Jay Cross asks whether we should consider school separate from work (at least, rhetorically). I say no!
I remember a case where a professional school (Vet? Dental? Darn, I hate aging) developed a tool to support their learners. They were (pleasantly) surprised when their learners asked (demanded) access to the tool for their professional life post-school. That seems to me a good example of when you’ve successfully bridged the chasm between schooling and life.
Would that we could do that with college kids, or even children! Ask David Jonassen: we don’t provide kids with problems in schools like they’ll face in the real world. We should, and then provide them with the tools they’ll find useful. Open book test, open Google test, absolutely!
So, what tools should we be thinking learners should use? I’ll suggest diagramming & dynamic modelling as two.