John Seely Brown





Introduction
John Seely brown's thinking and work have covered a broad range of teaching and learning aspects of the computer field. His ideas on learning theory are at the forefront of this important aspect of teaching and learning. Quoting from his Website:

Creating a Culture of Learning


 * Organizational learning and knowledge sharing have held out great promises, but have failed to deliver the goodies. Why? And what can be done about it? I claim a lot. But first we must understand how learning and creativity actually happen inside an organization, how IT can support them (which it doesn't today), and in general how and why knowledge both sticks within an a community of practice, but seems to readily leak out along the pathways of external networks of practice. Coming from PARC, you can imagine I have had a lot time to reflect on this problem.

One of John Seely brown's great strengths is a deep understanding of both the social and technological aspects of learning. Quoting from the abstract of Local Knowledge: Innovation in the Networked Age a 2002 paper and talk:


 * The ubiquity of information makes it easy to overlook the local character of innovative knowledge. Nowhere is this local character more overlooked yet paradoxically more evident than in Silicon Valley. The Valley persists as a densely interconnected innovative region though its inhabitants loudly proclaim that the information technology they develop renders distance dead and place insignificant. It persists, we argue, because of the local character of innovative knowledge, which flows in social rather than digital networks. The locality of innovative knowledge highlights the challenge of developing other regions for the modern economy. Should these abandon traditional local strengths and strive to become another Silicon Valley? Or should they concentrate on their traditional strengths and rely on Silicon Valley and the other established high-tech regions to provide the necessary technology to survive in the digital age? We argue that they should do neither, but instead develop new technologies in service of their existing competencies and needs. Finding new ways to address indigenous problems is the right way, we believe, to tie to the region expertise, talent, and capital that might otherwise be lost to the lure of existing high-tech clusters.

Up Close and Personal
Comment from Dave Moursund. I don't believe I have ever met John Seely Brown. However, I have read a lot of his writings and have always been impressed by his insights into education and how to improve education. Thus, I weave his work into my courses and workshops and wish that we could have been face to face professional colleagues.