Think of an episode in your life when you engaged in some significant amount of learning in some environment.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I was an 18 year old studying for my A-levels (university entrance exams for those non-British readers). I was taking 3 subjects. The classrooms consisted of either science lab benches or individual desks. The class sizes varied from 4 other students up to 20.
What do you see as the major components in this learning environment and did these components assist or support your learning?
The major components for learning then consisted of the teacher – “Sage on the stage”, chalk boards – two of which were rolling ones, the course text books (published >20 years prior), a poorly equipped school library (with a cypher for book locations) and the other students. Oh yes, one teacher had a new-fangled device called an OHP and was able to make copies of his notes with a sheet of blue carbon paper and a machine called a stencil duplicator. (Think of Cerf’s and Schutz’s (2002) 2 billion people).
All these components assisted my learning to some degree. The sages directed what they believed I needed to know to pass the exams. Having taught the course for many years they knew what hoops to jump through. The OHPs, Photostats, and chalkboards contained their knowledge to be transmitted and with the scrolling boards, we could even compare two sets of notes!!! The course books and the library held additional information and the other students helped when I couldn’t understand something.
Which of these components could be improved and how?
All of them (and indeed I now believe that we will forever be in perpetual beta)! The teachers could have moved to “a guide on the side” style of teaching. They could also have organised the learning episodes so that there was less emphasis in the transmission based domain and more on problem based learning with a development of “self functioning skills” (Siemens 2005).
As for the classrooms, any of the presentation and classroom participation tools mentioned by Brown (2005) would have helped. Access to the internet would also have meant the text books being only 1 source and “Google jockeying” (Educause, 2006) could have occurred during the teacher’s delivery ensuring not only additional information but also a fostering the ability to question and enquire. (Thanks for the reference Joyce). Libraries, well it seems that while one is now able to have access to a much wider range of material, the same problem of hunting through indexes and strange numbering systems has not been resolved (Lipponcott, 2005). Interaction with other students could have occurred at any time over a variety of social networking sites and any information found added to del.icio.us so as to reduce the pressure on others’ personal bandwidth.
Did some components of the learning environment have a negative impact on your learning? Why?
They did to the extent that it was much harder, less enjoyable and more limiting to achieve the tasks being set. However, at the time these were the known and accepted pedagogical methods and the technological constraints of the era. It was, after all, pre net-gen! They, and we, did the best with what was available. If Brooks’ 2002 prognostications (as found in Kurzweil) come to fruition that, in less than 20 years, we will
“…have to start banning kids with neural Internet connection implants from having them switched on while taking the S.A.Ts”
then the techniques and tools we currently use will appear as antiquated in 20 years time as those of 20 years ago do to us today. Indeed, even the situation envisioned by Neumann and Kyriakakis (2002) has students and teachers remotely placed in,
“a fully immersive aural and visual environment…”with vast archives of all past holographic lessons at the students’ fingertips.
So, did it have, and is my current learning environment having, a negative impact on learning? I suppose it all comes down to whether one subscribes to Clark’s (1994) view or not.
References:
Brooks, R. (2002). Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. Retrieved November, 2007 from
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0397.html?
Brown, M. (2005). Learning Spaces. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation: EDUCAUSE. retrieved November, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen
Cerf, V. & Schutz, C. (2002). Teaching in 2025: Education and Technology Transformed. In Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies. Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce. Retrieved on November 2007 from http://www.technology.gov/reports/TechPolicy/2020Visions.pdf
Clark, R.E. (1994). Media will never influence Learning. In Educational Technology Research and Development, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 21–9.
Del.icio.us. (2007). Social bookmarking. Retrieved November, 2007 from http://del.icio.us/
Educause. (2006). 7 things you should know about...Google Jockeying. In Educause Learning Initiative. Advancing Learning through IT innovation. Retrieved November, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7014.pdf
Lipponcott, (2005). Net Generation students and Libraries. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation: EDUCAUSE. retrieved November, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen
Neumann, U & Kyriakakis, C. (2002). 2020 Classrooms. In Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies. Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce. Retrieved on November 2007 from http://www.technology.gov/reports/TechPolicy/2020Visions.pdf
Siemens, G. (2005). Learning Development Cycle: Bridging Learning Design and Modern Knowledge needs. Retrieved November, 2007 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/ldc.htm
Wikipedia. (2007). The Mimeograph machine. In Wikipedia. Retrieved November, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph
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