Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 09:41:32 +0000
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 09:41:32 +0000 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk> Subject: Re: [ifets] Second Summary of Chris O'Hagan's conference topic
>Martin Owen responses to Bob Leamnson with "There is chemical difference
>between knowing and unknowing
>in a human brain....There is clear evidence that that knowing in the world
>has a clutural
>historic ontology".
Sometimes you read your own words and... I think I may have misrepresented
myself, Maturana and Varela.
Humans differ, however we are substantally biologically similar. If there
is a difference in the "knowing" and "unknowing" brain where did that
difference originate? Did they originate inside the body? I don't think so.
That is whyI find the seasrchlight and the bucket analogies are both
unhelpful. The changes can only happen because of that coupling of action
on the environment and action of the environment on us. We may share
learning with tools (either Samantha's book or Arun's AI tutor), however to
quote Maturana: "Everything that has been said, has to have been said by
someone". Human agency in these sturctures can not be omitted. They are
human actions objectified. Notwithstanding that, the video cassette and the
word processor have changed the environment.
I have every sympathy with teachers who avoid technology. For those of us
who have embraced technology, the social conditions to do it have been
right for us. For most teachers the social conditions to embrace (some)
technologies are not yet right.
However, in my teaching career I have seen one technology revolutionise
teaching in the UK. I was a school student in the early 60's. The only time
I saw teacher produced material was either at an examination time ( the
exam paper) ... or transient material on the blackboard. Xerography has
changed that out of all recognition. It made mixed ability and locally
produced teaching resources possible. This changed practice and
expectations completely. You may ask why has the photocopier been such a
success with teachers.
I sit in a corner of the world where our "silicon learning technology" is a
dying industry. Our major employment was in the extraction of slate ;-)
Martin
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