Reading Response: "New Culture of Learning," Chap. 2-3

As someone interested in the application and future direction of education in today's world, I found this reading, A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, immensely interesting.  It addresses many issues within modern-day learning that I find compelling, and not only raises the issues at hand within the education system of the rapidly changing world in which we live, but also how to fix problems within the way society passes down knowledge.

Throughout chapters 2 and 3 of the article, the author introduces the reader to the numerous issues facing the education system, through the window of technology and change, most notably, the advent of the Internet.  Learning and education, first off, are immensely important to our society, and civilization would arguably not exist as we know it today if learning and education was not prevalent and valued within society.  I've often made the argument that without learning, mankind would become extinct, based upon the fact that we are not instinctive creatures, we rely upon the learned knowledge of our forefathers in order to continue building and innovating.

Within this article, the author posits that in order to continue building and innovating in the same way we have in the past, we must adopt a newer, less outdated perspective upon education, one that embraces change, rather than shirking away from it.  An example I found tremendously helpful when discussing his argument was the comparison between Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Brittanica--a study found that despite popular belief, both sources are similar in informational accuracy.  However, the way in which they build their databases are inherently different.  Wikipedia, a web-based source that is updated many, many times a day, is able to shift and essentially "re-publish" information quickly, in accordance to newly-realized theories and practices, whereas Encyclopedia Brittanica, a paper-bound publication, must sort through all manner of contemporary discoveries and theories, decide upon one, and publish it until the next series the following year.  

Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica are both sources of information, but based upon differing methods of collecting information, and can represent two differing methods of learning--one community-based, and another more centralized, standards-based.  The argument the authors posit is that in order to keep up with a rapidly changing, digitally-based world, the education system must adapt and change as well, blending environment with structure.