Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1339] Re:NonLinear Learning
From: adamson (adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp)
Date: Mon 12 Mar 2001 - 04:48:53 MET
From: "adamson" <adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1339] Re:NonLinear Learning Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 12:48:53 +0900
Charles Nelson wrote:
> How do we determine the nonlinearity of stories? It doesn't seem to
> me that it would be determined simply by how many links are
> available; rather, there should be some juxtaposition of new and old,
> related yet unrelated, concepts.
I would think that the number of links would have some importance and this
would be related to the edge of chaos. Just a couple of links and learning
will be minimal because the material is inflexible and does not reconize
that the student may already know specific things but not know other things.
On the other hand, it the number of links is too large, the student will
soon get lost and learning will suffer. The last point will definitely be
true if we measure learning from a set of goals drawn up by the teacher or
the programmer. If we measure learning by change in the student but without
reference to goals, I expect that we would again find that too many links
promoted fewer changes. 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.
> If that's the case, how do we
> recognize optimal juxtaposition? Or even satisfactory juxtaposition?
>
I suspect that the answer to these questions will be just like Japanese
laws - a question of case-by-case answers. What is new to one student will
be old to another, even after they have been working at the same materials
for a substantial amount of time.
> I like the idea of nonlinear stories for our multiple minds, but not
> having really given it much thought before, I'm curious: What will
> these stories look like, or how will we recognize them? And how do we
> determine which ones accomplish nonlinear learning the best, or at
> least better than others?
>
The traditional novel seems to fit this. There are multiple tracks and
various levels of meaning. This is one of the reasons that I use a novel or
play as text for teaching languages, rather than the traditional grammar
based drill book.
> Plus, is nonlinear learning the best for all situations? Should there
> be a mix of nonlinear and linear learning? Simply because the brain
> is forced to sort information doesn't necessarily imply that it can't
> learn better/faster if could receive information requiring less
> sorting.
>
If by nonlinear you mean having more than one goal, then I would say that it
is best. If you just mean the ability to jump around through links, it may
be another story. Also it depends on the goal of the education. In language
we have this problem but many teachers do not acknowledge it. There are
differences depending on whether your goal is eventually to produce a few
students who master the subject to a deep level or to get all of the
students to a specific level. An example of the first might be a national
program to insure that there are x number of people in the country who can
speak to the Klingons when they arrive. Here you put many people into the
basic levels and continual screen out the ones who can't keep up. At the end
of the process you have a few people who have become experts. An example of
the second is basic training in the military. Here everyone needs to know
certain things, so everything is taught from the basics without leaving out
any of the steps.
Charles Adamson
Miyagi University
Sendai, Japan
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