The Geography of Learning: The Chicago and Boston Schools

Ideas come from location. Solving problems based on situations and analysis.

In The Third Coast, Thomas Dyja describes the Chicago way as "Improvisation, experimentation, watching something being made; all were basic to artistic expression in Chicago, part of the mediating function as the belt buckle of America; what Ralph Ellison called "antagonistic cooperation. .. Chicago liked watching things being built. New York audiences like to watch things that are already completed and polished."

The ability to learn is not just a function of what goes into and out of the mind, but also the situational environment. How and where we learn is also important. We can be very resourceful in terms of creating situations/environments that work best for us. The way you learn, the different learning styles that Howard Gardner talks about -- such as kinetic -- might mean working alone, working among people, etc.

One of the contributions of the Chicago style of learning is that prepackaged (set lecture) might not be the best in all situations. There was the live television of the 1950s pioneered by Studs Terkel; there is the the Second City input of improv; there is the live radio of Thisishell.com and other programs on WNUR, Northwestern's radio station. Improvisation and a bottom's up approach; these are vital elements of the Chicago style.

Look at the type of environment in the classroom as part of the content. As much as possible, allow participants flexibility in designing how and when they work.

Flexibility is a big part of resourcefulness. The Wall Street Journal noted how Delta Airlines has experimented with a number of strategies to reduce its number of canceled and delay flights. "A World Where Flights Aren't Canceled" describes techniques like rerouting flights on very short notice to get to locations where weather might not be an issue.

Improv, the acting style made famous by Second City in Chicago, relies on positive energy (and timing) for its comedic effect. Actors take ideas given by other people (no matter how absurd) and go with it to a different level. It is this "Yes, and" that allows participants and the audience to get beyond the negativity inherent in our interactions with others --- and build to a synthesis, which can be funny and also liberating. "No" can be a very limiting and debilitating organizational and personal response.

I think we can see the positive impact of "Yes, and" in many of the regional sciences that seek to combine disciplines and encourage economic and personal growth. I just was at a regional transportation conference and the speaker stated that regional science started in the 1960s as a method of integrating economics, geography, urban planning, and other disciplines as a method of developing industrial location theory and other economic/social models and modalities. In other words, they just kept adding ingredients until it made sense to stop not be limiting at the onset.

Not only is improv an important example of learning because of its positive spin, but also because to succeed at improv, you might always be anticipating the next move. This, obviously, is a key to learning (and teaching). Knowing what comes next is vital. In fact, I often encourage my students to anticipate what is coming next as a way of measuring their understanding of what has already occurred.

Education is obviously an interdisciplinary process and the more "Yes, and" (and as positive and anticipatory) the more synthesis we will achieve. Blended can be especially appealing to the "outsider" amongst us, as it gives access to those with different voices and different socialization skills.

There are ways of building where you live not only into your teaching style but also into your curriculum. For example, a school district where I live is incorporating geographic landmarks into studies. So, elementary school students are going to local rivers to learn about water flow and conservation. They might also learn about local civil rights people while discussing Martin Luther King, for example.

There are also ways of building local information databases to accentuate this local emphasis. A database of the local newspaper might be searched (or created) as a way of localizing learning.

Education is an industry and as such is subject to a production system that impacts communities, business districts and others in both a geographical sense (such as where schools are located and its impact on property values and commercial activities) as well the productivity of a community in terms of creating citizens and employees that can function efficiently in society and the economy.

The more complex such a system, in terms of its inputs (quality of the teachers, funding, infrastructure), the more dynamic it is to run but also the more sophisticated its outputs (student learning, etc.).

The complexity of all these steps makes it clear we must be flexible and creative in all aspects of the learning process. Certainly online learning/blended learning has a strong impact not only on the learning environment but also on the whole community (education production system). What is the impact on traffic patterns and economic activity, for example, when students are learning online and don't have to commute. This might reduce travel congestion but might also reduce the amount of students eating at a restaurant on their way to class.

Online/Blended is obviously subject to technical glitches. Of course f2f also has its share of potential drama, with traffic jams, miscommunication about room changes, etc. WGN TV recently experienced technical issues that knocked out its audio for about 20 minutes. This video explains how they dealt with it -- not surprisingly humor had a big part to play in their strategy.

In terms of Boston, it seems like a perfect place for a Facebook creation. There are so many young people, most of them very tech savvy with a need to socialize. There was an intense need for a social network to allow people to get to know each other from a wide variety of settings, as there are so many different campuses. A social networking site that brought these young, tech savvy people together was especially relevant in Boston and that set the trend for the nation and world.

Both Boston and Chicago have the ability to experiment because they have the strength/confidence to try new things. On an interpersonal level, we see that the sense of being okay of the area being able to absorb different things -- you won't break me type motif. That is also an essence.