the learning Cooperative

We know you have great ideas and reflections on learning, let’s get them heard and start to make things happen rather than have them wasted in your head, smart phone, computer, loft, dairy, back of beer mat from the pub last night!

What can we do to change the face of informal learning? If there were no boundaries what would you/we all do? What are practical steps to create fantastic learning environments that engage people from all walks of life?

What stopping great people like you working to create a new age of learning, one that does not have to sink or swim with the changing tide of economic environments and political decisions?

In a word……… nothing. Lets start the journey.

If you were lucky enough to have seen the BBC series Maestro with the DJ called Goldie, you would have seen a very inspiring demonstration of how it is possible to make giant leaps in learning in a short space of time.

Photo: Jude Edginton

Despite being a DJ Goldie could not play an instrument or read music, which meant his challenge to produce a piece of music and to conduct an orchestra to play his creation was an enormous challenge that would terrify the bravest of the brave. Goldie was given access to a number of creative people who provided him with tools and techniques to play with ideas and to mould a sound that would culminate in a complete piece of music fit for any venue.

A group of talented musicians showed Goldie what was possible when you are allowed to play sound with no clear structure to the process. Each musician demonstrated the possibilities with their particular instrument and how they could be used with one another in many unusual ways to produce sounds that maybe Goldie hadn’t considered possible. A computer wiz converted sounds that Goldie sang and hummed into a visual representation of what the piece looked like on a graph showing the flow and rhythms as the sound
progressed. This also gave other people the chance to see a map of the journey that Goldie was inviting us to join him on.

Clearly Goldie had a background in producing drum’n’bass music, so it’s not quite the same challenge for someone with no music background, but the programme producers still had to come up with very creative sessions to get the most out of the DJ in a short space of time. They had to tap into his preferred learning style, tuning into the human vibrations where he really naturally responded, to hit he heights needed to produce a classical piece of music and conduct an orchestra.

I believe it’s possible to take someone with no experience and to transform their understanding of a subject at a rapid speed, if you can combine the subject matter that really gets their juices flowing, and the learning style that works best. “No s***t Sherlock” I hear many of you out out there say, and I agree this is obvious to the trained education professional, but coming up with a learning environment that is stimulating enough to attract adults who are missing their vocation in life, a hobbie that will infinitely improve the quality and enjoyment of day to day life has to be worth developing, but is no easy task.

Much of what we set on the internet is isolated content, what we need is something that creates an ‘experience’ that connects us to what makes us tick, what resonates with our very being.

In 2010 I went to an amazing live theatre production in the Co-operative department store in Brighton, a now empty and disused building built in 1931. You walked into the back entrance to the building where the lorry deliveries would be made, where you were asked to sit down with the rest of the slightly nervous ticket holders for the show. No one new what to expect, and we just sat awkwardly for what seemed like and age before we were allowed to enter the performance.

The very first room we went into was almost pitch black and very unnerving, then an old man appeared holding a lantern talking in a Russian accent, standing right in front of me, what was I supposed to do I looked around to see how other people were reacting but could barely make any body out? We were entering a surreal world inspired by Anton Checkov’s The Cherry Orchard (yep I’d never heard of it either), with lots of weird and wacky characters playing their roles in different rooms around the building surrounding.

My senses were completely alive with the brilliant sets and oddly behaved actors, sometimes directly enaging you and other times carrying on like you did not exist. Each time I approached a room I was buzzing with anticipation, looking forward to the visual and sound feast that was about to greet me. It was immersive and exciting. dreamthinkspeak are the production company that put together this experience.

I was thinking about the event weeks and weeks afterwards, and suddenly remembered it when I was looking for ways to introduce the theme of what I want I think the cooperative would be all about. Why can’t we have a learning cooperative made up of brilliant educators and creatives that build learning environments that quench our thirst for knowledge at the most basic and natural level.

Just imagine, together we build learning environments online and in the street that blow peoples minds with excitement, that ignite an interest in a particular subject, one that could possibly change their life forever. I know I’m getting a little bit excited now, but if we can tap into the child like curiosity we used to engage at will then who knows where it might lead people in their lives. Random exploration of places full of exciting content, rooms, doors and windows with real images and sounds, not virtual reality and not second life, just creative and interesting spaces to explore.

We should be the architects and builders for informal learning environments of the future.

Hello and welcome to my blog, it has taken me a long time to get to the point where I feel I have something to say on the web, and it has been sparked by a vision of an exciting future for informal learning.

Much of the learning resources I have seen in formal learning environments on the web or in the physical world have been and still are very unimaginative and uninspiring. Brilliant teachers often don’t have the time, energy or resources to come up with the material required for engaging and productive content. They are having to work within a rigid system that follows a set curriculum, providing little scope for divergent and creative thinking.

Because of our experience in formal education many people become disconnected from potential future learning experiences, it becomes a ‘not for me’ mindset that is hard to break . I’m not convinced this situation will change dramatically over the next decade without a radical shift in political will and economic conditions to allow us the breathing space to experiment.

If that’s the case what is the alternative, how do we provide creative and fun learning environments that engage people, providing them with the space to find and explore a new hobbie, discover a passion or think differently about life and the universe? Just go on to Google and do another search? Content alone does not get us going, what gets us going is experiential learning both on the internet and on the street.

I would argue that we need a much more consistent and balanced approach to designing and building learning environments, that can be past on from generation to generation and not dismantled, carved up or destroyed just because it doesn’t fit with the current political agenda. Informal learning environments that set the standard for creativity and enjoyment that feeds into and set the standards for formal learning. 

This blog has three objectives:

1. Share ideas and current thinking

2. Bring together like minded people, and create a community of architects and builders of informal learning for the future.

3. Get things done

A tall order, but with one that I feel is possible and very much overdue. I look forward to the start of a new era in informal learning. Welcome to epochplace!

Darren