Let’s explore a thought experiment:
What does a space for lifelong learning look like to you?
- What do you visualize? What metaphors come to mind?
- A campus? Online space? Workshop, lab, studio? Specific courses; space to explore? Something else?
Tweeted here if you’d like to reply or QT to share your thoughts!
Here are some of the first things that come to mind for us:
- Ways to build on what we read, connect with others and apply ideas; a space of discovery, to see others exploring cool things with a high signal:noise ratio, in a slow, thoughtful, emergent way (Brendan)
- A space that supports (de|re)construction; a workshop you can reconfigure, filled with tools and artifacts you could pick up and move to different spaces (Jared)
- Whether physical or digital, a space that lowers barriers to access: to specialized tools, new ideas, people with complementary skills… (Celine)
We got a number of other great replies to this question:
- Time and structure for working through prompts and problems; colloquium-like experiences to discuss with others who are putting in focused effort, with strong emphasis on collaboration and real-time feedback (@logicsoup)
- Other people who are passionate and curious; imagining a building where on each floor, we can prototype something different and learn about it (@rafaelnepo)
- A physical space for courses, workshops, seminars and casual discussions; curriculum that improves with feedback from real-world experiments (@mehra_vatsal)
- An endless room; a physical space filled with physical manifestations of our digital creations; (re)configurability and persistence; the ability to wander around in others’ spaces… (@jessmartin)
- A garden (not a factory); space to grow and cultivate knowledge, shaping your learning patiently over time, bearing fruit (@lukeallenmiller)
We’d love to hear your thoughts, too!
If you’ve followed our other posts this month, you’re probably sensing a theme. We’re exploring our own vision for this sort of learning space, and believe there’s much more to explore beyond our current infrastructure for facilitating events and courses; our current tools for collaborative writing and meetings; our current institutions for learning.
We’re in the early stages here, and drawing inspiration from all sorts of places, from game design to architecture, from p2p technology to radical pedagogy. And as we begin to prototype in Hyperspace we’re always curious to hear what you’d find most interesting and valuable, so we can build and explore together.
Again, we welcome your replies to this prompt (tweet linked above) — and if you’d like to talk about teaching, test Hyperspace with us, or generally chat more, we also welcome you to join our new Discord.
—The Hyperlink Team