Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1346] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION digest 198
From: Bill Ellis (tranet@rangeley.org)
Date: Mon 12 Mar 2001 - 13:54:21 MET
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:54:21 -0400 Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1346] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION digest 198 From: "Bill Ellis" <tranet@rangeley.org>
> From: Charles Nelson <c.nelson@mail.utexas.edu>
>>Bill Ellis wrote:
BE:
>>This means that we do not learn linearly
>>and
>>Life is a jumble. The internal process of the brain sorts our the
>>information one needs at any time.
>>and
>> >The internet is yet to be succesful as a
>> >learning tool because we look for linear stories on the Internet and spend
>> >too much 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.
CN:
> These are interesting thoughts, but how do we translate them into
> pedagogical tools/stories? Chaos/complexity theory supports that most
> learning would be nonlinear, but it also suggests that learning would
> be optimal on the edge between chaos and order. How do we determine
> where that edge is? Is there an optimal amount of nonlinearity in the
> information provided to learners? How do we determine what is
> "optimal"?
BE:
1) First, by recognizeing that since every brain (student) is prepared for
different mental inputs at any time, we stop trying to put the same
information in 20 or 30 brains at the same time in the same way. Long
before brain researchers foun out that we each store information differently
Dewey, Holt and other pedagogs recognize the power of concentrating on one
student at a time. The current school system makes that impossible. But by
creating learning communities, collaborative homeschooling, and other tools,
a future learning sytem could be devised that recognizes what science tells
us.
2) I don't think we have to search far to find the edge of chaos. Most
school rooms have already reached it. They have accepted Dewey's philosophy
but not change the mode of teaching 20+ at a time. So we have a room of 20
each doing her or his own thing. Not a good environment for either teaching
or learning. Chaos.
3) Furthermore, the state of knowledge today, as Peter Drucker, Elise
Boulding and others have pointed out, is overwhelming, it's a jumble. We
can no longer think of teachig CONTENT, we must learn to exist in CONTEXT.
That is rather that administrators selecting the information that THey think
ALL students need at a certain age, the learning system should recognize
that in the Information Age our lives will alway be at the edge of chaos.
Each person will have to be prepared to learn relevant knowledge relevent to
her or him as we go along. No one can "graduate," as in the pst, with
enough, or the right, knowledge to last a life time. New knowledge is
developing all the time and leaves us always in a jumble on the edge of
chaos.
4) "WE" don't determine what the "optimal" is. The optimal is different
for each individual an each moment in her of his life. Learning (or
education) should prepare ALL people lifelong to be able to select the skill
and knowledge they want or need for that moment in their lives.
You may recall a Friere tool for learning. Choose a word that the student
is interested at that moment in her life. Write it on the blackboard.
Discuss it and add other words chosen by the student. "Strike," "Rock &
Role," "Job," "Plant," "President," "Food," are more meaningful than
"Watch," "Dog," "Run," "Ball," to some people.
5) The question is not linear or nonlinear in the sense of knowledge. It is
nonlinear in the sense ofthe opportunity for the student(s) to choose
different paths. Each moment in anyone life is like being in a mandala with
many directions to go. One person may want to examie the details of how to
use the Pythaograin theorem another may want to we the way it was derived,
and another may be interested in the physical strength of a triangle. Each
may have a different linear road to follow. But the system is still
nonlinear each can select his or her own story.
6) The solution is not to "teach" but to provide a broad array of learning
opportunites to fit the broad array of brains. That is to create learning
communities. The computer is exactly the right tool for the times.
Bill Ellis
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Tue 13 Mar 2001 - 08:10:46 MET