From: Barry Kort Subject: Project-Based Learning and 'Communitas' To: ednet@noc1.oit.umass.edu Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 12:55:45 -0400 (EDT) Cc: bkort@musenet.org (Barry Kort) Greetings, EdNetters. This is the 5th installment in my epic poem on innovations in educational technology. One of the reasons I got into educational technology research was to explore some radical ideas in Learning Theory. By training, I am an engineer and systems analyst. Some of the exciting new disciplines such as Cognitive Science didn't even exist as curriculum options when I was a grad student at Stanford. But I'm intrigued by Cognitive Science, with its foundations in Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, and Philosophy. And I'm especially interested in Learning Theory. During my early career at Bell Labs, I lived in a bit of an Ivory Tower, mostly inhabited by bright, rational people. Then I met some folks from the local community who might as well have been from another planet (or maybe I was the one from an alien planet by their lights). Folks who were not schooled in science, folks who were dyslexic, reading disabled, and learning disabled. Folks who were struggling with limited problem-solving skills. To say that it was a challenge to relate would be an understatement. But I noticed one thing. Whenever one of them successfully learned something and mastered it, they were enormously elated and excited, however briefly. I could not but help to notice the obvious connections between affective emotional state and their progress (or lack of progress in learning). This got me thinking. Just what, exactly, is the connection between emotions and learning? Now there are a couple of features of human beings that we tend to think sets us apart from trees and moths and table lamps. First, is that we consider ourselves to be Learning Beings. (Not that there aren't other learning beings, such as our pets, and even some primitive learning systems in artificial intelligence.) The second is that people are Emotional Beings (not that pet owners don't claim their pets also have emotions). Is this an accident? Or is their a deep connection between emotions and learning? Now scientists are not reknowned for being terribly emotional. Scientists write long-winded tracts, with nary a hint of joy, sadness, anger, or despair. Yet scientists often work at the frontiers of research, discovering new knowledge. So if there is a connection between learning and emotions, where is it for science and research? I couldn't but help to think of my favorite character on Star Trek, Mr. Spock, the emotionless Science Officer. Or is he emotionless? Spock's trademark reaction to almost any puzzling situation is "Fascinating!". Hrmmmm. Fascination, Curiosity, Puzzlement, Confusion, Insight, Enlightenment, Satisfaction, Confidence. These are the salient emotions of a successful scientist and puzzle solver. OK. But what do I usually see in the non-scientist characters (in real life and in fiction)? I see Anxiety, Frustration, Boredom, Terror, Disinterest, and Disatisfaction. Well these are certainly associated with the absence of learning. Let's dig a little deeper here. Let's analyze a typical learning episode. We start with Blissful Ignorance. We don't know something and we don't even know we don't know it and it doesn't affect us. Then we become aware of the gap in our knowledge. Moreover, our future well-being depends on us filling in that gap. Anxiety. Anxiety motivates us to action and effort. If we direct that effort effectively, we are rewarded with learning -- finding and integrating the missing knowledge into our accumulating Knowledge Base. Once we have mastered the newly acquired knowledge or skill, our anxiety is replaced with Confidence. Hey! That's a nice Loop of Learning. Another way to model learning is by analogy to constructing a jigsaw puzzle. The interior of the assembled sections isn't terribly interesting any more. Been there. Done that. The loose pieces way beyond the current frontiers don't make a lot of sense to us. Bewildering bits of useless information. But right at the frontiers -- that's where we focus our attention and interest. That's where we get that little neuropeptide rush when we find a piece and fit it into place. And after enough pieces are in place, we can step back from the tedium and look at the Big Picture. Insight. Satisfaction. Now Jean Piaget, and John Dewey, and Maria Montessori, and Seymour Papert, and Alan Kay have been pushing the Constructivist Model of learning for a long time now. And it makes sense. Construction is emotionally satisfying. So we come to Kort's First Law of Learning. Learning is the quintessential emotional experience. And when it's done right, it's fun. OK. So what? Say learning is inherently an emotional experience. Big deal. We still have to teach kids and follow a curriculum and assess the students. Can't help it if kids find school boring. Or can we? Well, what good is a scientific theory if it can't be tested. So let's test it. And that's where MicroMuse comes in. MicroMuse is a voluntary participation learning community in which we apply this paradigm shift in education. On MicroMuse we have no teaching, no curriculum, and no assessment. We just have learning. Participants select projects of their own choosing and build them (either individually or in groups). The notion is that everyday, everyone on MicroMuse is ready to learn *something*. What are *you* ready to learn today? Let's learn that. And if you're not sure what to learn, let's find out. Let's consult your emotional affective state to discover what you're ready to learn next in life. What are you curious, puzzled, confused, frustrated, or anxious about? What fascinates or intrigues you? Suppose we create a social learning community where this is what people are doing? People of all ages. And everyone helps everyone else learn. That's the goal of MicroMuse. Not that we rise to that level of performance day after day. But rise we do. When students begin to build their dreams on MicroMuse, they frequently get stuck because they lack the technical knowledge to complete the construction of the model. This is when they turn to the community for help. Rather than just tell them what to do, we walk them through the research and the diagnostic reasoning process, so that they retain ownership of the work. Sometimes this is slow and tedious. I use the Socratic Method, asking a sequence of carefully crafted questions to focus their attention on the step where they are stuck. Eventually they make the breakthrough, solve the problem, and get their widget to work. Whereupon something wonderful happens. The kid gets a neuropeptide rush that I can detect right through the modem. I get 'YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!' for about 20 minutes while they exult and revel in their achievement. That's how I do assessment. I count those euphorias as the only meaningful measure of learning. We are literally getting kids pharmacologically addicted to learning. As one of our volunteers writes in her E-Mail signature, 'Learning should be more fun than sin.' This kind of emotional experience is especially meaningful to those disadvantage and learning disabled kids I mentioned at the beginning of this piece. This kind of educational model isn't teaching. It's an act of love. Here's another description of the MicroMuse Project, from a very personal point of view. My technical background is in Network Planning. That's my bedrock. I began MicroMuse by building on my expertise in Communications Technology. Computers and Computer Networking and Simulation Modeling. Out of the foundation of Communications Technology, we created Community. MicroMuse is a social space. A Learning Community. This is a social process requiring Leadership and Community Building. Out of Community, something magical and mystical happens. People come into contact with transformational ideas and transformational people who open up new doors. People's live change. I call this phenomenon 'Communion' -- deeply transformational relationships of people to people and people to ideas. So here is a Spiritual Journey: From Communications Technology to Community Building to Communion. I call this progression 'Communitas' (from the latin root). It's personal and professional growth and spiritual growth all wrapped in one project. It's liberating. In my next message, I'll talk about our vision for introducing this paradigm shift into the existing educational infrastructure. Barry