{"id":54,"date":"2012-08-12T03:17:22","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T08:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lrngo.wordpress.com\/?p=54"},"modified":"2014-06-02T12:15:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T17:15:25","slug":"why-learning-is-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lrngo.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/12\/why-learning-is-social\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Learning Is Social"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, my name is David C. Brake\/Founder of LRNGO.com<\/a>, a startup company and website in development that I began with my co-founder, Mandy Liu Brake. Before I write anything else, I want to thank everyone who responded to our call to contribute original articles to the site.\u00a0 Many of them are very informative, and I can\u2019t tell you how much we appreciate your ideas and wisdom \u2013 especially when it can\u2019t be found elsewhere on the web!<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s cut to the chase\u2014I imagine you want to know what the heck this website is all about and why you would want to read this blog.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Perhaps they are both trick questions.\u00a0 To answer the first, right now LRNGO.com is simply an article library, but it is actually a website in development that we refer to as the \u201cworld\u2019s first knowledge market,\u201d and you would want to read this blog and keep up with the development of LRNGO.com if you are interested in learning anything from others locally or making money teaching what you know.<\/p>\n

The story?\u00a0 Well, we began this project because I am completely crazy.\u00a0 You see, I own a company called Teachers 2 Go LLC whose mission is to provide busy people with any type of instruction by bringing teachers to their home through a convenient concierge service.\u00a0 Because of this and my own prior teaching and learning experiences, I became interested in all kinds of learning processes and methods\u2014particularly those that could be called social or \u201calternative.\u201d\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because I am a product of it and because there is an underlying economy that is driven by it, and because these facts have enabled me and others like me not only to survive, but to thrive in a system from which we might otherwise have been excluded.<\/p>\n

When I say excluded, lucky for me, in my case I mean due to my own choices.\u00a0 I have had my share of both good and bad experiences with traditional learning institutions, and I believe the classroom learning experience can be as essential in certain applications as alternative methods are in others.\u00a0 However the fact remains, we don\u2019t always have the time or money to go to school and get credentials in everything we want to know, or that we need to know in order to compete.<\/p>\n

And yet we find a way to learn.\u00a0 First we research and study, then perhaps we learn by practicing ourselves, and then we take it as far as we can until we hit a roadblock\u2014and that\u2019s when it\u2019s time to get social.\u00a0 Of course, the learning process takes on a whole different dynamic once you find someone to teach and guide you; whether it\u2019s a friend who knows more than you, or a teacher or a mentor. Let\u2019s face it, if this wasn\u2019t the case, education wouldn\u2019t be the 2nd<\/sup> largest industry in the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that in almost every story ever written, the main character or hero has a friend or a guide that teaches them.\u00a0 Learning from others is social, participatory, engaging, and the clearest path to actually successfully \u201cdoing it\u201d\u2014whatever \u201cit\u201d may be.\u00a0 In fact, it is basic human nature to learn from others.\u00a0 One could argue that every conversation we have with someone else is a learning experience.\u00a0 (Even if all we learn is that we don\u2019t want to talk to them again.\u00a0 Speed daters may be especially suited to expertise on that topic!)<\/p>\n

Anyway getting back to Teachers 2 Go LLC, so there I was with a regionally successful company of over 175 instructors for almost every academic and extra-curricular subject under the sun, and one day I was noticing the number of calls we had to turn away and it started to bother me.\u00a0 Because the schedules didn\u2019t match, because they couldn\u2019t afford it, because they were too far away\u2014etc.\u00a0 These people all wanted to learn their subject of interest, but the same kinds of barriers that made traditional education impossible and brought them to Teachers 2 Go in the first place (time\/cost\/location) were still making it impossible to connect with instructors to help them achieve their goals.\u00a0 We were going in circles\u2014and for many people, not solving the problem.<\/p>\n

So I did what I should have done a lot sooner:\u00a0 I went back to the problem.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see, we don\u2019t always have the time or money to go to school and get credentials in everything we want to know, or that we need to know to compete.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could instantly find someone near you to teach you anything?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could teach whatever you know to anyone near you who is looking?\u00a0\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it help our economy if knowledge were an openly traded commodity?<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.\u00a0 It\u2019s about to happen.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Hi, my name is David C. Brake\/Founder of LRNGO.com, a startup company and website in development that I began with my co-founder, Mandy Liu Brake. Before I write anything else, I want to thank everyone who responded to our call to contribute original articles to the site.\u00a0 Many of them are very informative, and I…<\/p>\n

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