Futurist David Thornburg identifies three archetypal learning spaces— the campfire, cave, and watering hole—that schools can use as physical spaces and virtual spaces for student and adult learning (bit.ly/YvRuWC)
Australia’s Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes: Educators on ISTE’s Australian Study Tour Discovered How to Create New Learning and Teaching Environments where Curriculum and Instructional Tools Meet the Digital Age, UNCG NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship)
About 11 years ago I wrote a book called Campfires in Cyberspace that explored the idea that humans have always occupied one of four primordial learning spaces at any given time, ranging from the Campfire (home to the presentation of information by a teacher) to the Watering Hole (the domain of social learning from peers), the Cave (home of reflective construction) and Life (home to the construction of artifacts based on what we have learned). We explore the idea that, in an ideal setting, students will move between these spaces on their own and that computer technology has a positive role to play in each of these learning spaces.
Holtthink: Where Interwebs and Edtech Combine on Tumblr: Interview with David Thornburg author of “From the Campfire to the Holodeck: Creating Engaging and Powerful 21st Century Learning Environments.”
Campfires are a way to learn from experts or storytellers; Watering Holes help you learn from peers; Caves are places to learn from yourself; and Life is where you bring it all together by applying what you learn to projects in the real world.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
In creating such a system, today’s educators go back to the best of our roots in the earliest teachers who understood that learning occurs in many spaces, from caves to campfires to watering holes. The tools we use and the curriculum we learn shift across time.
Timeless Learning – How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools
Caves
The cave is a private space where an individual can think, reflect, and transform learning from external knowledge to internal belief.
Australia’s Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes
The cave is a private space, where students can find that much needed alone time useful for reflection on their learning or just to recharge. (a necessary space for those students with Aspergers).
Campfires, Caves and Watering holes | Libraries, Youth and the Digital Age
The story of Newton seeing the apple fall is probably one of the most famous stories ever told about the history of science. The fact that the experience leading to this profound discovery was a result of the Cave is significant. In today’s hectic life, there is precious little time for quiet contemplation, yet, as Newton found, it is through such contemplation that some of the greatest discoveries are made.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
The Cave—the home to reflective learning. This process is solitary and involves self-directed meaning making that can be facilitated with outside resources (books, online informational services, etc.). If the Campfire is home to the lecture, and the Watering Hole is home to the dialogue, the Cave is home to the cognitive construction of understanding of the sort described by Jean Piaget. Unlike the social constructivism of Vygotsky, the cognitive constructivism of Piaget is largely a personal act, although it is informed by presentations and conversations. The point here is for the learner to internalize what he or she knows through experimenting and reflecting on observations.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
The process of developing Understanding in any domain is highly iterative and nonlinear. Cave work involves the kind of deep and prolonged thought and research needed to build a personal understanding of a domain of inquiry.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
In schools, we find that the cave form of learning is never a priority. This is a serious problem because the millions of dollars spent on many new schools will do little to improve educational outcomes if they are built without cave spaces.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
…it is in solitude that students assimilate, synthesize and internalize learning so that it becomes knowledge and (sometimes) wisdom.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
Campfires
The campfire is a space where people gather to learn from an expert. In the days of yore, wise elders passed down insights through storytelling, and in doing so replicated culture for the next generation.
Australia’s Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes
The Campfire is, for many cultures, home to storytelling—a place where people gather to hear stories told by others. Many of these stories evolved into myths that were used to explain the complexities of existence. One (of many) incredibly rich examples of this kind of story can be found in the legends of the Northwest Indian cultures in North America. Many stories in this tradition involved the escapades of Raven—a trickster—whose adventures explained the origin of day and night cycles and many other things. One fine example of this kind of story can be found in Raven stories told by Pacific Northwest Indians.1 These stories were the primary method that knowledge of the universe was shared with youngsters. The use of primordial archetypes (trickster, etc.) made them particularly engaging. This engagement was essential in preliterate societies because oral tradition was the only way to pass stories from one generation to another and it was important that the stories be remembered.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
Watering Holes
The watering hole is an informal space where peers can share information and discoveries, acting as both learner and teacher simultaneously. This shared space can serve as an incubator for ideas and can promote a sense of shared culture. It is an informal area, where students can share in collaborative learning experiences.
Australia’s Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes
If the Campfire is home to the didactic presentation of material, the Watering Hole is the place for social learning among peers. This learning takes place through conversations, not lectures. Each of us takes part in the Watering Hole—whether it is the water cooler or copying machine at work, the lunchroom, or any other gathering place where peers interact—social learning is a dominant activity in all societies and always has been.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
As for the success of this approach, the computer on which this book was written has a graphical user interface, a mouse, an Ethernet connection, and connection to a laser printer—all of which were invented or (in the case of the mouse, refined) at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. Although I can’t speak for others, my own experience was that the Watering Hole environments there made it easy for me and others to engage in crossdisciplinary projects, many of which emerged serendipitously. For example, although I had my own research responsibilities in the area of device physics, I also would hang out with the systems scientists one floor up, where, among other things, I was able to invent the resistive touch tablet still in wide use today. These kinds of inventions were born from chance encounters with people across disciplines who shared their needs and others who had skills no one had thought about before.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
Life
In the context of our four learning spaces, Life is the one devoted to the meaningful application of the things learned. Through this application comes either demonstration of the depth of the knowledge or the realization that things were not understood as well as first thought, requiring more work on the learner’s part. If the Watering Hole is home to Vygotsky’s social constructivism, and the Cave is home to Piaget’s cognitive constructivism, then Life is home to what Seymour Papert calls constructionism.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
The fourth primordial learning metaphor is Life. This is when the other forms of learning get an opportunity for a trial run. It represents all forms of applied learning when theory is put into practice. Life is necessary to close the loop on learning in the same way that learning about driving a car from an expert, talking about it with a friend, and then reflecting on it by oneself will only go so far. Only when one gets behind the wheel of the car does the real purpose of the other forms of learning become apparent and real.
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
Primordial Learning Spaces
When students have developed a little bit of metacognitive language around their learning spaces, they are also able to take control of their learning and their learning spaces – they can move to the space that best fits the type of learning that they are doing, and be able to explain exactly why this space is going to help them in achieving their learning goals.
Re-imagining Learning Spaces to inspire contemporary learning – Part One: Models for Change – Linking Learning
Learners have long gathered around campfires, watering holes, and have isolated themselves in the seclusion of caves. They have experienced all these learning environments in balance and, if the balance is offset, learning suffered.
It is interesting to note, by the way, that conference programs almost never mention anything other than the “campfire” aspects of the conference. Participants are invited to attend conferences to “hear the latest from experts in the field.” While this has great merit, this aspect of a learning community represents only one third of the food for thought needed for a balanced meal for the mind.
The presentations were (generally) excellent. For example, Arthur C. Clarke held us spellbound with his visions of the future during a live two-way remote videoconference from Sri Lanka. Even so, by lunchtime on the first day, there was a lot of grumbling from the attendees. They had been exposed to some intense campfires with no access to watering holes or caves.
While I’ve concentrated on the application of these archetypal learning models to conferences, they apply to classroom settings as well. Students have experienced the campfire of the traditional classroom setting and relied on the playground for their watering hole. Quiet time for reflection, when made available, takes place in libraries or study halls, or is deferred until the student goes home at the end of the day. The watering hole is being brought into classrooms today through the medium of cooperative learning but, tragically, school libraries (and the time to spend in them) are “at-risk” in schools where funding for such programs is in short supply.
Campfires in Cyberspace: Primordial Metaphors for Learning in the 21st Century
Could it be that humans have always occupied these diverse learning spaces, moving between them as needed?
From the Campfire to the Holodeck by David Thornburg
Students visit the campfire to hear the story we want to tell through our instruction. They are able to share in this experience in person or via tech- nology in a flipped classroom.
The watering hole used to be the walk home after school or the phone calls after dinner. Now students gather with peers online using Facebook, Edmodo, blog posts, or text messages. Their op- portunities to share have multiplied astronomically and can benefit from the guidance provided by school-created platforms for discussion.
Increasingly, studies of the brain and learning indicate the need for metacognition, which takes time, practice, and a quiet space to reflect.
The cave becomes not only inviting, but also essential. As students reflect on the meaning of their work, the content cements, and a new cycle of goal setting and achievement begins, allowing students to engage, socialize, communicate, create, and collaborate in meaningful learning that reflects the world in which they live.
She noted that one of the ways she experiments with the cave concept is to take desks and chairs and place them in corners and crevices that are off the main floor of the library. Inevitably, she finds these spaces occupied and even coveted by students and teachers in search of quiet and reflec- tion. These isolated study spots are excellent examples of cave zones.
Australia’s Campfires, Caves, and Watering Holes: Educators on ISTE’s Australian Study Tour Discovered How to Create New Learning and Teaching Environments where Curriculum and Instructional Tools Meet the Digital Age, UNCG NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship)
The campfire is the place where students gather to hear the wisdom of the expert. In long ago times, this was where people gathered to listen to the storyteller, who was the keeper of wisdom in the community. Today there are still times when students need direct instruction; and the campfire space is where this happens. Nowadays, the fire has been replaced with a data projector and screen, or an interactive whiteboard, but the concept remains the same. We know campfire learning can be important; how popular are Ted Talks, which are essentially campfires distributed digitally all over the world? We just have to ensure we don’t spend all day sitting around the fire, talking at our students!
The watering hole is the place for social learning. Because conversation requires a different way of thinking to when we are alone, dialogue is a way of creating knowledge. Social learning is central to education; without time spent talking and discussing learning with others, students aren’t challenged to reach the next level in their understanding; the basics of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Think about how many ‘ah-ha’ moments you’ve experienced when talking through issues with your colleagues. In a typical, naturally evolving conversation, research has shown that no matter what size group you start out with, people tend to form groups of two or three members. Does your learning space offer ways for students to cluster in these small groups comfortably to work on problems, discuss their learning? Thornburg suggests that in many school situations, the opportunity to converse is so limited that this is the reason why school hallways and social spaces are so noisy – it’s pent up demand for conversation that is exploding out as soon as it can!
The cave is the home of reflective learning – it is where students work alone, making meaning of their learning, facilitated with outside resources (e.g. books, websites etc). Thornburg suggests that if the campfire is home to the lecture, and the watering hole home to dialogue, the cave is home to cognitive construction of understanding. So often we associate learning only with doing – and see quiet thinking as ‘doing nothing’ – how often has someone come up to you while you are sitting quietly and said, hey, can I interrupt you while you aren’t busy? In a library we traditionally have silent study spaces; but in the classroom, where a lot of learning takes place, we don’t offer this opportunity! It is particularly important for introverted students. We need to recognise the importance of thinking and reflection as part of learning, actively teach it to our students, and give them the opportunity to experience a quiet space.
Life is the most neglected space in the classroom; because so often we see the classroom as separate to ‘real life’ when in fact it takes up so much of our student’s life! The opportunity to get hands on, to apply learning in a practical way seems to decrease as the years pass. Currently there is a lot of interest in makerspaces, which are a terrific example of learning through doing – and as technologies become increasingly inexpensive, it becomes easier bring these types of opportunities into the classroom. Technology also allows a much more authentic way of applying learning; examples such as students publishing their work to platforms like Wattpad, which is a fanfiction sharing app, or editing Wikipedia pages with their research – allows students to see how their learning in the classroom actually has a real world context also.
Re-imagining Learning Spaces to inspire contemporary learning – Part One: Models for Change – Linking Learning
First, and make no mistake here, all three sacred learning spaces will have analogs in cyberspace. If they don’t, then cyberspace will cease to exist as a domain of interaction among humans. Those using the new media will create their own analogs for these learning places, even if they are not designed into the system. In this regard, cyberspace is like any other frontier: rich in possibility, covered with brambles and weeds, but rich with fertile soil for development.
Campfires in Cyberspace: Primordial Metaphors for Learning in the 21st Century
We will do little to change educational outcomes without cave spaces.
My favourite spots have to be quiet. So I can regroup myself. Umm regain my energy. Sometimes, just have a moment of peace. My main favourite spots are libraries, churches, and green spaces. But lately it’s almost like I’m losing my habitat. Because I can’t get a moment of silence.
Habitat – by GP — Re•Storying Autism
In schools, we find that the cave form of learning is never a priority. This is a serious problem because the millions of dollars spent on many new schools will do little to improve educational outcomes if they are built without cave spaces.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
Ensure there is quiet space and outdoor space that people can access at any time.
It’s Not Rocket Science: Considering and meeting the sensory needs of autistic children and young people
A Space of One’s Own
This is my space. It allows me to have control over one small part of a traumatic and offensive world.
AuDHD and me: My nesting habits – Emergent Divergence
…it is in solitude that students assimilate, synthesize and internalize learning so that it becomes knowledge and (sometimes) wisdom.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
In schools, we find that the cave form of learning is never a priority. This is a serious problem because the millions of dollars spent on many new schools will do little to improve educational outcomes if they are built without cave spaces.
The Language of School Design : Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools : Nair, Prakash
When we operate within a space over which we feel ownership—a space that feels like it’s ours—a host of psychological and even physiological changes ensues. These effects were first observed in studies of a phenomenon known as the “home advantage”: the consistent finding that athletes tend to win more and bigger victories when they are playing in their own fields, courts, and stadiums. On their home turf, teams play more aggressively, and their members (both male and female) exhibit higher levels of testosterone, a hormone associated with the expression of social dominance.
But the home advantage is not limited to sports. Researchers have identified a more general effect as well: when people occupy spaces that they consider their own, they experience themselves as more confident and capable. They are more efficient and productive. They are more focused and less distractible. And they advance their own interests more forcefully and effectively. A study by psychologists Graham Brown and Markus Baer, for example, found that people who engage in negotiation within the bounds of their own space claim between 60 and 160 percent more value than the “visiting” party.
Benjamin Meagher, an assistant professor of psychology at Kenyon College in Ohio, has advanced an intriguing theory that may explain these outcomes. The way we act, the way we think, and even the way we perceive the world around us differ when we’re in a space that’s familiar to us—one that we have shaped through our own choices and imbued with our own memories of learning and working there in the past. When we’re on our home turf, Meagher has found, our mental and perceptual processes operate more efficiently, with less need for effortful self-control. The mind works better because it doesn’t do all the work on its own; it gets an assist from the structure embedded in its environment, structure that marshals useful information, supports effective habits and routines, and restrains unproductive impulses. In a familiar space over which we feel ownership, he suggests, “our cognition is distributed across the entire setting.” The place itself helps us think.
The Extended Mind – Annie Murphy Paul
Perhaps the most important form of control over one’s space is authority over who comes in and out—a point missed by those who believe that our workspaces should resemble a bustling coffeehouse. The informal exchanges facilitated by proximity are indeed generative. But the value of such interactions can be extracted only if it is also possible, when necessary, to avoid interacting at all.
The Extended Mind – Annie Murphy Paul
