Re: [ifets] Technology Vs. Learning

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Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 19:03:50 +0000 

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 19:03:50 +0000
From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [ifets] Technology Vs. Learning

I am interested in Arun's comments as concepts of expertise and mastery
form part of the language of constructivist education, particulaly in
Collins, Brown and Duguid's formulation of cognitive apprenticeship.

However mastery and expertise are social constructions in their own right,
and the apprentice will live a different world to the world of his/her
teacher ( gender specific language appologised for).

We live in a world of major changes and old mastery rapidly becomes a skill
to view in a theme park. We live in a world where it is beneficial to be
flexible, multi-skilled and skilled in learning new skills rather than
having narrow strengths. This is as true for the modern equivalent of the
agricultural labourer as it is for the neuro surgeon.

Therefore is is ever more important to situate learning in its social
context rather than reifying it to some abstract structure (like "the
roots",or, dare I say it "schools"). For it is in the real world where
changes and new knowledge and understanding is being created.

This is what makes the new technology so compulsive for me... it helps me
connect with big forces.

To continue our debate on teacher's reluctance to embrace changing
technology... a major problem teachers face is that they are probabaly the
most disconnected group of professionals in the world. They work in secret
worlds of classrooms where other teachers rarely see them work. They have
often been denied the most basic of communication systems. I think teachers
are probably the last professional group to have access to telephones.
"Teachers talking with teachers" is not a well structured aspect of the
profession. Why should we expect new ideas to get through?

Martin

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