First things first: I stumbled on the article because I'm lurking around the big year-long Change MOOC (Massive, Online, Open Course). Last week they discussed the book The Digital Scholar this chapter is a part of.
I do agree with the premise of the chapter that information, content and the access to it have gone from 'scarce' to 'abundant'. You can learn most topics from existing material, available for free. It's just there at your fingertips. We need some searching and sense making capabilities to unlock that abundance, and skills like critical thinking. (For a good list of 'what you really must learn' in a world of abundant information, check out Stephen Downes ebook 'free learning'.) In short, the abundance of content and information has changed the pedagogical and 'school business' models. I can agree with that.
But the economist in me rebels: there is still scarcity.
There is scarcity in human attention for one, the authors also note that.
More important for development and learning: there is scarcity in what matters most. While content, and democratically available education are more or less 'abundant', what about meaningful experiences to learn from? What about challenges that really will shape your skills? Are they equally abundant, are they equally accessible for all? We assume that once education has done its bit, there are sufficient work experiences to apply the job, and there are sufficient challenges to set our teeth in. For me, those are the pieces with the most scarcity left, and therefore more critical than ever.
If I compare it to the 70/20/10 model. we have abundance in the 10% formal learning but there's plenty of scarcity left in the 70% learning through (reflecting on) own experience.
I agree with you that there continues to be scarcity in access to learning contexts, even when content can be considered abundant. I have read in blogs opinions sustaining that peers might bring abundance in this respect. What do you think about the role of presencial or online peers in providing attention and context?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have just finished reading your book. I liked it a lot. :) Thank you for writing such an inspiring and pragmatic book.
Hi Bianka, thanks for the nice words :) glad you liked the book and hope you'll be able to use some of it for your own development.
ReplyDeleteI do hold great hopes for peers, also to provide a better platform to access experience. Power to the connected peers! That said, peers networks will probably connect people in a more efficient ways with meaningful challenges and experiences, filter and direct attention, but they won't create experience as much.... Access to experience and challenging assignments will remain the scarce part of the development puzzle if you ask me.