Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1365] Re: Nonlinear learning
From: Charles Nelson (c.nelson@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed 14 Mar 2001 - 17:23:41 MET
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 10:23:41 -0600 From: Charles Nelson <c.nelson@mail.utexas.edu> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1365] Re: Nonlinear learning
Bill Ellis wrote:
>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.
I think I agree with the gist of what you're saying, but what is the
connection between concentrating on one student at a time and
collaborative learning communities? Are you simply saying that, in
collaboration, students get one-on-one interaction with their peers,
one-on-one interaction that's missing in more traditional
lecture-oriented formats? And that this one-on-one interaction
facilitates students storing information uniquely?
>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.
Making learning meaningful is certainly important, but, although
students may know what they want, I somehow doubt that most students
know what they need, at least most of the time anyway. Actually, I
doubt that most people know what they need. How does one learn to
know what they need rather than merely want?
>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.
This is an interesting distinction between the individual and the
system that is usually either ignored or conflated and which makes me
wonder: What nonlinear roads might systems follow? How does
nonlinearity benefit the system (not merely the individual)? Can we
devise nonlinear paths for learning systems that will benefit both
system and students? What does nonlinearity mean for the individual
as opposed to the system? Is it simply having a "broad array of
learning opportunities"? How do the nonlinearities of the individual
and the system affect each other and how are they connected?
Charles Adamson wrote:
>The question is where is the point of maximum
>learning. I suspect that it would be different for the above two cases, but
>that is only a guess. How do we determine where these points are? The only
>way that I can imaging is to carry out a series of experiments to determine
>what conditions effect the location of the point and where the points are
>under specific sets of conditions. This appears as if it would be a major
>project that one that was quite doable. It might just be that the optimal
>point is relatively stable in terms of number of links, but we won't know
>until someone does the work.
>
Does anyone know if others, perhaps in the field of communication
theory, have done such research?
Charles Nelson
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