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).