Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Reading Response: New Culture of Learning
Chapter 2 of this reading covers, in broad strokes, the difference between two different types of learning environment, the first being a teaching-based learning environment and the second being a learning-based one. The former is a model anyone in the traditional American education system is familiar with. Teachers, the authority figure, impart knowledge of a subject or task to their students. The latter is a less fixed model, but the overall idea is learning by doing, with everyone in the environment on a more even playing field and learning from each other rather than superiors teaching the 'lesser educated' members of the group.
The teaching-based model, in an ideal world, is based on efficiency. This emphasis on learning the most material in the least amount of time is incredibly prevalent in American educational culture. Younger and younger students are being given more work of a more complex quality than students just a few years ahead of them. I have experienced this personally, having a brother 5 years younger than I am. While I did not receive homework until the first grade, my brother who went to the same school began receiving homework in preschool at the age of four, and observing his class time made it clear to me that his preschool and kindergarten years were much more about structure and teaching specific information than it was about educational play and topic exploration. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, if the students are being taught at a level that is appropriate for their age and they are still receiving adequate time for independent play or, should they choose it, independent learning of a topic they find to be interesting. Passion, after all, is one of the best motivators to learn. The concern about this model comes when children, and indeed young adults at the high school and even college level as well, are not learning efficiently. Some people say the answer to this is to try to streamline the process more, to cram more information into young heads even faster, but I would argue that this the wrong answer to the wrong question. It is here that the concept of learning-based education comes into play.
Learning-based education is a less "structured" format of education in which students are not taught to directly but rather encouraged to teach themselves alongside help and encouragement from those more experienced than themselves. This is not the same as teaching yourself from a textbook, which admittedly some students I know have had to do in college when a professor was less than helpful at explaining the subject. No, self-teaching in this context is learning through exploration of a topic, by going out and doing research, by asking questions, and if comprehension still fails, asking for help. This technique may not always be effective - I would rather be taught directly about handling hazardous chemicals in an organic chemistry class than exploring the subject myself, for example - but it absolutely has a place in many subjects, both in traditional education and more hobby-based study. While I am not a researcher on this subject and could not say for certain whether learning-based education is necessarily better than teaching-based education, I will say that the concept appeals to me more. It gives freedom to explore topics that the individual finds interesting, fun, or that they would simply like to know more about.
Chapter 3 of this reading is concerned with the rapidly-changing information, as well as the rapidly-changing techniques with which we apply this information, in our modern era. As the digital age continues, the way we use information changes constantly, sometimes several times even within a year. We adopt new devices, use new software, create and update new databases. At the same time, we are always learning new things, and as a consequence we must accept that some things we learned to be true at one point in life are not correct, and that even this new information that proves our old way of thinking false may itself be proved false in time.
The internet is the prime example of an ever-changing digital environment that is used for all sorts of things. As the years go on, access to the internet becomes easier and faster, allowing for bigger and better websites, databases, and other such things. To look back on a website from the early days of the internet, with their very plain formatting, plain text, and animated .gifs, all state-of-the-art at the time, is almost nostalgic now. Simply by comparing such a website with the websites of today we can see the leaps and bounds we've made. What about databases such as Wikipedia? Dictionary.com? Google and Google Scholar? Such immense pools of information so easily accessible with the push of a button was unheard of not all that long ago.
This change brings about a great many positive things, but it can also make things difficult. Rapid change can be difficult to adapt to, and those who cannot adapt as quickly as other people may fall behind and eventually begin to reject newer technologies due to feeling alienated by them. This is obviously a problem, so what can be done about it? Teaching-based education would likely fail here, as by the time the information has been taught it could very well have been changed again. A situation like this calls for the more immersive education provided by learning-based methods. By using a teaching method that is able to constantly change as the need arises, such as learning by doing, people may very well be able to adapt to change more quickly.
Ideas in this blog post in part inspired by: http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/newcultureoflearning.pdf
The teaching-based model, in an ideal world, is based on efficiency. This emphasis on learning the most material in the least amount of time is incredibly prevalent in American educational culture. Younger and younger students are being given more work of a more complex quality than students just a few years ahead of them. I have experienced this personally, having a brother 5 years younger than I am. While I did not receive homework until the first grade, my brother who went to the same school began receiving homework in preschool at the age of four, and observing his class time made it clear to me that his preschool and kindergarten years were much more about structure and teaching specific information than it was about educational play and topic exploration. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, if the students are being taught at a level that is appropriate for their age and they are still receiving adequate time for independent play or, should they choose it, independent learning of a topic they find to be interesting. Passion, after all, is one of the best motivators to learn. The concern about this model comes when children, and indeed young adults at the high school and even college level as well, are not learning efficiently. Some people say the answer to this is to try to streamline the process more, to cram more information into young heads even faster, but I would argue that this the wrong answer to the wrong question. It is here that the concept of learning-based education comes into play.
Learning-based education is a less "structured" format of education in which students are not taught to directly but rather encouraged to teach themselves alongside help and encouragement from those more experienced than themselves. This is not the same as teaching yourself from a textbook, which admittedly some students I know have had to do in college when a professor was less than helpful at explaining the subject. No, self-teaching in this context is learning through exploration of a topic, by going out and doing research, by asking questions, and if comprehension still fails, asking for help. This technique may not always be effective - I would rather be taught directly about handling hazardous chemicals in an organic chemistry class than exploring the subject myself, for example - but it absolutely has a place in many subjects, both in traditional education and more hobby-based study. While I am not a researcher on this subject and could not say for certain whether learning-based education is necessarily better than teaching-based education, I will say that the concept appeals to me more. It gives freedom to explore topics that the individual finds interesting, fun, or that they would simply like to know more about.
Chapter 3 of this reading is concerned with the rapidly-changing information, as well as the rapidly-changing techniques with which we apply this information, in our modern era. As the digital age continues, the way we use information changes constantly, sometimes several times even within a year. We adopt new devices, use new software, create and update new databases. At the same time, we are always learning new things, and as a consequence we must accept that some things we learned to be true at one point in life are not correct, and that even this new information that proves our old way of thinking false may itself be proved false in time.
The internet is the prime example of an ever-changing digital environment that is used for all sorts of things. As the years go on, access to the internet becomes easier and faster, allowing for bigger and better websites, databases, and other such things. To look back on a website from the early days of the internet, with their very plain formatting, plain text, and animated .gifs, all state-of-the-art at the time, is almost nostalgic now. Simply by comparing such a website with the websites of today we can see the leaps and bounds we've made. What about databases such as Wikipedia? Dictionary.com? Google and Google Scholar? Such immense pools of information so easily accessible with the push of a button was unheard of not all that long ago.
This change brings about a great many positive things, but it can also make things difficult. Rapid change can be difficult to adapt to, and those who cannot adapt as quickly as other people may fall behind and eventually begin to reject newer technologies due to feeling alienated by them. This is obviously a problem, so what can be done about it? Teaching-based education would likely fail here, as by the time the information has been taught it could very well have been changed again. A situation like this calls for the more immersive education provided by learning-based methods. By using a teaching method that is able to constantly change as the need arises, such as learning by doing, people may very well be able to adapt to change more quickly.
Ideas in this blog post in part inspired by: http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/newcultureoflearning.pdf
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