The bells went off in my head when I read David Wiley’s post about social objects. Campfires, says Wiley, serve the same purpose as content in a course. They’re social objects. A campfire is the thing we gather around. It’s the focal point for a good conversation, a debate, an exploration or a relationship.
In online courses, we spend a lot of time thinking about campfires. We plan. We gather wood. But in spending so much time on the fire, we sometimes miss the point. It’s not about the campfire. It’s about what it helps us do.
(Photo, Campfire, by Andreas Koberle)
What a great metaphor for a learning community, and a really good high level strategy for building one.
It also justifies how I am going to teach my class Monday morning. Wasn’t sure how I was going to mark an assignment since they all interpreted it differently. I think I will burn the assignment in a campfire.
Uhhhh …. Roger. I think you misinterpreted. Please don’t burn assignments.
And yeah it’s a good metaphor. You could even go one step further and say that a campfire is something you have to tend. Otherwise it goes out. The same is true of what we include in a course. You have to do something with it or it isn’t useful to anyone.
It’s also a way to judge a resource. You have to ask yourself, is this going to “stoke the fire” or “fire up” a good conversation? If it isn’t, probably best to save learners from having to read yet another handout (not to mention the trees we could save).
I could go on and on and on …
It’s that whole community approach to learning, and I’m all for burning assignments in a camp fire, particularly if it keeps the learning fires going (too many metaphors?). It’s part of the tending – getting learners to contribute to their environment, to have a say and input in how they learn, and to be able to toss stuff on the fire if it doesn’t work – The O of ECMO…
Had to get ECMO in there, didn’t you?