoritarian system. We almost never recognize a learning which has not been validated by an authority.
The traditional learning model commands that their need to be an unquestionable authority which determines what needs to be learnt and how. They also decide the parameters to determine whether the subject has been learnt or not, and then they validate whether an individual has learnt or not. The individual who is learning has no participation in the whole system except to follow the command and receive the information.
The problem? The system remains archaic. It is not an oversight that learning models have failed to match up with times. It is so, because there is no motivation for it to improve. We all know what happened to the kid who countered and questioned the teacher in the classroom.
The learning models are designed for one directional flow. A teacher, trainer, coach or book tells us all that we need to know, we memorize it and take a test to demonstrate that we know what has been taught. Across the board, the level and trade, with minor variations, this remains the model.
The problem? Limited learning and no growth in knowledge. Our learning is constrained by the knowledge of the individual teaching us. We at best have the potential to become a replica of that person. Given that person is following a set syllabus and preparing us for a test, even the person has little motivation to expand their knowledge base. So they at best have the potential to become an expert in making people perform well on those tests. In this model, the maximum we can learn is limited by a test. That test is based on things already known. Thus even if everyone involved achieved the best result on that test, there will be no net growth of knowledge.
Were we ever any better?
I like to believe so, but better is relative term and thus probably need nuanced comparison between learning systems. But we definitely had different learning models.
In ancient India, we see an elaborate model of learning through Gurukul system where students lived in cohorts with a set of teachers learning through practical tasks, and discussions. For most part of their learning years, their outcome was not predetermined and tests were put out only when the whole cohort seemed to developed a level of proficiency in the subject. System to challenge the teachers through discussions and debates existed which actually unseated authority.
Similar system are known from ancient Greece, where every individual without any prior validation were able to table their opinion and philosophy in front of others and challenge even the most revered scholars. Learning was neither limited to through single authority nor relied on a single test.
It was also distributed. Skills such as carpentry, smithy etc. can be learnt at home or by apprenticeship, whereas philosophy under tutelage of known teachers. Judgement, instead of test, happened based on ability to shine in front of people and deliver satisfactory work (in case of skill) or thought (in case of philosophy).
New learning model in the networked world
We are far from moving on to an alternate learning model, and there are many thought on what they should look like. These are some of my thoughts - slightly underdeveloped and unnuanced - on how we can approach a new model.
Flip the Coaster
Change the decision ownership in the learning model. Instead of the system or the teacher deciding what is needed to be learnt and how, let the learner make that decision. Allow the learners to identify what do they want to learn in what time span and how.
We do have limited examples of that in our traditional model as well. At the masters and post-doctoral level we do see options, if one wants to pick classroom mode or research mode. We should have these options at much earlier stage, and in much more variety.
Also, flip the way we design courses. Instead of building compartments of information, we should have understanding based learning. What essentially is the point of reading up a list of historical events and people without relational understanding? Instead of History 101 and Science 101, our subjects should read more like, ‘Development of Science through middle ages’. We should pair up subjects in a manner which triggers curiosity instead of curbing them. Our learning models should set the learner on a path of exploration.
Decentralized Learning
Central controlling authority in any space are a limiting factor. Learning needs to be more like exploration, than guided tour. Learning objectives, methods and approaches should be completely personal to the learner and set by them. Testing metrics should be prerogative of those who are going to utilize the learning i.e. employ the learner in any manner.
It is better for everyone involved - learner, educator, employer - to be more free in their pursuit of exchange of learning, and not to have their creativity, imagination curbed by a central authority who practically has no skin in the game.
This is a tough one to do, because this essentially does away with a lot of regulatory and examining authority. Nobody likes to see power sliding away from them.
Remove the Power Structure
Drop the power structure in the learning environment. Because the bulk of our learning model is designed for a learner to be told by an authority figure, there is invariably a permanent power structure that has taken deep roots.
We do not need that.
Individual on different point of their learning curve shouldn’t be having any power over the other. They are travellers on a shared path, some a little ahead and some a little behind. No one is an authority, all are peers.
A teacher is one, who is ahead on the curve. They can help you catch up, or bring you to speed. Someone along side you can help you walk faster or with ease. Everyone is a participant. There is no reason that all cannot be peers in learning.
Trying to teach a peer, what you are trying to learn is a very effective method of learning for yourself. Read Feynman Technique. A learning space can be that of discussion among peers, instead of lecture by authority.
Why now is the time to bring the change?
Two words, Access & Scale.
It is not that the learning models have not been criticised before or people have not tried alternate models. That has been done although a large number of them still relied on the linear unidirectional structure. But they did not have, what we have. power of internet connectivity.
A networked world is more suitable to adopt a new model because it can provide the access and scale that we couldn’t achieve previously. A single school probably couldn’t provide the variations in courses and learning models for every student, but in a networked world we can create cohorts of people who prefer specific model of learning. In the same way, in an unconnected world it might have been difficult to access all kind of courses you want in once place, which again is not a limitation in a networked world.
With internet, we have more information available on our tip of the finger and more tools to bring them to people than ever before. We are in position of designing various course structure and find interested learners from across the globe. Cohorts can be built among learners hugely separated by geography. A networked world has given us the access and scale which makes creating multiple choices viable.
We should seize the moment and capitalize on this opportunity lest we become too comfortable too change.