Theories of learning - summary

"How Do People Learn – Research Report, Chapter 2" – CiPD

The following tables look potentially useful for referring to throughout H806, so I've copied them here and added in some brief reflections of my own…

Summary of approaches to learning by cluster

	For work	At work	Through work
Behaviour	Priming	Training	Guiding
Understanding	Engaging	Enriching	Problem-solving
Knowledge construction	Reflection	Enquiring	Immersing
Social practice	Networking	Participating (in communities)	Teamworking

(CiPD, 2007, p.28)

The question that I'm not 100% sure of here is why is it all about work? The typical OU student is anything but typical. They can be teenagers who are yet to imagine which career they'd like to go into, to mature students who are looking to change career or study for fun… or retired people who are looking for a challenge but have no intention of a directly related work application for their new found skills and knowledge. How so to apply the above to them? How does it all fit together in a distance learning environment where courses may be offered from within an institute / employment situation to open content courses where the provider has no idea which approach would be most applicable since the purpose of study is unknown?

How to select an appropriate approach to learning if your students are unknown / anonymous?

 

Summary of approaches to learning by focus, process and outcome

	Focus	Process	Outcome
Behaviour	The expert	Reinforcement	Skills
Understanding	The content	Delivery	Knowledge
Knowledge construction	The learner	Activity	Performance
Social practice	The group	Practice	Change

(CiPD, 2007, p.29)

Have to say, I do like this summary and I can relate to it in my own contexts, but I'm not sure what is meant by 'performance' in the outcome column for knowledge construction. Is performance really the outcome? And performance in what sense? Improvements in performance? By whose standards? Qualitatively? Quantitively?

This seems to me to be pretty ambiguous and although I'd have said my preferred approach to learning belongs in the constructivist camp, I still don't recognise the outcome here. I guess it's 'performance' in the sense of improvement in whatever position it is that you've been performing in to acquire the knowledge in the first place. But… not sure.

Memorable learning experiences...

I’ve struggled to find a memorable learning experience for the activity in the "Learning Theories" section of Module 1… and I’m not sure why because if one thing’s for sure, I’ve certainly had enough of them. It was much easier to come up with one which was memorable because it was negative than the many, many experiences that were positive. In lots of ways this is quite sobering. Do your job as you’re meant to – and unless it’s absolutely exceptional, people forget. Have an off day – and it’s remembered, and remembered and remembered! However, your off day can be a powerful tool if it's reflected on and used in a positive way by those affected. Hmmmm...

The future as we know it...

KurzweilAI.net: "The Computer as a Communication Device
by J.C.R. Licklider
Robert Taylor

This landmark 1968 essay foresaw many future computer applications and advances in communication technology, such as distributed information resources and online interactive communities that are commonplace today as Internet chat rooms and peer-to-peer applications."

Terrific article from J.C.R. Licklider. At once hopelessly utopian ("unemployment would disappear from the face of the earth") and incredibly insightful ("Will "to be on line" be a privilege or a right? If only a favored segment of the population gets a chance to enjoy the advantage of "intelligence amplification," the network may exaggerate the discontinuity in the spectrum of intellectual opportunity"). Thought-provoking and interesting beyond the normal 'everyone will be flying round in spacerockets' predictions of the future!

Definitely worth a read!

PS And also hooray for Twitter where I picked up the link off someone's 'tweet'. I may hate the lingo which goes along with 'twittering'... but it's already starting to show its worth

Where do the educators fit in?

Just read the second chapter of Manuel Castells 'Internet Galaxy' and I really don't know where the educational technologists / those using technology in education fit in to his picture.  Are they part of the techno-meritocracy?  Nope.  Are they hackers - well, not in the sense he describes.  If you change his definition from "the ability to create technology (coming from any context), and to share it with the community" (Castells, p.60) to "the ability to define uses for technology (coming from any context), and to share it with the learning community" then maybe we're getting somewhere.  But it's tenuous.  What about 'virtual communitarians'?  Is that where educational technologists lie?  Well, the main stumbling block comes from the point at which he says that this group "used it for their social life, rather than practicing technology for the sake of technology" (Castells, p.61) - I don't agree that educational technologists use it for their 'social life'.  Sure, there's a strong social element and any successful implementation of technology in education will, in my opinion, have a social element.  I think that one ideal is for learning communities to exist no matter what the context... but... there's still that element of 'play' and exploration which comes from being interested in educational technology.  Of wanting to find new technologies.  Push the boundaries with what they can do.  Adapt.  Apply.  Adopt... or not.  Last group - the entrepreneurs.  Just don't see the fit there at all.

So, what is it?  Is he right that there are only four groups of internet culture?  Or are there simply too many shades of grey.  Too many examples which don't fit the mould for his groupings to be that helpful?  Surely the open culture of the internet means that the boundaries between groups are also necessarily 'open' - and intermingling and structured definitions become increasingly difficult.  I don't know if his definitions are that helpful, and his conclusion makes some sweeping generalisations about its cultural make-up which further muddies the waters:

"The culture of the Internet is a culture made up of a technocratic belief in the progress of humans through technology, enacted by communities of hackers thriving on free and open technological creativity, and materialized by money-driven entrepreneurs into the workings of the new economy" (Castells, p.61).

I guess it got me thinking at least!

General twitterings...

Grief, I really am becoming a Twitter bore... but anyhoo... here is my quick an' dirty list of things which make Twitter slightly less annoying than sitting in the front of the class whilst everyone behind you passes notes and whispers whilst you can't follow what they're saying...

1. Use a browser like Flock which has a built in facility to display and update Twitter in a handy dandy little sidebar
2. Try a desktop client which can sit happily in the background and colour codes entries so you can follow what's headed your way and what's just 'blah'. Twhirl seems to be a goody for doing just this!
3. Find some people to follow who actually have something you might find worthwhile reading. Tweetscan can find entries by keyword - and it's always worth bunging in any old terms to see who's moaning about their boss / work for a laugh. :o)
4. Learn the lingo. There are certain features which will make using Twitter make more sense. The '@' function is one of them... and other useful ones are tucked away and listed as being Twitter nanoformats - yes, it's mildly geeky, but worth a look if you're shy of something to do for a few milliseconds.
5. Look at the alternatives - Pownce, Jaiku, even Facebook status updates... see what else is out there and do a little comparing an' contrasting. The simplicity of Twitter is strangely refreshing.
6. Toddle back to Twitter and decide to find out what other people are saying about it. Web 2.0 Teaching tools entry on Twitter is a great place to start looking if you're interested in using it in education... and then have a wander through the links they suggest. It'll get you thinking at any rate!

Twitter. Not sure. Use it with Flock and Twhirl and see what you think!

General twittering

This week, I will mostly be trying to get my head round the capabilities of Twitter... and the jury is not quite delivering the strongly negative reaction I've given it in the past, but there's a nagging little voice that won't stop badgering me about the issue of identity and social networking tools...

There seems to be an inherent inflexibility in all of these forms of social networking that they're unable to cope with the niches we create in our own lives. Twitter becomes a little like doing a loud stage whisper about something you're up to - letting those people you want to know, know... and letting those people you actually don't want to know, know too! It's all or nothing. There's no grouping in these things which adequately accommodates the complexity of our messy relationships.

Is everyone destined to become a bland, middle-of-the-road version of themselves for fear of offending someone / some future useful contact / future employer / a.n.other?! Is that where life in the connected world is taking us? I can think of several really useful functions for lots of different web2.0 tools... but... I wonder if in our rush to explore and use these tools during the early days, that we're not risking missing some important functions because they don't yet allow us the subtlety we need?

Twitter?

Hmmmm... still not convinced.  I've started to use Twitter a little more... but in no more meaningful way than the trite head-emptying involved in updating my status on Facebook.  I get the idea of building community, but I don't get the idea that building community means I need to know that someone has just put the kettle on or that I let people know I'm off to bed.  I suppose that my perspective would be different if I were actively using it in my work, within a small group - but it seems so unsubtle.  You update it, or you don't.  You follow someone or you don't.  You have a limited number of characters so whilst you might say 'ah, but it fosters concise writing', it might also be said to foster trivial writing.  What is there of real community building worth that can be said in 140 characters?  That couldn't be found in Facebook / MySpace with their additional features...

As I say, I remain to be convinced...