Subject: This is interaction!!
From: Muhammad Betz (Betz@netcommander.com)
Date: Tue 25 Jan 2000 - 02:40:18 MET
From: "Muhammad Betz" <Betz@netcommander.com> Subject: This is interaction!! Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 19:40:18 -0600
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"In my reflections upon Judy Harris's paper I tried to show that the
interaction proposed in her model appeared one-sided. If this was not enough
troubling, let me ask the following: Is interaction just about the
possibility to click somewhere? Is teaching methodology an alternative
between looking for unspecified things or for highly specified things? If
interaction, as Muhammad puts it, were unproblematic as it is everywhere, is
there a secret worth a PhD in wondering what interaction in education may
mean?" Ania Lian
Judi Harris' concept of telecomputing activities is more interactive than
conceived by Ania. For example, there is a category of Problem Solving
called pooled data analysis. In these types of projects, students from
various classrooms in multiple settings go about the task of gathering data,
building a database, and then collaboratively analyzing the data, using the
Internet as a tool. Other examples of more interactive projects include,
sequential creations, simulations, electronic publishing, et al. The link
provided in the pre-discussion paper to Judi Harris' Virtual Architecture
site is more than a paper: it is a book. If you check out other chapters in
the book you will find examples of the 18 telecomputing activities that
Harris introduces in Chapter 1. Foundational ideas. Harris' concept of
telecomputing activities encourages interaction of students with the
Internet. What we do in this listserv is interaction. I am not sure that I
agree with Ania's almost poetic interpretation of some of the terms, such as
interaction, curriculum, instruction, etc. Sure, prosaic flights of
expostulation can be made from the stepping stones of some of this
discussion's terms, and neologisms can be invented to re-explain what
teaching and learning 'really' are.
Ania says, Regarding the concept of interaction, let us look at a few
thoughts from Bourdieu, a sociologist:
"Utterances receive their value (and their sense) only in relation to a
market, characterized by a particular law of price formation."
I am sorry for not 'tuning in" to the metaphor implied by Bourdieu's line.
We were talking about education, curriculum, instruction, learning and are
now shifted to a new milieu. One could extrapolate or interpolate what this
sentence means to education, and one could ask even more rhetorical
questions. As I have mentioned earlier...I don't have such a pessimistic
view of traditional education. I refer again to David Berliner and Bruce
Biddle's book, The Manufactured Crisis, which examined claims that the
American education system was falling apart in the late 1980's. The
conclusion of the book is that the system is doing remarkably well.
Ania closed by saying, "Interaction hence appears a lot bigger, or more
encompassing, than it is generally thought. It may well be a challenge to
reflect whether and how should this impact on the ways in which we think
about learning and teaching."
I don't agree that the term, interaction, is a lot bigger or more
encompassing than generally thought by the well educated and experienced
readers of this list!! :)
Muhammad Betz, Ph.D.
Educational Instruction & Leadership
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
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