Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Interview: Jerry Wennstrom on Learning

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I will say quite frankly that I don't believe most of what is written in this article, though it is interesting and worth a link. The author is trying to explain the source of learning and creativity, and finds it in the removal of the self from society and in the listening to the inner voice, surrendering ourselves to the mystery of the self and the world.

Well maybe. I do think we have to trust in ourselves and our abilities, and I am all in favour of getting away to the forest for some quiet reflection. But I don't see anything mystical in this. Creativity and learning require, most of all, dedication and hard work. To seek out and be reflectively aware of a wide range of experiences. To aquire the tools (of reason, of pattern recognition, of synthesis, to name a few) to comprehend that experience, to have the skills (literacy, tonality, numeracy) to reform that experience, to have the means (courage, will, honesty) to pass it forward.

We are not born with any of these, but we can acquire them, develop them in ourselves, each and every one of us. If ceremonial drumming can help people with this, great, but for me, I can hear the same tune in the stillness of the woods, the purity of a parsing algorithm, the warmth of a late-night crowd at the local pub. Living life to its fullest, with purpose and desire, and the conviction that one voice can make a difference.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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