Connect! Relate! Become interdependent! What if these pursuits had been immortalized as the motto of the American Dream? I wonder where we might be as a whole culture by now, if we had as much focus on relationship and connectivity as we seem to have on getting ahead and achieving at all costs.

This morning, as I engaged myself in my typical a.m. routine of learning, I watched a few TED talks, I studied a few resources on PBL (project-based learning, problem-based learning, place-based learning, etc.), and I immersed myself in my Feeddler RSS to catch up on some coveted blog reading. Among all of that, two pieces of that learning web really called out to me. Perhaps they were like the chief anchor points on my learning web – the foundations on which the web stands when possible learning meals go by.

From the Paul Zac TED talk embedded below, along with the @occam98 blog post linked below, I am reminded and pre-minded of the power of human connection. Actually, as I write, another chief anchor point comes to mind – Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From.

Empathy, trust, morality…they may originate from those moments and places of collision. May we be careful of the walls and fences that we build to prevent these critical collisions. [See Robert Frost poem below, too!]

Learning Web Anchor Point #1: Paul Zac: Trust, morality — and oxytocin

Learning Web Anchor Point #2: Blog Post from Quantum Progress

Reaching Out to Dispel the Myth of the Wild West Internet

Learning Web Anchor Point #3: Steven Johnson’s RSA on Where Good Ideas Come From

Some Dew on the Learning Web: Mending Wall, Robert Frost,