In their book A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown explore the idea of redesigning learning through thinking, creating, and playing, offering a fresh approach for a constantly changing world.
Imagine you have a bucket with a hole in it, and you want to use it to carry water. No matter how much you try to change the size or shape of the hole, the bucket will still leak. So instead of just fixing the hole, it might be better to create a new bucket that works better.
Now, let’s think about learning. There’s a saying, “you live, you learn,” which means that as you grow and experience life, you learn new things. This ability to keep learning helps humans become smarter than many animals. But the way we teach people today is like using a leaky bucket. Schools and lessons are often based on old ideas that don’t fit the fast-changing world we live in. Instead of just trying to fix the old way of teaching, it might be better to create a new way to learn.
There are three ways we could redesign learning, just like creating a new bucket:
- Homo sapiens – This means “humans who know.” These are people who learn by thinking and knowing things.
- Homo faber – This means “humans who make.” These are people who learn by building and creating things with their hands.
- Homo ludens – This means “humans who play.” These are people who learn by playing and having fun while discovering new things.
So, instead of trying to fix the old way of learning, we can build a better one by focusing on thinking, creating, and playing!
As we rethink how we learn in a world that never stops changing, the question remains: How can we, as learners and educators, embrace thinking, creating, and playing in our everyday lives? Let’s not just fix the old system—let’s build something new together. What will your next step in learning be?
All the best,
Henry Fadl PhD
