Julian Newman (jne@gcal.ac.uk)
Sun, 10 Oct 1999 12:08:06 +0100
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 12:08:06 +0100 From: Julian Newman <jne@gcal.ac.uk> Subject: Re: IFETS-DISCUSS Digest - 8 Oct 1999 to 9 Oct 1999
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Muhammad Betz <mbetz@sosu.edu> wrote:
>
> What is the relationship of technology to learning? That is the irony that
> I see in this discussion. Flexible learning, as described in the paper,
> smacks of being driven by a quest to use technology. I would say the FL is
> not the "panacea" here, but a cover for the hidden "panacea" of technology.
> Is FL a systematic effort to improve education or is it driven by fashion?
> It seems that technology is a given in the FL paradigm; the horse before the
> cart, if you will.
It seems to me that both technology developers and educators will have
their
separate research and development agendas. At any particular time,
technological developments offer some new opportunities, while educators
will be reacting to new demands and requirements. "Flexible Learning"
or "Lifelong Learning" or "Continuing Professional Development" arise as
buzzwords that are used to discuss (or to flag up discussion of) areas
of mutual interest that emerge from such concatenation of
circumstances. I look at this from the perspective of one who (a)
graduated in Psychology and Philosophy by part-time study, while
employed in the Computer industry (b) have taught and researched in both
Psychology and Computing (c) currently lead a CSCW and Distributed
Applications Research Group which includes both people whose main
expertise is
in the social aspects of computer-mediated cooperation, and people whose
main expertise is in the underlying distributed systems technology. I
don't think that CSCW applications (including virtual universities) can
sensibly be developed on the basis of either kind of expertise in
disregard of the other.
In general, developing technology involves recognising user requirements
and trying to create solutions that meet those requirements. So talking
about
"a quest to use technology" suggests a misperception of technology (or
perhaps we should say it suggests rather naive technologists?)
I have found the following schema to be quite useful (put forward by
John Long
in the mid-1980s):-
Science (Pure or Applied): the basic knowledge
Engineering: Uses Applied Science to create functions (e.g. lifting,
calculating ...)
Systems Development: Study requirements, then try to use the results
of Engineering to synthesise solutions that are optimised (or I would
say "satisficed") with respect to those requirements
It seems to me that "Technology" is rather loosely used to mean either
Applied Science, Engineering or Systems Development, perhaps often
when people criticise an approach for being technology-driven, what
they really mean is that it is Engineering driven without having done
the appropriate requirements analysis etc associated with Systems
Development.
I might add that, because complex systems have emergent properties, we
cannot
assume there is a linear progression from Science through to Systems
Development. Once a system based on new technology has been developed
and deployed, we need to complete the loop and go back to Science to
find out what really happens when people find themselves in this new
environment, which may
be quite different from what was expected or intended - and in
particular we need to recognise that technologically-based systems
EVOLVE, as emphasised in Software Engineering by Lehmann. Scientific
investigation of the emergent properties should provide feedback to
system developers.
Overheard in Brussels: "Don't say 'solution', say 'Problem migration
path'."
Julian Newman
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