Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Analogies

Analogies make it interesting and engaging for us all.

Best analogies of 2007 so far:

"Let's do a Deep Dive on the content." -- author unknown

"The ARG starts with a Rabbit-Hole, the engagement that starts the learning." -- Rowan J0b- Julien

"Informal learning is like a Japanese Garden, to the casual observer it seems to be a natural phenomenon, to the gardener it is meticulously planned." -- Heidi Fisk

"The difference between a Spelling Bee and Scrabble is that one is about rules and recitation and the other is about learning and engagement with a group" -- Henry Jenkins

"Develop a Learnscape or Learning Ecosystem." -- Jay Cross

"Don't tell the offshore elearning vendor to "Keep their eye on the ball" because they will do exactly that." -- Doug Stephens

Will keep you posted.

Simon

2 comments:

jmarrapodi said...

Great collection, Simon. I had to laugh when I read them, knowing how much context it takes to understand them. I teach a group of elderly, pre-literate Liberian immigrants and constantly find myself backing up and explaining things. This week I was talking about attending the church picnic with them, and they didn't know what a picnic was. Not the English word, but the CONCEPT. I'd put it on a calendar for them with a picture on Memorial Day, when the picnic is. Oh, but we can't read yet, so the concept of a calendar is new. Try to explain a calendar to someone who has never seen it!

My point in connection with your analogies ties in with all the things that are being discussed around informal learning. A ton of informal learning needed to have happened to create the context for understanding those analogies. I can't even imagine trying to explain them to my class, yet, like you, I instantly grasped their meaning and they resonated, making sense in the learning paradigm.

Good food for thought here. Thanks for the post.
Jean Marrapodi

Simon Puleo said...

That brings up a good point. Something on building layers of informal learning. There is so much jargon, analogies and colloquisms used in the English language, that the language itself is informal.

Good luck on describing the hot dogs at that picnic!

Simon


Simon