Jeff Elkner: even if they do or previously did what adults could see as "geeky stuff.")

Caroline brought up the Zone of Proximal Development, the space between what I can do by myself and what I can do with someone else's help. It's where you want to learn; it's where teaching and mentorship are most useful (because really, how can you teach someone something they can't even do with help - although perhaps zen koans might not fit this framework...)

Every time I learn about things from "the world of education," they make a lot of sense. They stretch my brain, they're subtle, good, tough to really understand, but they make sense the same way some math or the "feel" of a brainstorm just Makes Sense to me. I mostly just don't have the big names names and vocabulary words down, so I don't know the right search terms to find the good research on these kinds of things.

I need to find a mailing list or IRC channel or Planet of education researchers to listen to - or whatever the equivalent would be in that domain (scholarly papers, yes, but researchers don't have casual conversations in those formats...) - any ideas where to look, or what the list/channel/Planet equivalents would be? And yes, I'm applying for education grad school in the fall - nothing like immersion to teach you a language and a culture.