Building Learning Communities 2011

Being part of the "Millennial" generation and the Information/Technology Age is nothing new. It happened before in the few hundred years surrounding the beginning of the last millennium. The difference now is that our society and educational community are going through that same information upheaval in less than a generation. From the Moors' invasion of Spain to the printing press to Web 2.0+, let history shed some light on where we might be going and how we might guide the journey through the following examples:

• The information explosion that is occurring now has a lot of parallels with the 8 centuries that began with the Moors' invasion of Spain in 711 and ended with the beginning of the Reformation.
• Europe was introduced to the philosophy, math and science of the ancient Greeks; the wisdom and navigation tools of the Arab world; and open inquiry and experimentation in general.
• The nobility, governments and other entrenched institutions tried to put limits on the access and dissemination of information. Latin served as both filter and firewall.
• When learning was no longer restricted to those who could read and write Latin, ideas began to be shared among all classes, creativity, invention and discovery blossomed. Anyone could publish then and now EVERYONE can publish and access information.
• Are we riding that information wave and using education to prepare our students for a new Renaissance or digital serfdom?