Building on the idea of independent learning, we turn toward the Internet. A vast land that contains all the information one could want. All one has to do is a quick Google search and the information you are looking for appears before you with usually over thousands of options. So in this setting are we not independent learners?
Last week, we determined that we are all connected and that our lived experiences unite us. This connection, ultimately removes the true independence of learning. When we look at the vast information at our fingertips with no one in sight to guide or direct us, are we not independent? I say no. Yes, we do have the independence to reach out to different forums for the information we seek but that information has been retrieved, cataloged, and displayed by someone (or something). Can we believe everything we learn on the Internet? Resoundingly, no. We can not.
Jon Dron discusses the connectivist generation that has been emerging. People are more connected than ever and can seek a formal teacher when necessary or go it their own. He posits, ” the modern independent learner can be almost totally independent of formal teachers; but, at least to an extent, can call upon myriad of teachers, directly or indirectly, as and when needed. … Independence in this model is multi-faceted and constantly shifting. (p. 57) So we now have this continuum of independence. We constantly shift in the levels of independence we seek and desire. We find we are not alone and as Dron so aptly puts it we can be parts of “wise crowds and stupid mobs” (p.57)
When we know what we want to hear, what we want to learn, we have the independence to seek out that information. This independence also comes with a disregard to any other opposing viewpoint. If we seek the answers to the questions we have from sources we know can provide the answers we seek, are we independent thinkers? We have access not only to main stream sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook but also blogs, special interest pages, newspapers and magazines. “…the problem of learning is not one of scarcity but of overabundance: it becomes hard to tell the good form the bad, the helpful from the unhelpful, the truthful from the fictional.” (p. 58) It is this overabundance and the simplicity in which we can seek the answers we want to hear that do not make us seekers of facts but can lead us into an abyss of mob thinking.
Dron & Anderson coined the term “sets.” A set is not a connected group of people who actually know one another and have a form of leadership; a set is a group with shared interests or commonalities gathered in one place. (p.58) Dron explains the problem with sets is that since there are no strong binding social ties, these groups “are breeding grounds for trolls, ignorance, filter bubbles, echo chambers, and malefactors.” (p. 58)
Source: CrowdTangle
This was no more apparent than what we witnessed in the United States most recently as of January 6, 2021. We saw how these people who gathered had no true ties to one another. They had gathered, virtually and physically, under the shared belief that their actions were needed to “save America.” They accessed information that fed into their beliefs. They accessed information that was false and filled with angry rhetoric. It was a clear from this incident, and so many others, that we are not independent in our learning. Even sitting by ourselves behind a computer, we are connected – whether it be for good or for evil.
References
Dron, Jon. (2019) Independent learning. In Moore, M.G. & Diehl, W.C. (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (pp.47-56). New York: Routledge, https://doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.4324/9781315296135
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