As I'm working through this course, I keep thinking about John Adams and John Quincy Adams. A few years back, I took students on a field trip to visit their homestead in Quincy, Massachusetts. What has stuck in my long-term memory is the library. The guide explained that John Adams spent hours in his library, had read most of the books in it, and since he was proficient in at least five languages, he read books in multiple languages including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. I have to believe that even without technology, and without online learning and blended learning, John Adams was a knowledge maker, not just a knowledge consumer. (If you don't believe me, take a look at the Declaration of Independence!).

I also believe there is a lesson here. The lesson might just be that we haven't really figured this whole thing out. Let's not pretend that technology makes us smarter because we don't have to rely on our long-term memory. Our long-term memory is important, otherwise aren't we just processors, not thinkers or analysts? While I agree that we no longer need to memorize a list of phone numbers, I still believe that those underpinnings of information serve us well. Don't we prefer and expect prefer leaders in government, business, technology to have a deep reservoir of knowledge?

I also found troubling this weird assumption that knowledge making isn't happening in the traditional classroom. Students are being tasked with project, research, exploration both in class and out of class. 

The volcano example is also a strange one. Only a poorly prepared teacher would suggest to students that they will learn about volcanoes by reading in their textbooks and then demonstrate that knowledge by taking a pencil and paper test. Expanded learning was not invented because of technology. At the same time, of course, all educators appreciate the access to resources, the ability of a student to go down the rabbit hole of volcanoes, and access a variety of modalities to deepen understanding. 

At the same time, I posit, that if the teacher doesn't spark the knowledge flame via discussion, engagement, and most importantly relationship, that rabbit hole might go unfilled. 

Let's think about how to blend these ideas of what we are calling active knowledge making with consumer learning. Both are important. 

Here is an example. Students produce a project about how climate impacts political decisions in several countries. Students choose one country, research this country so they are familiar with the country's language, culture, form of government, quality of life and geography. They are asked to assess the impact of climate change on this country and demonstrate this by participating in a panel discussion, creating a presentation, and this presentation includes a map. These students have used their knowledge consumption to become knowledge producers. 

Random thoughts:

A note about common core: It is simply good teaching. People freaked out about it, but honestly its not that big of a deal. 

Sometimes, knowledge production can be overempasized. I learned this the hard way when at the end of a unit on pyramids in ancient Egypt with a group of ELL students, one of the students asked me this question "What is a pyramid?"

Did anyone find it odd that in one of the videos, the professor mentions ipods? C'mon - update those videos! But honestly, that made me feel like this whole course needs updating. Disappointing.

Learn more about John Adams here:

https://www.nps.gov/adam/planyourvisit/index.htm

Common core here:

http://www.corestandards.org/

There are a bunch of websites on long term memory and its importance in learning and processing information:

http://theelearningcoach.com/learning/long-term-memory-and-learning/