Discussion 1

Our assignment for the discussion was the following:
Description/summary of main ideas in Chapter 1. (* Required component)

Select two of the following for discussion:

A. Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the chapter

B. How could teachers/educators use the material/information addressed in the chapter to help improve their instruction or professional development?

C. What future trends do you see coming from the topics dealt with in the chapter? In other words, do you think the material/information discussed in the chapter has any relevancy to the future or is it just a passing fad?

D. What you learned from reading this chapter? If the article did not reveal any new information, explain what you already know about the topic and how you gained that knowledge (e.g., experience, word-of-mouth, research).

Did you feel this chapter helped in your understanding of the use of technology in education? Explain why or why not. Did anything confuse you? Did the chapter leave more questions for you?

My answer:
The author addresses several different theories in order to arrive at the emergenist theory of mind, which has five major implications regarding knowledge: Knowledge is subsymbolic, distributed, interconnected, personal, and an emergent phenomenon. Therefore, if learning is context-sensitive, many of the other theories and hypotheses, including the “language of thought” hypothesis and folk psychology, are invalid.

Web 2.0 is changing the college landscape. The author references Madden & Fox to state that Web 2.0 is in a constant state of change, which makes it difficult to adequately define but also gives an example as to what it actually is – a technology that has taken over the traditional educational route with the wisdom of many. Learning occurs with communities, when conversation takes form between members of that said community, and, in the Web 2.0 world, this can take place in a variety of ways besides words, including images, video, and multimedia aspects.

The educational setting, because of technological advances, is also changing. A Personal Learning Environment, or PLE, allows the student to have greater control over their learning environment. Instead of simply learning the material, they are also putting it into practice. Effective learning networks need to be decentralized, distributed, disintermediated, disaggregated, dis-integrated, democratic, dynamic, and desegregated.

Based on this time of learning network environment, students are exposed to the disciplines performed and are able to practice that discipline. With time, then, the student replicates the discipline the teacher has performed and will reflect that practice.

“To know” is a community effort, which sometimes brings about a cascade phenomenon. Examples of this are a mass suicide or, in nature, shifts in the stock market or a plague. While the cascade phenomenon is negative, knowledge itself must be advanced in order to have an educated society. This is the risk we must take.

In e-learning fields, traditional methodologies must be replaced with double-bind test to measure the impact of the learning experience. However, even quantitative research needs to be carefully construed, as what researchers count is as vital as how researchers count in order to make sure the measurements are accurate. Therefore, the science of learning is more like meteorology in so much as it is based on modeling and simulation.

A. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this chapter.

While I did find the first part of the chapter confusing and I wondered why it was included, it did make sense at the end and I realized why the first part had been included. I have taken classes on psychoanalysis, so some of the names and theories were familiar, though folk psychology was definitely new to me. I did feel the chapter could be condensed, but I enjoyed the multiple examples the author gave in order to help the reader understand the material. They were of great assistance to me. I also enjoyed the historical background information given to show how society has arrived at a Web 2.0 learning-based environment.

D. What have you learned from reading this chapter?

My husband is in grad school for counseling, so it’s fun to learn some psychology terms and perspectives on the human behavior to “talk shop” with him about. It’s very fascinating to me how IT, psychology, and mass communication all interconnect. As the author stated in the book, learning really is interdisciplinary. After all, one of the reasons I’m minoring in IT is because mass communication dabbles in this aspect and IT is growing in relation to mass communication.

The theories at the beginning befuddled me at first, but after reading the chapter over again, I started to understand more of how they related to the topic. I enjoy the interdisciplinary aspect and am looking forward to the rest of the book and getting more in-depth with the topic.

Reference

Downes, S. (2010). Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge. In Yang, H. H., & Yuen, S. C. (Eds.), Collective Intelligence and E-Learning 2.0: Implications of Web-Based Communities and Networking (pp. 1-26). Hershey, Pennsylvania: Information Science Reference.