Dave Cormier: Learning in a time of uncertainty

Coconut Thinking

How might we learn (and teach) to navigate uncertainty when the system rewards final answers?

Dave Cormier is an internationally renowned educational thinker specializing in the intersection of technology and pedagogy. He coined the term MOOC in 2008 and pioneered open and rhizomatic learning. His work on creativity and uncertainty in education is taught globally. In 2024, he published Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community Is the Curriculum with Johns Hopkins University Press. Recently, Dave facilitated an international online conference for educators and will be a visiting academic at Deakin University for the CRADLE symposium on Generative AI and Work-Integrated Learning. As the Interim Director of Curriculum Development and Delivery, Open Learning at Thompson Rivers University, he advances digital learning strategies in the GenAI era, supporting student experiences with practical and strategic solutions. We discuss:

🥥 How a single adult engaging with a few students—when replicated locally and globally—might be the response we need to face the metacrisis.

🥥 How learners of all ages don’t need to have every tool at their disposal when confronting uncertainty, but rather need to know how to respond, what to do, and where to learn to navigate it effectively.

🥥 How the most important literacy of the 21st century is humility—the ability to say, “I don’t know, but let’s learn together.”

Check us out at www.coconut-thinking.com