Institute For The Future

Learning from Extreme Learners: What's next?

What can Extreme Learners teach us? That's exactly what we aim to find out ...

Check out the full research agenda »

Around a year ago at IFTF we began researching a concept we call extreme learning. We have extreme athletes, right? Why not extreme learners? Extreme learners are individuals who have hacked the education system to make it work for them. They aren’t necessarily academically gifted students or mensa members or those who end up as valedictorians (although some are). Rather, they are people who have figured out novel ways to use the tools, people, and communities around them to create highly-impactful and often non-traditional systems for soaking up new knowledge and satisfying their love of learning.

Extreme learners have learned how to learn—that is why we think it is so crucial to understand them. Last summer we gathered together a small group of these learners for a day-long workshop to begin to understand their lives, their motivations, the resources they use, and their communities. We were so impressed with the results that we compiled some of our initial findings and created a website—extremelearners.iftf.org—to share their stories.

While we knew we were on to something pretty special, it was exhilarating to see that many others feel the same way. When KQED Mind/Shift highlighted Extreme Learners earlier this month, the response was, well ... extreme. This article was one of the most popular on Mind/Shift and was one of IFTF's most shared posts ever. I am thrilled to unveil our new research agenda for continued exploration of what extreme learners can teach us.

In the year ahead, IFTF will take our research to the extreme—we will conduct ethnographies of a wide range of extreme learners to understand their relationships, activities, tools, and inspirations. We will create extreme learner profiles and a map of the ecology of extreme learning. And we will develop insights that policymakers, learners, innovators, teachers, and administrators can use to help prepare for the future. The project is currently seeking sponsorship.

Extreme learners are currently at the fringes of the educational landscape. But they are illuminating the path for the rest of us. What they do and how they do it will challenge and reshape the future of education. Join us as we explore the future of learning and help create a new ecology of learning in which everyone can be an extreme learner.