How should people learn together?
Please post replies here in order to contribute to the conversation of Pedagogy (learning philosophy)
Here are a few questions that may or may not be helpful in starting this conversation (examples are helpful):
- How should people to treat each other in a learning community?
- What sort of principles should the Free Universe-ity hold in regards to the modes of “teaching” and learning that it seeks to promote?
- What sort of interpersonal communications dynamics indicate a healthy community?
- What sort of interpersonal communications dynamics indicate an unhealthy community?
Free UniversE-ity 
I’ll kick this off. The closest parallel to the Free University I have in my own personal experience is the Experimental College run by the ASUW. My question to the organizers here is: in what ways do you conceive the Free University being similar to the Experimental College and what ways do you conceive it as being different?
For example, the biggest difference I can see between the Experimental College and the Free University is, I assume, that all classes in the FU must be free.
But at a deeper level, the Experimental College still follows the model set by traditional learning environments — there is a “teacher” and a group of “students”. The teacher chooses the material he/she wishes to “teach”, and develops a syllabus of material to be taught, which includes the order in which it is going to be taught.
Do you envision something different for the Free University?
It is intuitive to me that people in a learning community ought to treat each other as equals. Understanding that everyone comes from a life rich in experience and knowledge, much of which is likely nothing you yourself have ever imagined. With that in mind each student can be a student of each other; the teachers merely recognized as more experienced in some particular field. I think this sort of awareness to the working of other minds can better allow the input of opinions, ideas, and perspectives outside of the norm, but perhaps reveal wisdom lost to others. By recognizing the validity of other modes of thinking and growth we can better cultivate our minds to flourish in a changing world.
I just had an idea for a different kind of class structure — basically a “LAN-party for learning” … idea is that several people get together in person to research a specific topic … we meet up, discuss what it is we’re going to research, then get out our laptops and go to town. Say for example, I want to find out where I could go to get some training in first-aid. Well of course I could sit at home alone at my computer and do this research, but wouldn’t it be more fun to meet up with some other people at a cafe or brew-pub and do the investigation as a group? Depending on the subject, the session could be short — 15 minutes, or long 2 hours.