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Posts tagged ‘learning’

15
Jun

I’m Confused! Thought I was a Social Constructionist!

Learning has many faces. Many models. Our educational models can serve us – but we need to keep our minds open.  The science of learning, in fact any science, is not ‘truth’.  It is about models – models that are tested over time and circumstance – each approximating the truth.

I was asked recently by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach in one of the Powerful Learning Practice’s eLearning courses – How do you define learning?

Well, I spend a lot of time thinking about how people learn. Good thing -  considering I’m a teacher! ;-)

(I am sure you do too!)

I would have easily answered that at different times in my career. In recent times, I could have quickly answered from a social constructionist perspective.

It’s not so clear to me these days – as I read more and as I think more.

 

‘How do you define learning’ is a question that reminds me of Seymour Sarason’s book “And What do You Mean by Learning”.  It took a whole book!  :-)

Sometimes for this kind of question, I really fall back to Piaget’s description of assimilation and accommodation.

I fall less to Skinner’s operant conditioning theories — although, I must admit, as I read more through a certain lens these days, I am intrigued by the impact such a perspective may have for us. Some of these readings are listed here:

Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

Who’s in Charge? Free Will & the Science of the Brain by Michael S. Gazzaniga

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemann

Throughout these 40 or so years, I have traveled the path of behaviorism, constructivism, cognitivism, social constructivism, contructionism, social constructionism, intentional learning theory, connectivism — now I am a ‘pot pourri of ponderings’. ;-)

Models and theories, to me, are not the truth – as I have indicated in Limited, and Fooled by, Our Senses and in The Trickery of Temporary Truths.  However, they serve us well in helping us think about possibilities.

Intentional Learning theory, proposed by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter, has resonated with me for a long time. It, for me, accommodates this pot pourri. Carl, you may not know, was a leading behaviorist back in the day. He, along with Engelmann, developed Distar in the sixties. He followed this with SRA and, more recently, Open Court. Marlene and he then developed CSILE (Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments) which is now Knowledge Forum. They are premier pioneers and prophets in ‘knowledge building’. See their Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology.

What I am appreciating is the rich, textured fabric of ‘what learning is’ – that it is illuminated by many of these theories – and more.

It seems to me that Judith V. Boettcher’s 10 Core Learning Principles speak to my ‘pot pourri’ in saying, “Research findings into how our brains work* are stimulating a re-examination of traditional principles of designing teaching and learning experiences. Insights from this research are not only helping to deepen our understanding of traditional core learning principles, but they are also providing practical guidance on how to design learning experiences for our new high technology environments.”

(Bolding is mine.)

I am constantly redefining learning and all the practices related to it.

How do you define learning?

* Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 2000; Damasio 1999; Pinker 1997

Related articles
23
Jan
Take time to find your way

Intentional Serendipity – “Getting to where ideas can find you”

‘Intentional serendipity’ requires learners to be intentional and educators to create a cultural surround that is conducive to supporting those intentions. It is not the serendipity that is intentional. It is the learner’s frame of mind and the affordances of the learning environment.

Ok…that’s sort of what arose out my deeper thinking about this concept after conversations with Alan Levine (@cogdog) and Dean Shareski (@shareski).

Then I had an interesting read this past weekend – Eleanor Duckworth’s article Helping Students Get to Where Ideas Can Find Them.

The title sure smacks of ‘intentional serendipity’ and the article delineates some conditions which may be precursors to this phenomenon.  Read more »

10
Mar

The Importance of the ‘First Follower’

I had the good fortune of being part of the YMCA of Greater Toronto‘s Learning Forum on Diversity & Social Inclusion organized by colleagues Jim Milligan, Mike Dodds, Atena Moehring, Kim-Ha Nguyen, and Marcy Robertson.

There are many concepts, perspectives and tools that I take away from this experience. These will be extremely useful to me in my work both at the YMCA and in my other education world.

The concept I wish to share with you here is that of the power and influence of the ‘first follower‘.  Here are some of the main points from a video that was shown.

  1. Leaders are over-rated. If someone does not follow, they are just lone nuts.
  2. The first follower is the one who creates a leader.
  3. The leader had the wisdom to treat the first follower as an equal, which encouraged him to join and stay.
  4. The people who come next are excited to join because now it is still cool and is safe as a lot of people are rushing in.
  5. Somewhere along the way, the people who do NOT join are now appearing to be the nutty ones.
  6. First followers provide an underrated form of leadership.

 

How might this experience relate to leadership in your school, district or other work environment?

28
May

Blue dye plus water? Or blue water?

Paul Levinson, as referenced by Derrick de Kerckhove in The Skin of Culture says, “The addition of a drop of blue dye to a glass of water results not in blue dye plus water, but in blue water: a new reality.” De Kerckhove indicates that McLuhan (his mentor) and others pointed out that “the inculcation of the habit of literacy results not in a pre-literate world plus readers, but in a literate world: a new world in which everything is seen through the eyes of literacy“.

So is there a new reality with regards to technology merging with humanity?

Have we successfully integrated Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) into the lives of students? It seems to me that this will be achieved when we see them not simply using ICT as ‘tools’, but rather when we see students thinking differently as a result of their ubiquitous presence and facility. The invention of words, and subsequently the printing press, resulted in a new literacy because people now had words with which to think and to communicate. ‘Blue water’ with respect to ICT means that people must sufficiently appropriate these technologies in order that they become ‘media with which to think and to communicate’.

Or perhaps it is indeed the wrong question to ask – ‘have we successfully integrated ICT’? Perhaps the situation is that in spite of the education system, people are in the ‘blue water’ of a technological literacy. People adapt and evolve faster than the systems they must occupy.

I think, as teachers, we have a role to play.

28
May

Lessons of the Long Tail for Professional Learning

“Why don’t people participate in our online space?”

There are very few online spaces that maintain an ongoing conversation around ‘events’ or ‘topics’. This has been thought to be the case and so organizations set them up with all the best intentions and dreams.  And, believe me, there is a HUGE number of these online…that have come and gone. Part of what we need to realize is that we are in an evolutionary, discovery stage of the societal implementation of social media.

…we are in an evolutionary, discovery stage of the societal implementation of social media

We also need to realize the implications for ‘centralized’ vs ‘distributed’ / ‘connectivist’ structures for learning.  What this means is that organizations are not the controllers/creators/disseminators of information or conversations.  The role of the organization needs to be different these days. Note that we are encouraging our classrooms to become ‘studio classrooms‘ that are inquiry and project based.
…support students as they struggle to make sense of the maze of cognitive turbulence…
We are stimulating our teachers to become facilitators of students taking charge of their own learning and of the learning of their group rather than their more traditional role of pouring curriculum into the students. Teachers are inspired to provide moments of awe, to encourage cognitive dissonance, to support students as they struggle to make sense of the maze of cognitive turbulence, to incite and support backwards and forwards reflection.  And, the real learning occurs within the student or between students or perhaps among a small group of students.
…think about how we fortify and brace these learners to engage in distributed conversations…
In this same way, we need to think of our role as professional development organizations. We need to reframe our language to reflect this. Many attempts exist – ‘communities of learners’ and ‘professional learning communities’.  I believe we should consider how this frame applies to how we structure and nourish our learners.  Rather than attempting to bring everyone to a central place to have conversations, we need to think about how we fortify and brace these learners to engage in distributed conversations in their own blogs and/or wikis or Facebook.  Twitter’s role is interesting here.  It provides the mechanism for individuals to flit from one flower to another in search of the nectar.  We could think of it as a ‘butterfly effect’.

 

The real learning exists where people are seeking that nectar and providing links to information and deep conversations (in personal blogs for example).
It is ‘the long tail‘ where this occurs.  Not to say there isn’t a role for the blog that thousands read – but conversation doesn’t occur there – it occurs in the thousands of individual blogs that 5 – 10 people regularly read and chat.  For further explanation of the ‘long tail’ read Clay Shirky’s book – “Here Comes Everybody – The Power of Organizing without Organizations” or read this description.
…provide the encouragement to self-organize…
I believe our role in supporting teachers is to provide the encouragement to self-organize and to teach them the tools to be able to do that effectively.

 

How do these ideas impact our professional learning initiatives?

 

Related Articles
30
Apr

Bricolage, Schools & the Internet

I am amazed at the differences between learning ‘in school’ versus learning ‘out of school’.

Once again, as a result of a post by Graham Attwell ‘How we use technology and the internet for learning‘, I am amazed at the differences between learning ‘in school’ versus learning ‘out of school’. The first time I formally thought of this distinction was when I read an article by Lauren Resnick which was the 1987 Presidential Address – called ‘Learning In School and Out‘. (Full PDF here.) It remains, to this day, one of my favourite articles.  Two of the main points Resnick makes are these:

  • ‘Individual cognition in school versus shared cognition outside.’ In school, the most prevalent form of learning and performance is individual. Oh yes, group activities and ‘collaborative learning’ are common, but when it comes time for judgment, schools typically evaluate the individual performance. In addition, many of the school activities, such as homework, are individual.  Outside of school, tasks and jobs are often socially shared and, as a result, performance of the ‘group’ or ‘team’ is often what is judged.  Resnick cites a beautiful example of this ‘social distribution of knowledge’ by the anthropologist Edwin Hutchins.  Imagine a ship being piloted into and out of San Diego harbour.  There are six people with three different job descriptions.  ‘Two people on the deck take visual sightings on predetermined landmarks, using special telescopic devices mounted on gyrocompasses that yield exact readings of direction. They call out their readings to two other individuals, who relay them by telephone to a specialist on the bridge. This individual records the bearings in a book and repeats them aloud for confirmation. Next to the recorder, another individual uses specialized tools to plot the ship’s position on a navigational chart and to project where the ship will be at the next fix and beyond. These projections of position are used to decide what landmarks should be sighted next by those on deck and when a course correction will be required. The entire cycle is repeated every one to three minutes.  No individual in the system can pilot the ship alone. The knowledge necessary for successful piloting is distributed throughout the whole system.’

No individual in the system can pilot the ship alone. The knowledge necessary for successful piloting is distributed throughout the whole system.

  • ‘Pure mentation in school versus tool manipulation outside.’ In school work, although tools (calculators, spell-checkers, concept-mapping, websites, word-predict, smart phones) are often used during learning, when it comes to assessment and evaluation, these tools are very often not allowed. Schools base the ‘greatest premium’ on solo performance – on a student’s efforts without the use of any tools – books, notes, calculators and all those tools previously mentioned. However, outside of school, people are ‘engaged intimately’ with tools as ‘cognitive partners’, as Gavriel Salomon would say. The ship’s personnel in the previous paragraph clearly used tools to achieve their successes.  Schools need to welcome all the tools and look at performance in partnership with those tools.  Open-book exams, if you are into exams, make more sense than do exams without such access.

Graham Attwell makes the point in the above mentioned post that young people (in fact, many people) ‘are using social software and Web 2.0 technologies for work, play and learning outside institutions’. This is no surprise to many of us. The major difference that this highlights, however, is in the nature of the learning – the formality, the control, the engagement.  Learning in educational institutions is generally ‘system directed’ and ‘formal’.  Learning outside of school is generally ‘self-directed’ and ‘informal’.

Learning in educational institutions is generally ‘system directed’ and ‘formal’.  Learning outside of school is generally ‘self-directed’ and ‘informal’.

Graham cites a Pew Research study which found that 56 percent of American young people were using computers for ‘creative activities, writing and posting of the internet, mixing and constructing multimedia and developing their own content.’ He goes on to describe the ‘bricolage’ nature of this constructionist learning – a phenomenon which Seymour Papert held close to his heart.  The bricoleur tinkered with materials at hand to invent and construct something new.

Schools need to adapt.  Administrators and teachers need to accommodate the tools and devices that many students bring to school.  We need to value true collaboration – with other people and with the tools that serve as cognitive and social partners.

This is quite a challenge for us as a society.  Are we up for it?

Related Articles
3
Mar
collaboration big

Scaffolding for Deep Understanding

How CAN we help our students be the kind of thinkers we want?

My friend and colleague, @brendasherry, recently wrote a thoughtful post called What is Deep Understanding?  She asked several excellent questions:

  • what kind of thinkers do we want our students to be?
  • what is deep understanding?
  • can schools really provide the learning environment to nurture and develop it?

In thinking about these questions, I would like to ask: “How can we help novice learners become more expert learners?” Read more »

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