I brought this web site up at a conference I presented at, and what i can say is that while I wish there were more entries in target languages other than English, this has potential to be a learning exercise where kids define things they want to do and write and talk about them in their target language. There is my 2-1/2 cents for what it is worth!
Make it a vocabulary acquisition exercise too by having kids look up what they don’t know ;-) 7 years ago
I think this is a great and exciting idea, but one year into 43 Things and I’m pretty ready to call it “done” and “worth doing”. The problem with schools are many and I do think that a more open ended approach to letting people try to “do” rather than “learn” is an important reform for schools to think about. With my daughter getting ready to enter the machinery of schooling, I do despair, but I also am humbled by the incredible presence and role schooling has in our society. How did we ever create such a beast? I wish I could find (and afford) a stable of individual tutors and provide my child the sort of personalized learning I think she deserves, but schooling is so much easier. 7 years ago
I pitched three topics to my thesis supervisor, and the winning one is certainly related to this goal:
“Using social software as a method of identifying and collaborating on learning goals. 43Things is the most obvious application of this idea, letting users define goals, many of which are goals requiring learning (‘I want to learn PHP and CSS’, ‘learn to cook great vegetarian meals’, ‘learn to record music on my laptop’, etc) and then connecting individuals to others who share that goal so they can collaborate on achieving the goal together - sharing resources, expert recommendations, online tutorials, links and comments to support each other. I think it’s a powerful model of self-directed, self-organizing collaborative learning.”
I’m just getting rolling on the process - I started by looking at some of the
top 100 goals tagged with “learning”, like “
Learn to play guitar”. Of the 2,000+ people who say they want to learn to play guitar, about 250 have written posts describing
what (and often
why) they want to learn,
reflecting on the process and
sharing helpful links. Of the 250 who have reported that they’ve already learned to play, 98% say it was worth doing and about 100 of them have written posts offering some combination of
advice,
support or
suggested resources to the ones who want to learn.
So
43Things can be viewed as a place where hundreds (thousands?) of asynchronous learning discussions are taking place without any clasrooms, tuition, administration, courses or instructors. Learners are guided only by their personal interests and motivation, forming informal learning communities that emerge out of shared goals. It also seems to function like a learning referral service, accessible to anyone on the web
- search for “Learn Ruby on Rails” on google, and the 43Things goal page comes up as the second result. Anyone can read the advice, follow links to resources, and “join” by adding the goal to their own list and contributing. It’s not a tutorial or advanced developer’s group, but seems to be a decent place to start the process of learning.
As far as methodology goes, I’m going to focus on content analysis. The artifacts of learning (and teaching, in the broadest sense) are just sitting here in public waiting to be analyzed, and I’m already seeing patterns in the ways people are using the site to learn. It shouldn’t be difficult to place the investigation within a framework of constructivist learning (or even emerging connectivism). My first task is to review related literature, which I’m finding more challenging than I had hoped. Any advice for articles, papers and resources (including people!) would be much appreciated - please
send me any suggestions related to informal learning communities, asynchronous learning discussion, and self-organizing groups online. Feel free to comment here or on
my blog as well.
7 years ago
I want to write a paper these days.
But I have already write a paper about BLOG.In fact,write a paper about blog maybe good choose,because I use BLOG everyday,very familiar with that.(my blog:http://yoko1981.blog.edu.cn)
But I am a person who want to use new things ,do the things people seldom do.I remembered of “43 things”.I know it long time,but I have’t use that before.Maybe I do not want waste the 43 things,that number in my mind is little.
Now ,I found,if i can finish all the 43 things,my life must be differently.
I want to finish one paper about 43 things,no matter little people in my major know that.Though I am not familiar it as BLOG.I will try,because I am a person :”Two roads diverged in a wood,and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.” 7 years ago
43 Things is a kind of social software,not for the education,but we can explore it into education and learning process.
This semester,I have a course called Education application on Network,I choose 43 things as my research subject,recently,I get fully experienced,and I will go on experiencing… 8 years ago
provide who you are and what you are, so that people can easily get in touch with you for any help. More about me here. 8 years ago
I’m starting to see how I can use 43 Things as a sort of focussed on-line learning journal. It’s better for this than my conventional blog as the goals divide quite neatly into categories. Fun things and things I need for my research co-exist but do not become intertwined as has happenened in the blog. My current action enquiry module is being planned in 43Things and can be accessed here, and commented on by my peer-review partners. All that remains is to give my learning facilitator the link as well they can all follow my progress by RSS. 8 years ago
Can 43Things be thoguht of as a “Connectivist” learning sytem?
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm 8 years ago
When we all pool our thoughts, dreams, and talents together, we all benefit. This idea of 43 Things is a grand idea of what this sort of social informal learning can do. I will enjoy the adventure as we all strive to learn. But in so doing, we must all become the teacher as well. 8 years ago
Will Richardson has a few interesting suggestions on this topic: ”...wouldn’t it be cool to hook students with similar goals or assignments up in a similar fashion? Like a site that could create communities of students who were all doing fetal pig dissections or reading the same novel? They could share experiences, techniques, interpretations… Now I know there would be a lot of safety and security issues to think through.” 8 years ago
I’ll speculate that 43 Things is an example of what Ivan Illich, in his vision of learning webs, called peer-matching:
a communications network which permits persons to describe the learning activity in which they wish to engage, in the hope of finding a partner for the inquiry.
Illich was ahead of his time, he also proposed networks to allow open access to educational [learning] objects and to recommend freelance teachers and educational leaders. The combination of these four networks, Illich’s learning web, amounts to the democratisation of education.
We see the traditional gatekeepers of knowledge falling around us. Are schools to be next? As Jeremy says Learning, yes…education, no. Has Illich’s time come? 8 years ago
I’m probably being way too idealistic, in that I’m not even recognizing this difference between formal and informal learning. I’ve drunk too much of the age of the amateur kool-aid. As an employer, I’d much rather hire based on your blog than on your transcripts. I’m much more interested in what communication ecosystem you belong to than what university you attended.
Maybe it is premature to say that the formal online learning tools are clear failures – but I guess I’m working from that assumption.
I use a course management tool to manage my college courses – but it is for the most part moribund. I have richer exchanges with students in email and on their LJ pages (and now on 43 Things) than I have in our courseware program. And I don’t even really have a beef with the courseware program – its surprisingly good and feature rich – but it doesn’t touch any of the ways students and teachers already are using the internet. Most of my students use myspace far more than they use the university courseware.
Here are some of the scenarios I imagine students and academics using 43things:
- networking and signaling around research interests like this or this
- meeting like minds on big campuses
- tagging or creating goals with university affiliations like this
- organizing informal bird of a feather sessions or promoting conferences like this
- networking with alumni to learn about admissions process like this or this or
There are probably simpler, better ideas – but sorry if the title of the goals cast this in a more “formal” light – I’m thinking of very loosely joined pieces. 8 years ago
I see huge potential for authentic, informal, self-directed online learning, but I’m skeptical about applying the tool in the education system. 8 years ago
We’ve had a few people ask about “white label” versions of 43 Things for uses in companies or schools. I’m wondering if you smart people have thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of how this might work.
Of the two, getting things working for schools seems more satisfying than helping firms. How might an educational institution use 43 Things? One thought I had early on was around retention. Lots of students pass through schools without really finding a connection. Another idea might mimic “easy group forming” or “birds of a feather” as is done at conferences. Last might be “discovery” of like minds over large geographies.
Paul – what are you thinking? 8 years ago
