Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1321] Re:NonLinear Learning
From: Bill Ellis (tranet@rangeley.org)
Date: Fri 09 Mar 2001 - 14:20:03 MET
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 09:20:03 -0400 Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1321] Re:NonLinear Learning From: "Bill Ellis" <tranet@rangeley.org>
This pre-discussion paper brings to mind talks with Ivan Illich and his
"Deschooling Society" published a few years BI (Before Internet). Ivan
speculated on the use of computers. He saw them as providing an opportunity
for serve deschoolers by providing the ability for people wanting to learn
some topic, to get together to discuss a book, an author, or an idea of
their individual choice -- "to meet around a problem chosen and defined by
their own initiative" in what he called "Creative, exploratory learning" as
contrasted to "skill learning."
This has happened to some extent with groups like <IFETs> and
<LearningCommunities>. But, in general the education establishment has not
taken this tack of self-learning. Instead it has attempted to use computers
only to enhance "teaching" in the traditional sense. Even in "Skill
Learning," that requires repetition and rote more than creative thinking, it
has only scratched the surface of the use of computers.
Beyond those levels, of skill and creative learning, there is a third
capability of computer learning that has been discussed more than it has
been practiced. That is "nonlinear learning." Brain research is showing
that the brain is a single neural network taking in everything the 5 senses
feed it all the time, and storing it in that single holonsitc network
non-locally throughout the brain. This means that we do not learn linearly,
going to a specific place in the brain to add a bit more on geometry here,
Sakespeare there, and baseball someplace else. Every brain, that is every
learner, has a single neural network uniquely prepared to add a specific bit
of new knowledge at a specific time.
The computer provides a unique capability for nonlinear learning. A learner
can jump in nanoseconds to any area of knowledge her or his brain is ready
for at the time it is ready for it. Learning modules can be designed to
emphasize non-linear learning by providing links throughout a given text to
sources to expand the bit of knowledge the learner wants to learn at the
time the learner wants to learn it.
A few websites, like Claudia L'Amoreaux's <haven>, have experimented with
this kind of computer learning. That is to avoid "curricula" and alow the
learner "to escape the time and motivation of a limited number of people
taking up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting." (to use
Illich's wording,)
In short, the jumble that the author describes as the Internet, is much like
the Jumble that brain researchers see in the brain. Life is a jumble. The
internal process of the brain sorts our the information one needs at any
time. In the same way it is not too difficult to sort out from the Intenet
jumble the march of the Zapatista's on Mexico City from the discussion of
the use of computers in IFETs.
The "narrative" we envision is not delivered as a narrative. While the
teacher is talking about the logic of Euclid the student is also learning
about the way the teacher's mouth moves, the dress of the girl in the next
seat, the the lunch he has in his knapsack. The jumble is sorted into
narratives by the brain. Many naratives are being created at the same time.
Sleeping and dreaming are required to creative consistent meaningful
narratives. As the author says, "The content resides almost entirely in
discrete 'bites' of text, which ignore each other."
In many ways the medium is the message, and frustration comes when we try to
use a new medium in and old system of learning. To emphasize the message of
this medium the online cover on <http://www.CreatingLearningCommunitie.org>
is a mandala rather than an index. Readers are invited to apply their own
interests to "Resources," "Models," "Philosophy," or other aspects of
creating learning communities depending on their own individual proclivity.
The stories that are available on the Internet are like the stories one
creates in a film. The "takes" are scatted and chaotic, they become a story
only when the editor splices them together in some semblance of order. The
brain works in much the same way it creates the story out of a chaotic
jumble of inputed memories. The internet is yet to be succesful as a
learning tool because we look for linear stories on the internet and spend
too little time for ourselves and for our students in trying to search for
ready made stories that fit our multiple minds rather than recognizing the
reality of nonlinear learning.
IMHO Bill Ellis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: "Kinshuk" <Kinshuk@massey.ac.nz>
> Please find below the pre-discussion paper on the theme 'Distilling the
>language of cyberspace' by John Laurie, Australian Emergency Management
>Institute, Australia, our moderator and summariser for the discussion. The
>discussion will formally end on 23 March 2001.
>
> The HTML version of the paper is available at:
> http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_march2001.html
[snip]
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