helen chappel-hayios (hchappel@hol.gr)
Sat, 13 Feb 1999 21:23:40 -0800
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 21:23:40 -0800 From: helen chappel-hayios <hchappel@hol.gr> Subject: a caveat ?
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A quick introduction and then comment. I am taking a final (3rd year) MA
course at OUUK Open & Distance Learning. I have a
multidisciplinary/multicultural background and a fair number of years
in educational technology & management.
I have followed this discussion with considerable interest.
In general terms I do think it is important to return to take a look at
the instructional side of the education equation, and to focus on the
role of instructional design if only because there has been extreme
emphasis in recent times on understanding learners..that's good of
course but education has two sides, as has been commented,and they both
need constant investigating and updating.
As to the central proposition in this discussion I like the suggestion
that we try to ground it (Leonard Rosen Wed, 10th) ), if we can't, then
Bob Leamnson (Wed,10th) is right that the central proposition may be
true but it is not very helpful, especially to those of us ( like David
Robotham Wed 10th)) with large classes and increasing instructional
pressure. Grounding this discussion in a concrete example might not
weaken the initial claim but I think it might show some dangers with the
potential application of the theory to practice.
Keyboarding is the concrete subject I would like to offer here. Anyone
following this discussion can be assumed to have one and know what is
being talked about.
So what would the central proposition say about this "content"? If I
have understood correctly, it would say that there are certain things
that need to be shown/done & responded to to enable keyboard use, and
that everything else is secondary, and that the certain things are
dictated/indicated by the subject "keyboard" itself.
The worrying implication to me in these times of globalization of
education is that it a very small step to then claim universal ( or very
wide anyway) application. If it comes from the "keyboard" then it will
hold true for "keyboard" instruction wherever taught.
Yet Terry Fuller comments about teaching keyboarding in Oman should
alert us to the obvious that "keyboarding' is unlikely to be the only
thing being taught here. There are all sorts of skills and attitudes
which the instructors and students will need to acquire/develop along
with the keyboarding skills per se. Many of these surrounding issues are
likely to not have been made explicit, either by the learners or the
educational providers, and some will surely emerge on the spot in the
course of instruction. In some cultures and age groups for example
keyboarding is seen as a menial skill, and reversing this will need to
be included as a learning outcome.
In terms of the theory I suppose we just say well this simply expands
the defined learning outcomes, and I guess that's so, but it also shows
how easy it would be to move from this position to one of
oversimplification of definition of the learning goals.
Perhaps it was something like this that Elaine Van Melle, meant when
she said""depends on how you define "optimal learning". I would like to
think that this is context dependent." We can say, as David Merrill
does (Wed 10th feb) that "My simple, straight forward (I thought)
message is that the primary structure of an instructional strategy is
determined by goals" but we might want to add a caveat which says " that
it's not so easy to be sure what all those goals are " and that where
this theory emerges from the realms of theory into practical areas, we
need to be carefull not too oversimplify the idea of goals.
Perhaps this could be an interesting way to look at this subject.?
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