a picture of learning

 COML 501:Communication and Learning: Applied Research

Gonzaga Visiting Scholar Class Spring of 2012

Dr. Ann Darling and Dr. Deanna Dannels

In their native environment, sponges depend on the constant flow of water through their pores and channels to assimilate food and oxygen and to push out waste. This simple digestion plan works well for these primitive animals. They thrive, and grow for hundreds of years immersed in their marine home in a continuous rhythm of assimilation, intuitive discrimination of what is necessary and helpful, and, finally, a pushing out the overflow of what is not needed into the economy of the sea. The sponge is an apt illustration of learning and the needed elements critical to inciting and sustaining it. My drawings portray a domesticated version and context for the sponge. Away from its watery home, it is dry and tough, but profoundly transformed and reconstituted when it is given an opportunity to absorb water again. Originally created for continual growth (created to absorb), if it is hindered by environmental deprivation, reconstitution is ever reasonable and possible. Once again saturated, it is useful in numerous ways in its new environment; some of the functions require part of the water to be squeezed out. Metaphorically, this necessary squeezing of the excess is illustrative of learner overflow in engagement with others; the tension of learners’ relational dialectics as they negotiate differences produces a mutual and synergistic learning environment.