When one examines our cultural present and inheritance for sources of learning that could/should be looked to for guidance in our revolution in learning… one can hardly avoid pondering how one of the western world’s greatest minds “fits in”.

Harold Bloom’s (not related to the Bloom’s Taxonomy guy) volume on Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human says it all in the title. Shakespeare helped us, in a seminal way, learn how to be human. And he used a form of multimedia and virtual reality to do it.

If part of learning today is learning how to be optimally human, if you will, then it’s logical to go to one of the champ teachers of same. Too big a claim? Shakespeare addressed a broad cross section of people in his audience, and he created “edutainment” if you will, that captured the imagination of those in his time and place, but those across time and place too. His plays are studied around the world today.

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So what kind of “teacher” was he, and “how did he do it?” And what are the explicit uses of his methodology and example today in eLearning? A couple things we can note: his methods were holistic, in that one learned by absorbing the entire dramatic experience. Shakespeare mastered all the possible artistic elements available to him, and made them all work to create an experience for the audience… an experience we can label a DLE.

Shakespeare was driven and inspired to help us learn the really important “stuff” about life, through the forms of individual characters.  He also covered the facts, in a poetical license way, when he wrote the history plays to explain to the Brits who they were as a living historic entity.

Which reminds me of our sometimes discussion on “contextual learning”…which increases retention by incorporation into our being holistically. We “absorb” this kind of learning in ways that we are still researching, and hoping science will guide us to support.  While we are awaiting more maps of the brain, we can peruse the maps Shakespeare drew for us.

Also reminds of another use of “contextual learning”:  the aspect of learning that is “hands on” and specifically focused on clearly defined skills which Kris supported at EPCC and knows a lot about. (what are the connections between these two different versions of “contextual learning”?)

He also promoted and taught “critical thinking” as part of the DLE. He counted on his audience bringing their own perceptive abilities to the party. The audience was expected to be interactive enough to “read the subtext” being revealed about the characters as the scenes unfolded “live”.

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Just scratching the surface on this topic of Shakespeare and Learning, but one I’m very interested in adding to our guides at PSA. Shakespeare is not the only source in our cultural heritage that is powerful today and that we can study for the means of “learning”. The bible is full of “DLE” stories, as are other religious sources; there’s great literature from every culture and time/place. Etc.

But for some, including guys who do this for a living such a Bloom…so to speak…Shakespeare is a very very good place to start. There’s a ton of materials out there, apps, films, books etc…and probably a few sites called “Shakespeare and Learning” which I haven’t googled yet. Here’s on recent PBS series called Uncovering Shakespeare which ran this spring in 6 one hour episodes, and is available for streaming from the PBS site.

This is part 1 (edited) on the Comedies.

Or this part on The Tempest (also edited)