IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

degree and quality of reflection demonstrated, quantitative improvement
in a technical skill, achievement of goals, and so on. 45
The fact that a portfolio is created and stored digitally is not a big deal. I
remember as a child being asked to keep a ‘‘commonplace book,’’ and my
own daughter today accumulates hardcover books containing project work,
records of visits to museums, and reflections. Where ‘‘digital’’ can really
add value is by leveraging the power of networks to enable peer assessment.
For J. C. Herz, who studies the relationship between online gaming and
learning, what underlies the dynamics of networked online environments
is the process whereby individuals are evaluated and rewarded by the system
itself, rather than by a specific individual. This process is perhaps
most evident in massive multiplayer role-playing games (RPGs) like Sony’s
Everquest, Electronic Arts’ Ultima Online, or Microsoft’s Asheron’s Call. For
Herz, ‘‘the RPG game persona is the most fully dimensional representation
of a person’s accumulated knowledge and experience in the months and
years they spend in an online environment.’’ 46
Design Factor 6: Mentors
Learning 151
Learner autonomy and self-organization are crucial ingredients in successful
learning—if only for defensive reasons. Formal education systems are
under pressure to teach more and more students—while at the same time
being given smaller budgets per student to do so. When a government
pays a school less than six thousand dollars per pupil per year, as is the
case in Britain—an amount equivalent to two or three days’ fees for a
McKinsey consultant—quality face-to-face time between teachers and students
will be minuscule. 47 The wise student does not wait to be taught.
But in learning, self-organization works better when there’s someone there
to guide it. The best learning experiences, besides being codesigned by the
people who have them, also benefit from good coaching, facilitation, feedback,
and mentoring.
These are highly labor-intensive activities. Activity-based learning
requires the presence, time, and attention of mentors in all shapes and
sizes. For Theodor Zeldin, who teaches the art of conversation in a wide
variety of contexts, ‘‘the most important skill, which underlies all creativity
and all scientific discovery, is the ability to find links between ideas which