Affinity Spaces in the classroom

Gee says,

"Classrooms tend to encourage and reward individual knowledge stored in the head, not distributed knowledge. They don't often allow students to network with each other and with various tools and technologies and be rewarded for doing so, rather than being rewarded for individual achievement."

I like this quote for two reasons:

1. Though it may not be true in every classroom it supports the idea of community of learners, shared learning, and all that other good stuff we have talked about in this class. Gee has an understanding that often children are able to learn better from peers than they are able to from adults. Being rewarded for distributed knowledge seems to be the way to go. But are group quizzes, and class assignments good for the overall learning of individuals?
2. I think that networking is a great way for students to learn especially in terms of technology. I believe that children learn games so quickly because there is an easy way to get information from a friend, the internet, etc about how to play the game. Like Cassandra said in her second Web 2.0 assignment it was much easier and made less intimidating because Pierce had talked about using Pandora in class previously. Peer networking is great!