The Earth Sandwich: Success in an Informal CSCL Scenario

In 2006, the first recorded “earth sandwich” was created. An earth sandwich, according to Ze Frank (2006), “is created when two slices of bread are simultaneously placed on opposite sides of the earth.” A baguette was placed on the ground in Spain, another on the exact opposite side of the globe, in New Zealand, at precisely the same time. The latitude and longitude of each piece of bread were verified, and the creation of the first earth sandwich was pronounced.

The individuals who accomplished this task had never met each other, nor had they met Ze Frank, the originator of the concept. This is online collaborative learning and knowledge construction at its best.

Ze Frank is a YouTube™ star, maintainer of www.zefrank.com, blogger, vlogger (video blogger), speaker, singer/songwriter, dancer, Internet theorist, and creative project organizer. His web presence has become the focal point of an online social community, in which many collaborative projects have occurred. In comparison to more traditional online learning environments, Ze Frank’s online social environment seems wildly more successful in knowledge construction. Why?

Why does this sort of CSCL environment succeed so dramatically when more formally constructed ones merely limp along or fail completely? I think future research in this area is warranted. More tomorrow...

REFERENCE

Frank, Ze. (2006). If the earth were a sandwich. Ze Frank. Retrieved from http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/