PIE and LEAP

Our colleague, Chianan Yen, began his Blog with the idea of PIE (Platform as Instructional Environment). This is a very good idea. It catches the imagination, and I believed that I may have remarked to Chianan that I felt he was moving in the right direction.

But I am not sure about the word "instruction" since I think the term implies a direction for knowledge to flow...from the knower to those who don't know...from the content to the acquirer of content. But there is no question that the image of PIE can conjur up associations that are attractive and imaginative.

I thought of another acronym: LEAP (Learning Environment as Platform) and that also seemed attractive since the word leap suggests jumping rapidly to another level. It is interesting how such acronyms have emerged to add words with embedded meanings to our vocabulary.

I am interested in such ideas because they create concepts that seem to cluster around what I hope would be a deeper and more creative approach to developing knowledge through the creation of material and ideas that establish personal and global meanings. I am also seeking ideas that bring music and sound making into the concept, and so far these two examples (PIE & LEAP) apply to all of education. That is good in one sense, because teaching and learning music should be associated with the great domains and categories of Education. I thought of M-Audio, a corporation that is dominating music technology and modified LEAP to M-LEAP (Music Learning Environment As Platform), but I am still looking (and listening).