Discovery, Necessity, Commodity: A Self-Directed Learning Ecosystem Typology
Contemporary education has evolved significantly, emphasizing flexibility and student agency. Online learning incorporates principles such as mastery-based learning, instant feedback, and gamification, allowing students to learn at their own pace and engage in interactive experiences.
Four Thieves Vinegar Collective
"Laufer has spent the last decade working to liberate life-saving pharmaceuticals from the massive corporations that own them. Laufer has no formal training in medicine and he’ll be the first to tell you he’s not a doctor."
"[Jailhouse lawyers] are self-taught, spending long hours in the prison law library. With no access to the internet, they read outdated law books and case law on CD-ROMs. 'The reality of being a jailhouse lawyer is it takes intensive legal study, just the same way it does for lawyers on the outside'...'It’s an incredibly difficult endeavor.'
The Revolution in SDL (Sean Bengry)
“We are the catalysts for our own knowledge gathering—and through that, our own performance...We used to think that knowledge was in the head of a learner; now we know it’s in the network. We’re becoming a hive mind.”
Motivation
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
Steps for SDL
1) Set goals
2) Make a plan
3) Monitor your learning
4) Seek help if needed
5) Reflect on progress
Accelerated Learning (Jonathan Levi)
How We See SDL (Akilah Richards)
"We trust that children are naturally driven to acquire empowering knowledge and skills, mostly through play and exploration...Choice and natural connection are our focus, not curriculum and comparison.”
Community-centered (learning coops): Physical space, but children have freedom to do and learn what they want; community is involved and might work together with students to fill a need community has or work on a project
Student-centered democratic schooling: School exists as a place, but students have choice and agency over what they do and learn and over how school is run (Ex. Sudbury Schools)
Unschooling/Worldschooling:
Children do not attend a specific school location
SDL Learning Fundamentals (Peter Grey)
1. Education is the child’s responsibility
2. Unlimited time to play [to develop a passion]
3. Time to play with the tools of the culture
4. Caring adults that are helpers not judges
5. Free age mixing of children/adolescents
6. Immersion in a democratic community
Online Learning
Six Principles
1) Learning sequences
2) Instant feedback
3) Mastery-based learning
4) Learn at your own speed
5) Gamification
6) Peer learning
Blended Learning
Augmented Reality
Simulations/VLE
Toys that Make Worlds (Will Wright)
Google Cardboard/Expedition
MOOCs
(lecture slides, 11/13/18)
Learning Management Systems
Ex. CourseNetworking
Self-Directed Learning Ecosystem
Discovery
20% Time in Education
Seymour Papert
(Constructionism)
- Project and discovery-based learning
- Teacher as facilitator
- Invented programming language for kids (LOGO)
- "No one understands my ideas as well as Papert." - Jean Piaget
Necessity
Garrison's (1997)
three dimension model
(lecture slides, 11/13/18)
Experiential Learning Model
(David Kolb, 1984)
- Applications mainly in business and management
- Influenced by John Dewey and Jean Piaget
Commodity
Making Smarter Employees with SDL
Current trends impacting SDL (presentation slide):
- Today's workplaces require constant learning, new skills, and faster knowledge transfer
- Formal classroom training is costly and time consuming
- Online tools provide a more effective and individualized delivery of continuous training
