To begin to understand something as complex as the American Revolution, seeing the main players and events in different contexts is key. One needs to study how Adams and Jefferson honed their ideas, how Washington dealt with the Redcoat strategies, and what Revere did to make sure the Minutemen answered the call of April 19, 1775.
The boy in the illustration above can link together explanations of each of these aspects — in fact of just about any of hundreds of facts, outcomes, opinions, and people who interacted to bring about the Shot Heard Around the World.
A core aspect — if not THE core aspect — of 21st century education is this new phenomenon: network dynamics allow a learner to interact with the internet dynamically, mirroring what is needed to grasp related ideas into the learners own networking thought in his or her mind.
Schooling used to be to bring teachers and books that had knowledge to a place, then bring students to that place to acquire the knowledge made available by the teachers and books. It is now a simple matter for a student to connect directly and individually with everything known by humankind. That is terrific. But uber-terrific is that the network where the student interacts with the knowledge being learned is dynamic, emerging patterns of ideas that the student’s mind can reflect, manipulate, and learn.
