We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. 
Eat. Sleep. Learn. Repeat.
I had such a rough time with this reading. In some areas I thought I was re-reading things I read a couple paragraphs before. Long story short there was a lot of going over paragraphs more than once. So for this blog I am going to actually take a passage and talk about it. Before you ask, yes, this in not normal for me and blogging.
Learning is not merely situated in practice- as if it were some independently reifiable process that just happened to be located somewhere; learning is an integral part of generative social practice in the lived-in world. pg 35
First i had to look up the word reifiable. Oxford dictionary didn’t have it. Webster didn’t have it either, so I am pretty convinced at this point it is not a word. That or there is a typo that really needs to get fixed. Either way my understanding of this passage will be a little off since I am at a loss for what the word means.
One reason I am not an English Lit major is because I think that sometimes the curtains are blue because the author likes blue curtains. There are some things I prefer to read plainly, one reason I liked this text, i will still like literature better.
Anyways, back to the topic. What i got out of this passage was that the act of learning is not something that can be done in one place and one place only. The act of learning can and will happen everywhere, not just because learning, like literacy is a fluid and growing entity, but because it is part of the world that we and our ancestors have created. That the learning processes, created by our ancestors, is the set way in which we should learn. But then this quote comes to mind
Normal is an Illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.
While i will agree that there should be no set classroom that is the only designated place for learning, it is one place where one can learn. If i need to learn how to fix the drains under my kitchen sink, i will not take a 3 unit class on house repairs and plumbing. I will use tools and look online and go to the library if necessary. In this case the new classroom is the home, and as long as you have access to the internet the classroom is everywhere your internet is.
Is sitting in a classroom normal for an institution of learning? Yeah, sure it is. Is it chaos for those that think that there should be reform, or even just those that can not stand the setup of a modern classroom. (I mean come on! these chair/desk combos are just horrible and uncomfortable!). Yeah it is. it is its own little slice of chaos, though not to the traditional sense of the word chaos.
2 Replies to “Eat. Sleep. Learn. Repeat.”
Wow! I guess you can make “reifiable” mean whatever you want it to mean. It’s weird that it’s not a word, because it sounds pretty legit.
Anyways, I like the questions you ask in the last paragraph. If learning is an organic process, it’s kind of odd how people came up with the idea of relegating it to a classroom. I think the passage you chose emphasizes that learning is a process that is passed down from generation to generation and isn’t a single event located in a single place.
I have to agree that learning is just not confined to a classroom environment and shouldn’t be confined like this. There are many ways to learn information from peers, daily experiences, trial and error, and many other possibilities. As future teachers how can we allow the students to learn in the class room, but also show them techniques they can use to learn outside the classroom? I also believe it is important that we try to maintain a balance of learning inside and outside the classroom. The internet can definitely be a helpful resource, but you have to remember that not all the information is reliable or even the truth. In order to prevent students from learning information that is incorrect through the internet the teachers can teach them the basic methods for spotting legitimate sites and qualified people writing the information.