Subject: Re: structure
From: Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 08 Nov 1999 - 19:31:52 MET
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 18:31:52 +0000 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk> Subject: Re: structure
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I am interested in the dialogue between Ania and Farhad, and the notion of
optimisation in particular.
I find one of the most interesting aspects of systems theory is Ashby's Law
of Pre-Requisite Variety:
:For a system of complexity n, we need to engineer a system of variety n +
1 to manage it"
When systems theory is applied to education there is a tendency to
attenuate both complexity so as to have a manageable variety. It is
usualIy the only way that ID people can come up with a pre-packaged design
and get their predicted outcomes. Is this what is meant by "optimisation"?
There are however other aspects of systems where "optimisation" is not
determined by the pre-conceived design, but by the community of learners.
Key systems terminology are not optimisation, control and management but:
communication, coordination, feedback/iteration and self regulation.
I go with Aina when she says
"I believe we can achieve all the goals of collaboration, participation,
interaction, and many more important ones in ways that need not reduce
learners' forms of exploration to the structures designed and conceived as
exploratory and explanatory."
(However that does not mean that they don't need help!)
Martin
(Variety Engineer),
Martin Owen
T.M.Owen@bangor.ac.uk
School of Education Yr Ysgol Addysg
University of Wales, Bangor Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor
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