Blog # 3: Breaking Free from our Chains of Thought

Presentation of a visual analogy comparing linear though process to a chain with one point of connection on each side of a link and multi-dimensional though process to the image a spider web with multiple points of connection both direct and indirect lends well to this discussion of the capacity of students living in this high tech world to “think deeply.” As our learning society, based on Western or American educational philosophy, shifted to the linear process of content presentation and development of literacy skills we have historically removed students motivation to create their own links to contextualize new information in ways meaningful for their culture and interests. The ability to for students to conceptualize abstract connections between experience and areas of unique interests, which in the past have inspired creativity and innovation, was slowly whittled down to fit the prescribed way of connecting new and old knowledge bases. Coupled with this linear means to accumulate new knowledge we have also removed varying cultural influences such as story and song teaching new with old beliefs or “historical” remembrances, which may or may not encourage diversity in problem solving methods. I ask a counter question to Tarlow and Spangler, the authors of our reading: Did the era which incorporated “linear” and “traditional” methods of presenting and analyzing information from which we appear to be emerging ever provide the skills and tools to enable the citizen majority to think deeply? As they themselves suggest “The attitude adjustment which we must make is to accept and respect this multi-dimensional thinking that is not part of our psyche (Tarlow, 2001).”

As an Environmental Education specialist working primarily in non-traditional settings I am called daily to force myself from habits of prejudgment as to the path of connection, prescribed solutions, students capacity for understanding complex themes, and what indeed is an “appropriate” level of understanding for various ages and “abilities.” Literacy is not disappearing or being replaced by technology use and its surrounding cultural practices, instead it is enhanced. True, critical thinking does require time to development awareness and process perspectives, consider effects, and build relationships (Dwyer 1987; Lin & Dwyer 2004). However this linear sense of required time to reach a level of deep thought or metacognition may not apply in the same capacity in a multi-dimensional approach which utilizes technologies to facilitate learning and enable access to previously “unreachable” (from a student’s viewpoint) information. As we know in our past cultural dimensions neither time nor presentation means ensured deep though or even comprehension, in part perhaps due to individual difference in learning style, media preferences, or processing direction. Could our high tech students be prating problem solving skills, which inherently and intuitively bypass extraneous information to enable more meaningful personal connections and solutions represented in their own cultural language and in their own required time frame?

Utilizing the chain/ web analogy to support the manufactured ideal of sufficent time necessary to reach a level of critical though I offer the following visualiztions. Chains can be looped and woven about but travel along the route designed is still linear, movement from one link to the next must happen sequentially, stepping off the line is not conceptually possible unless it happens at a point of intersection. To embellish this vision think of a “food chain” One animal eats another, and another becoming prey to another in turn eats the prior predator. Although we know that each object in this study may indeed eat other foods or be eaten by other predators we are not encouraged to make these outside connections. Time to move to critical thought about the entire process is determined by the length of chain and loops of thought only closed when the particular circle closes. The concept of multi-dimensional thought as represented by the concept of an orb like spider web with spoke emanating from a central point, with multiple connections linking each spoke enables virtual travel between viewpoints, information and themes. Complete understandings of concepts entwined within the web can develop with more depth accommodating now for the permission to travel in brachial directions. The accessibility of information through media outlets and the Internet allow for this very type of multifaceted knowledge quest. At times the path will be shorter, others longer, some more in depth or shallow; these variables of time for acquisition and depth of knowledge or thought are dependent on the various short-cuts or side-stops a student in this high-tech era decides to make since multi-dimensional creative thinning is indeed in their Psyche.



References

Dwyer, F. (1987). Enhancing visualized instruction: Recommendations for the practitioner. Pa. Learning Services.

Lin, C-L., & Dwyer, F. (2004). Effects of varied animated enhancement strategies in facilitating achievement of different educational objectives. International Journal of Instructional Media, 31(2), 185-198. Retrieved , from Research Library database. (Document ID: 716033351).

Tarlow, M.C. & Spangler, K. L. (2001, November). Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply? The Education Digest, 67(3), 23-27. Retrieved February 22, 06, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 85508168).

Blog #2
Thoughts...McLuhan’s Tetrad on Educational Technologies

What is a community? Abstracted from the ecological definition, a community consists of biota such as flora and fauna interacting with abiotic or non-living factors. The biotic components survival is affected by availability of nutrients, water, shelter and space. Over eons the organisms that comprise the living compliment in the community have developed adaptations in attempt to utilize the nonliving influences. Those with beneficial adaptations, those that encourage survival, have flourished. Organisms with inappropriate adaptations or those with the inability to adapt behaviors to changing circumstances quickly become obsolete in their community thus move to extinction.

Communities change as the abiotic factors are altered, whether through natural influence or manipulation. Through the development of adaptations such as the Internet, communication/collaboration tools, tutorial and simulation software, videogames, and productivity tools educators and software developers have again changed the community. Many within the community had relinquished former adaptations thought to be of bygone days. These analytical thinking and questioning tools are again becoming critical for survival in our fast-paced information, rich-environment. Planning for present and future uses of technology are absolutely necessary to prevent inundation of negative applications and to keep progress directed in a line to promote thought and literate citizens.

The “new” abiotic factors that have become integral in the “community infrastructure,” as we know it, provide extensions that expand the reach of nearly all human activities, both positive and negative. Communications are no longer bound by proximity, mobility of though between different populations as Sayed stated in his Wiki entry. “…with cars people {literally] move less but their cars move them a lot so their mobility is extended.” If used correctly these tools enable students to contact and experience cultures and events from which they would have previously been isolated. Accessibility to new thoughts and opposing viewpoints fosters development of analytical thinking skills which include the ability to not only question others perspective but evaluation and confrontation of one’s own thought and misconceptions.
Access to expertise is an outstanding benefit of the technological changes to the abiotic component in our community. In both the video shown and class discussion on February 8 reference was made about conducting brain surgery long distance. Although the technology is still developing we see great steps being taken in that very direction. For example in the field of dermatology as with many others, training had jumped Online through the use of real-time video and time zone independent communications such as store-and forward. Benefits include easy access to second opinions, something that can be critical in the case of aggressive cancers, and also diagnostic training for identification and treatment “exotic” conditions such as parasitic infestations (Burg, et al., 2005).
Acknowledging warnings and predictions presented by our classmates in the sections “What becomes oblsolete?” and “What does technology revert to if it is overextended?” I counter that we now have opportunity as a community to once again develop our critical thinking tools (adaptations) that became atrophied well before the advent of television and the Internet. Members of the community can now use the masses of information to hone and strengthen our questioning of choices and information that have been provided. Options for information are now at our fingertips available at the blink of an eye. It’s time for “Alternative news and Views” to borrow from the title of a Berks County cable program produced by Robert Millar, a good friend and political science professor. Of course dangers do lurk in our “community” however if skilled and literate our students and citizens will be able to successfully wade through the mire and find additional relevant and beneficial abiotic factors which will aid in their survival.

Reference

Burg, G., Hasse, U., Cipolat, C., Kropf, R.; Djamei, V., Soyer, H. P., Chimenti, S. (2005). Teledermatology: Just Cool or a Real Tool? Dermatology, 210(2), 169-173. Retrieved
February 15, 2006, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 796791381).

Blog Reflection 1: Does or Will Media Effect Learning?

Are we asking the correct questions about the influence of media on learning?

Richard E. Clark ignited a firestorm of discussion and laid open may potential research venues when he broached the topic of learning and media in his 1983 position paper Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media. Since that first publication Clark and Robert D. Kozma have been at odds challenging and conceding unwillingly to various points of conflict. Underlying the discord are the very definitions of what defines media, learning success and what divisions can be made to eliminate confounds such as teaching method. In 1994 Clark and Kozma again took to battle with reformulated arguments in their articles Media Will Never Influence Learning and Will Media Influence Learning: Reframing the Debate.

Key to Clark’s argument is his assertion that the definition of instructional method must be autonomous from that of a medium or delivery technology and the confusion of technologies impedes proper research and evaluation. By contending, “when a study demonstrates that media attributes are sufficient to cause learning, the study has failed to control for instructional method and is therefore confounded” Clark ultimately opens even more confounds for exploration. In his attempts to oversimplify the influences of media on learning he ignores the fact that various tools are better suited for completing a task. The fact that a tool not be necessary for instruction or task completion should not translate and define the potential usefulness of the tool. Absent from the Clark discussion are not only the attributes specific to the selected media which lend it to a particular but also external circumstances which must be acknowledged in a thorough evaluation of media efficacy in learning outcomes. Borrowing from Clark and Kozma’s example of analogy use to demonstrate this point of interdependence I offer this example. To understand a forest we need not only to understand each of the individual species internal systems and individual worth but also understand the ecological or external attributes of each organism and how these affect interactions between species and the system as a whole.

In May 2005 Nancy Hastings and Monica Tracey published yet another summary/ rebuttal to the Clark-Kozma argument, Does Media Affect Learning: Where are we now? By immediately addressing Clark’s long standing determination that the only effect media has had on learning is “cost and distribution (of knowledge),” and not increase learning outcome they raise awareness about the direction of research inquiry to date. Clark’s arguments sit upon skill and drill outcomes instead of cognitive process, social value and accessibility to resources. Instead I suggest we begin to evaluate media not merely as tools for replication as a surrogate for “traditional” methods to present content but as channels for development of new instructional methodologies.

Perhaps the question we should ask is…which combination of instructional method and media integration best increases a student’s learning potential defined by successful acquisition and application of knowledge to novel situations?

Added 2/15 (realized upon review of comments my bilographic reference did not make the "cut and paste first time round)

Hastings, N. B., Tracey, M, W. (2005). Does Media Affect Learning: Where Are We Now? TechTrends, 49(2), 28-30. Retrieved February 15, 2006, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 841258651).