A New Culture of Learning

By Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Book Report written by Emily Vasseur
University of New England
EDU 345, Prof. Tim Hebda

Summary:
From the beginning, Thomas and Brown focus on how learning is
changing each and every day. They question the role of education and
learning. What happens to learning when we move from the stable
infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the
twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and
responding to change? (P. 17). They suggest that we embrace this
new culture of learning. Its true, learning is happening everywhere. It
is no longer just happening in the classroom. This new culture of
learning rather is made up of unlimited resources that make it possible
for building and experimenting.
There is an arc of learning, which includes play, questioning, and
an emphasis on imagination. In our daily lives we are working on this
through learning, growing, and exploring. Play is important, especially
within the context that they talk about: tension between the rules of
the game and the freedom to act within those rules. (P. 18).
Thomas and Brown suggest that the way we used to learn that
we have become to accustomed to in our society is no longer
supporting our education system, as it is constantly changing. In other
words, the old way of teaching cant truly benefit our students
anymore. Rather, we should be using The New Culture of Learning,
as it implements peer-to-peer learning in a way that is no only easier,
but more effective. Today there is more and more media, technology,
and resources that should be integrated and introduced into the
educational world. Students now can go online and instantly respond in
a forum where people are also collaborating from all over the world.
Sharing ideas is becoming easier with every passing day. Students are
also able to go online and play fun games that are actually supporting
them and expanding their knowledge base.
As we looking at learning, Thomas and Brown divide it into
teaching based and learning based approached. We can either support
the old way, teaching based, or we can support the learning based
approach. In chapter two the focus is on learning as a mechanism. How
much can students learn within a certain window of time? In this sense,
learning can be seen as more of a check-off list divided up into
accomplished and mastered. This thinking doesnt really focus on
understanding and applying; really the goal is to learn for a test. A new
approach that the two authors suggest targets how important the
actual learning environment is. Teachers, students, and the information
are combined so that they can each benefit each other. The
environment and learning happened naturally because of the
engagement and the culture that is created. They suggest that
education needs to move to a learner-centric environment, rather than

the teacher-centric that the education system knows so well. It needs

to be taught that lifelong learning is crucial. However, there still needs
to be guiding from teachers.
Technology is becoming increasingly important in our society. It is
always changing, building, and expanding. It is in this sense that the
way we teach and the way we learn also need to change. All school
systems and teachers need to adapt so that the systems can
continually support each other without falling behind. Change should
be seen as a positive mechanism, not a negative. It gives people
structure, freedom, and imagination.
Thomas and Brown also focus on the idea of a collective by
describing it as a group of people who have shared interests,
intentions, and skills that are defined by the role they play in the
learning process. The larger the group of people in a collective, the
more diverse it can be. Also, as there are more people, there are also
more resources. You can use these resources by learning, sharing, and
building on each other. This particular book talks about blogs. Blogs
allow people to collect thoughts from each other in a way that makes it
easy to collaborate. In a collective like this, people are learning from
one another rather than just getting information.
The two authors bring up examples throughout the text, one very
important one being Chris Avenir. He created an online study group at
Ryerson University and was charged with 147 counts of academic
misconduct, mainly for making learning to easy and a threat. This
university didnt grow as the academic system did. Instead, it was
stuck in the past. A past where students really did have to meet in
person for a study group. What the university didnt see, at first, was
that this study group supported collaboration. It was just done online.
Thomas and Brown also talk about indwelling. This meaning
being familiar with certain ideas so much so that it becomes second
nature of intuition. These ideas become adaptable and flexible, as they
are understood so well. They talk about World of Warcraft and how
gamers are great at experimentation as they play. There are no
answers; there is only progression in this game. They have to solve
each problem that they encounter (P. 106).
Learning as a whole embodies three very important
characteristics: knowing, making, and playing. As kids use all three of
these they are able to learn and engage easily as well as powerfully. As
the world changes, young people are experiencing the media and the
culture of learning without even realizing it. They are hanging out,
messing around, and geeking out. What they dont realize is that
they are engaging with each other, learning from each other, and
interacting with each other. All of this involves learning. This new
culture of learning that they suggest involves experimentation,
exploration, and imagination. All of these are crucial in this type of
learning. There is a wealth of information available to each learner;

they learn by exploring this information, questioning experts, and

creating their own content.

Quotes:

When people thinking about learning, they usually think

about schools. And when people think about schools,
they usually think about teachers. In this book, we take a
different approach. In our view, the kind of learning that
will define the twenty-first century is not taking place in
a classroomat least not in todays classroom. Rather, it
s happening all around us (P. 17). This quote is powerful
is showing how different we should be thinking about learning. It
doesnt just happen in our schools; in schools I find that often we
actually crush creativity. We need to make sure that we are
moving away from that. We should be fostering imagination and
creativity.
One of the metaphors we adopt to describe this process
is cultivation. A farmer, for example, takes the nearly
unlimited resources of sunlight, wing, water, earth, and
biology and consolidates them into the bounded and
structures environment of a garden or farm. We see the
new culture of learning as a similar kind of processbut
cultivating minds instead of plants. (P. 19). I love this
metaphor because it puts everything into an understandable
perspective. Its the combination of resources that is so
important in this type of learning.
Far more important, however, the students referenced
each other. For them, classroom time had become the
least significant part of the overall experience. They had
formed their own learning community and used course
readings and materials to make sense of what they were
doing. And they had done it by themselves, for
themselves. (P. 35). This goes to show that the students have

the real power; we are truly just there for support. This is where
the culture is built.
Kids learned the story of Harry Potter by reading the
books. They learned the meaning of Harry Potter by
engaging with the material on a much deeper level. Just
as important, they followed their passionunfolding of
the story with friends, both online and offlinethey were
learning to embrace changes. (P. 45). I love this example
because Harry Potter was a story that showed kids could be
passionate. Millions of readers would wait in line to get the new
book. This was a simple story about a wizard however, kids read
hundreds of pages, sometimes in a single night, to collaborate
and experience literature. We need to inspire this type of
passion. Embrace the change.
Despite twelve years of grade school and three years of
college, those students has never before felt as though
their passion, the thing they cared about, actually
matteredThey had come to believe that things they felt
passionate about should not be part of the (formal)
learning process. (P. 80). The old way killed creativity.
We look to gamers because they dont just embrace
change, they demand it. Their world is in a state of
constant flux, and it must continually be reinvented and
reimagined through acts of collective imagination. (P.
115). Gamers can actually teach us how to educate and support
learning.
Reflection:
A lot of this book showed how important it is for the education
system to keep up with change. I think that one of the most influential
studies that they talked about was Chris Avenir in 2008. This college
student from Ryerson University used his brain and decided that
instead of having issues scheduling a face-to-face study session, why
not create one online. Instead of being supported for using his
creativity, he was almost charged with 147 counts of academic
misconduct. When educators dont keep up with the changes that are
constantly happening, we can hurt our students in the worst ways
possible. These students were learning in a collective. They were
collaborating in a way that worked for them. We should be fostering
innovation such as this instead of breaking it down.
In addition to this example was the person who was able to join a
chat about his diabetes. He was able to join an online forum and learn.
People from all over the world were able to support and collaborate on
a health subject. Its possible that he would not have gotten through
this news without this type of support. He didnt know anyone in a

similar situation and the Internet allowed him to connect and relate to
others. In the past, a patient would have had to suffer alone.
Also, I loved the section about using gamers as exemplars. Each
day they play games such as World of Warcraft in which they have to
constantly be on their feet. Obviously, we dont want our students just
constantly playing games. They would never learn any content;
however, we should support the fact that they must be ready for
change and they must be ready to look at a situation from all
directions. We can foster these skills in a way that mimics these
games, but also supports the standards that we need to reach.
Students should constantly be solving and experimenting problems.
These are valuable life skills that will support them long after school is
done.
I also enjoyed the chapter that talked specifically about the three
characteristics of learning: knowing, making, and playing. Without
even one of these, learning can be lost. We never even consider
playing or making when we think about learning. Rather than simply
having our students memorize information, we should be encouraging
them to understand, relate, and apply that information. Our students
needs to put their critical thinking hats on as well as evaluate why they
are doing what they are doing. Playing in itself requires being creative
and using your imagination, both important skills in life.
The constant examples about gaming did make it hard to read
though. I have only played maybe two video games in my life. I have
barely participated in online forums, besides the ones for this class and
a freshman level class. These examples were harder to connect with. It
was only when they brought it realistic examples, such as college, that
I truly connected.