Learning 2.0?

I recently ran across a blog entry that referenced an articled co-authored by John Seely Brown on education entitled "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0."

As a former homeschooling parent who has done some research into educational philosophies and frameworks, I found this fusion of social media/technology and main-line educational theory engaging and occasionally a bit simplistic.

The authors rightly emphasize the value of active social engagement during learning. However, their discussion of a "Cartesian View" vs. a "Social View" of learning seems like another variation of the whole Direct Instruction (DI) vs. Constructivist debate....something I find a bit tiresome since both have value, depending on the learning context. Their "learning about" vs. "learning to be" has a similar flavor; this time they recognize it's "both-and", not "either-or."

Processes in large organizations tend to focus almost entirely on capturing knowledge in an artifact (e.g., design document), and ignore the equally important need to get artifact-based knowledge into a decision maker's head. This article helps illuminate the challenge and importance of the latter activity.

To the degree that this kind of article encourages a better understanding of where and how to apply DI and Constructivism (including socially-driven variants), it's a good thing...however, I 'm a bit concerned that the casual reader with little understanding of the how pedagogy is contingent on context might not fully appreciate the need for a contextually-driven balance.