While I believe I’ll write more about these two ideas more soon, I wanted to share a few thoughts I’ve had as I have been reading lately. The first is from a children’s book, Frindle by Andrew Clements. In the plot, the clever protagonist learns that words in the dictionary are just made up by regular folks and then the words become common knowledge that everyone agrees upon, which are then placed in the “dictionary.” The clever part for the young hero is that he then makes up a word and gets every kid in school to use it. (From the school’s point of view, anarchy ensues.) This book has been around for a long time, and I’m not sure why I haven’t heard of it before. However, in a very short few pages, the author explains the essence of social constructivist theory and how language is a social construct. I am considering having my students read this book or at least a section of the book for my learning theory course.

The second thought that I have been ruminating over is adult learning.  In Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, he discusses the growing phenomenon — to put too curtly –  our short attention spans, mental hyperlinking, and scanning v. reading. (You can read more and listen to Carr’s interview with NPR here.) Carr, however, has an excellent chapter on adult brains and adult learning.  While I am not a fan of adult learning theory or the recent emphasis on brain-based learning, I like how Carr presents the most recent findings on neuroplasticity. In cognitivism, we had previously believed that brains hardened over time. Carr provides the most current evidence of how this thinking is incomplete and how our brains are able to adapt to new learning, making our brains change.There’s one other thought that’s been beating around in my head recently from reading The Shallows, too, and that has to do with beliefs, bias, interface, and tool design, and what that means for us.  But I think I’ll save that one for another post altogether.

Have you read either of these two book or have you considered social constructivism and adult learning from these points of view before? I would love to have you thoughts below in the comments!