A fertile breeding ground for the hive mind.
It seems to me that it's precisely here that Lanier's piece holds the most
importance for educators. Certainly pupils must be stimulated to try ideas on
and see if they fit. We have to encourage them to take chances with the world,
since only through action can they really learn how things work and their place
in those workings. (That's perhaps a different sort of Maoism
that I can agree with.) But we have to be diligent in reminding ourselves
that generating more and more texts isn't synonymous with generating more and
more information (or worthwhile information) which in itself is only tangentially
related to generating more and more knowledge. It's not only a case of quantity
having no direct relationship to quality, but also of how the hive mind seems
especially adept at congregating around a particularly low common denominator.
Dare I write that children are in school in order for them to learn? Certainly
there's no truth (nor pedagogical logic) in telling them that they don't know
anything, or that everything that they know is false. It doesn't, however, follow
that whatever they know is tenable and should be distributed, free of charge and
in bulk, to the world.
Go to: A magic strand?