SOCCJON1 (SOCCJON1@livjm.ac.uk)
Thu, 26 Nov 1998 16:16:38 -0500 (EST)
From: SOCCJON1 <SOCCJON1@livjm.ac.uk> Subject: Re: [ifets] still more tomorrows Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 16:16:38 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 25 Nov 1998 17:55:43 -0500 (EST) Bob Leamnson
<RLEAMNSON@umassd.edu> wrote:
> So where, then, is the cause of leaning? I'm convinced that the
> cause of learning resides within the learner. I came to this
> conclusion because no explanation of learning (Thorndike, Pavlov
> and Skinner included) made any sense to me until I read Changeux
> (Neuronal Man). His biological basis of learning showed me that
> learning is not something that is done *to* anyone, it's something
> we do to ourselves.
It would seem to me that all education belies this. The
idea surely is that someone else can by their
intervention within the setting of the 'learners'
activities 'lead them out'.
Indeed only moments later Bob seems to accept this when
he states:
> The learner is the cause of learning--all else is
> facilitation and inspiration.
Isn't that what educators are interested in, the "all
else". Educational practice aims to inspire and to guide
or facilitate, it seems to me to be a very important all
else.
> Whoever wants to learn will make
> optimal use of whatever technology is available.
What evidence do we have for this panglosian view?
Learners constantly need help reassurance etc. In their
use of technology people left to their own devices often
fail to use the technology at all, even an old technology
such as a library. When learners do use the technology
without help they often have a partial view of the
capacity and possible uses of the system.
On a more fundamental point what is the 'learning' that
is referred to? Much of what educators do and what
students learn is in order to fulfill the requirements of
assessment and accreditation. Learning in this sense is
doing what is required by others. There is no simple way
a learner can know what is required of them. It is often
the 'timely intervention' of the educator that interprets
the rules of assessment into the individual setting of
the student-learner.
So what then of old and new technologies? I think that
the key remains the intervention of the educator. I have
also argued that technology is 'contingent', that is it
is cobbled together by the learner and educator in the
context of its use.
E-mail is used alongside 'traditional' lectures, users of
conferencing systems will use the telephone to talk
privately outside of the system, distance students will
travel miles/kilometers to meet each other. There is a
complex bricolage constructed which is neither old nor
new technology.
Chris
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