Leash-less Student-Directed Learning

I see implications for Student-Directed Learning everywhere. This morning I read a crazy-delightful Atlantic article about the NZ SPCA's latest ad campaign about a shelter dog that was taught to drive a car. Go ahead and read the article, then hurry back here so we can talk about it.
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What did you think of the comments by Clive Wynn (New Scientist) about the nature of intelligence? He said:

 Following commands moment by moment is only a small part of what we usually mean by intelligence. "Intelligence" involves thinking for oneself, reasoning, and most of all, finding solutions without continuous direction. ... Ask any dog owner whose best friend has become tangled with the leash on the wrong side of a lamppost: Dogs do not make a good job of figuring out how to untangle themselves.... In general dogs are poor at solving puzzles.

Stay with me. I'm not thinking about dogs this morning. I'm thinking about my students. How much of what we do in classrooms demands students to reason, to think for themselves and (most of all!) find solutions without continuous direction? I want my answer to that question to be "Everything."

A journalism lab is a natural place to initiate student-led learning. Much of what we already do is on target: determine what to cover, how to cover it, and then...make it happen. But this also means my students have frequent opportunity to tangle with the leash on the wrong side of the lampost. Too often I'm the one getting the leashes unknotted. I appreciate the re-focus a move to student-directed learning this semester gives me. I have permission to stay out of the way, unhook the leash.