Doyna Johnston
The Culture Of Learning
New Culture of Learning
A conducive environment that supports the learning process and facilitates the transfer and individualization of concepts and skills is necessary for learning to become integrated into people's cognitive consciousness. Creating a significant learning environment is the teacher’s craftsmanship to promote and facilitate learning. A meaningful learning environment offers a safe, participatory space and inspires a growth mindset, a key element in ensuring the content is interesting, pertinent, and applicable. This emphasis on a growth mindset should inspire and motivate educators and school administrators to create significant learning environments.
Embracing the creation and design of significant learning environments
Embracing the creation of significant learning environments in modern education is a transformation that brings about profound, significant learning experiences. This perspective promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and applicability to the real world while fostering inquiry, collaborative learning, and flexibility (Thomas & John Seely Brown, 2011).
Such a change can increase student engagement and equip students for a rapidly changing world, offering practical, updated alternatives for a student-centered learning experience.
The new culture of learning is part of the constructivist approach to education. Constructivism believes that meaningful knowledge and critical thinking are actively created in social, cultural, emotional, and cognitive contexts. It also teaches that active learning requires participation and engagement from all students in the classroom. Constructivist teaching can raise academic standards by encouraging students to think critically and engage in meaningful learning (Joseph Zajda, 2021).
This shift in pedagogical perspective is valuable because it cultivates the learner's ability to assess what they have learned critically and to decide what information is accurate and relevant to their situation.
The Quest to Create Significant Environments
The New Culture of Learning promotes three main components. First of all, classrooms are considered educational settings that use devices and media to give users access to a plethora of sources of information. Second, rather than just passively absorbing knowledge, the emphasis is on learning via active engagement in the world. Finally, the culture emphasizes asking questions to learn more and accepting what we do not know to set a quest for inquiry through research and investigation. (Thomas & John Seely Brown, 2011).
To adopt these pedagogical tenets, I have suggested integrating digital journals into a blended learning environment that supports the COVA approach (Harapnuick et al., 2018), inspiring language learners to express their opinions, findings, and conclusions while developing their tone and voice. My proposal: Digital Writing Journals.
To accomplish the task in mind, my proposal emphasizes the writing of digital journals as a learning tool for my students to reflect on the information they are internalizing in order to evaluate how relevant and applicable it is to their real world.
Information technology has evolved to become a collaborative tool with sustained use. Instead of spending all of their time at their tables, students are persuaded to interact with one another and take part in inquiry units of study following a project-based curriculum. Children may now learn more engagingly thanks to the setting and design of significant learning environments.
The Need to Reinvent Ourselves as Learners
"Change motivates and challenges. It makes clear when things are obsolete or have outlived their usefulness. But most of all, change forces us to learn differently"(Thomas & John Seely Brown, 2011, p.456)
Every significant advancement in technology has had a significant effect on educational methods, changing the way that teaching and learning take place. Consider for example the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. It impacted education by lowering the cost and increasing accessibility of books, the printing press transformed education. The standardization of educational resources and a broader distribution of information were made possible by this democratization of knowledge (Eisenstein, 1980).
Nowadays computers, the use of the Internet, and mobile devices have completely changed once again how people access information and their way of learning from new sources. During this time, interactive software, digital libraries, and e-learning platforms have become more popular. Additionally, it sparked the creation of fresh educational strategies like flipped classrooms and blended learning ( Horn et al., 2017).
Overcoming Challenges
Ironically, one of the obstacles to be addressed in this emerging digital industry is artificial intelligence. Even though artificial intelligence is a positive advancement for education by assisting us to personalize the learning process, we must remember that these technological tools are not meant to be entertainment for learners.
However, as we redesign according to the functionality of significant learning environments to build a meaningful learning experience, we have to consider technology as a tool that will help us differentiate instruction. For this reason, it makes perfect sense to set up educational facilities where students receive specialized instruction under the guidance and coaching of a highly qualified learning facilitator.
Let us strive toward the success of all
To end on a constructive note, I extend an invitation to you to contribute to change as well. As technology advances, let's take an active role in creating relevant, meaningful learning environments. It means embracing change and making the most of our lives in a world that is constantly changing, viewing the future as a place of endless possibilities rather than as something that will compel us to adjust. (Thomas & John Seely Brown, 2011).
References
Eisenstein, E. (1980). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge University Press. ​
Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 9). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video]. YouTube, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
​Harapnuick, Thibodeaux , & Cummings. (2018, January). COVA. Lamar University.https://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/COVA_eBook_Jan_2018.pdf
Horn, M.B, Staker, H., & Christensen, C.M. (2017). Blended: using disruptive innovation to improve schools. Jossey–Bass.
TEDxTalks. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning[Video].YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. In Amazon (1st edition). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. https://www.amazon.com/New-Culture-Learning-Cultivating-Imagination/dp/1456458884​
Zajda, J. (2021) Constructivist Learning Theory and Creating Effective Learning Environments. Springer Publishers.