Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:933] Re: out of context
From: adamson (adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp)
Date: Fri 19 Jan 2001 - 03:52:24 MET
From: "adamson" <adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:933] Re: out of context Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 11:52:24 +0900
"Instead of a blanket statement that more participation means more learning,
I think that we need
to consider both the content of the course and the goals." Charles Adamson
"Of course Charles makes a true point here, but my statement is taken
somewhat out of context. I made the statement in reference to Brent's
paper, in which he decried declining participation in "on-line discussions,"
as courses progressed. Logically, if participation in on-line discussions
decreased, the learning that was to derive from structured discussions would
likewise decrease." Muhammad Betz
The point I was trying to make, and apparently not doing such a good job of
it, is that Muhammad's last sentence is only true if learning is actually
taking place as a result of the interaction. Brent's paper seems to assume
that increased interaction equals increased learning. Two reasons for my
thinking this are that none of the descriptions of other people's papers
mentions any other possibility and his suggestions for further research do
not include the question of determining when increasing interaction would be
valuable. Muhammand's comments seemed to follow Brent's, and as our LAN was
in its usual overcrowded state so accessing Brent's paper was not possible
(everything was timing out before the connections could be made), I cited
Muhammad's comment. I apologize for misrepresenting him, and I am very glad
to see that he agrees at least in general. The comments about the math class
are quite pertinent to the question.
I may well be overly sensitive to this question, because many language
teachers assume that more interaction equals more learning, much to the
detriment of their student's education, just as in Muhammad's math class
example.
Charles Adamson, Ph.D.
Professor, Faculty of Nursing
Miyagi University
1 Gakuen, Taiwa-cho, Kurokawa-gun
Miyagi-ken 981-3298, Japan
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