Creating a “Third Place”

This chapter focuses specifically on out-of-school learning opportunities and addresses why they sometimes have advantages over in-school learning when it comes to extended learning by doing. It begins with a discussion of the sociological importance of “third places” that are neither the home nor the formal school environment. The decline of such places in recent decades seems to be at bottom now, so thinking about what sorts of third places are needed to educate students for the age of smart machines is timely. The brief chapter ends with a discussion of the importance of building public trust in a redundant collection of places where a student’s learning by doing might occur.