argh. things are becoming really hectic. i've so many hats to wear.
anyway, as you probably know, i have to take some classes in fulfilment of my candidature.
MID803 'Effectiveness of instructional technologies: research paradigms and findings' is my second such course.
it's conducted by Jeanette Bopry and Wang Qiyun.
it's mainly conducted online, with only three face-to-face sessions. the class size is about fifteen. i still haven't decided whether or not to continue with it, but anyway here are my stream-of-consciousness notes from the first session.
technology - the application of knowledge in problem-solving; more than just the medium.
formal education requires the demonstration of expertise (Perkins's 'understanding performances'?)
universities provide opportunities for education. education itself, is a personal responsibility.
education - attitudinal / behavioural change, and the demonstration thereof.
epistemiology - the relationship between the knower and the known (shades of Heisenberg here). it is therefore grounded in one's belief systems about how people learn. "what do YOU believe?" it manifests itself through methodology. the latter is, in turn, operationalised by method. (huh?)
in Ancient Greece, there was already a competitive market in education. universities and libraries were first built in the Middle Ages (but then i knew that already :-P ) during the 17th century, textbooks were first used - for the practical application of knowledge, to cater to different modalities of expression, to add value to learning, to progress from the simple to the complex, to acknowledge differences in developmental maturity, and to exercise the deductive method. this also coincided with the beginnings of the Visual Instruction Movement, which emphasised the use of realia (museums and libraries again), radio and, later, film.
Lancaster talked about education for the masses, and therefore, classroom management and cooperative learning. the model he adopted was to cascade / peer instruction / jigsaw / mentoring.
Pestalozzi looked at learning and instructional psychology in relation to reading, writing and arithmetic, from a Socratic point-of-view.
Dewey: the lived experience of the student (Montessori); learning through activity; the learner recognises the problem and conducts a self-needs analysis to bridge the gap between present and desired states; the learner then experiments, draws conclusions and reflects during the debriefing.
Skinnerian behaviourism can be well used, eg in kinaesthetic instruction. but to him, the mind was still a black box.
education technology has therefore a behaviourist foundation (the traditional split between instructional sciences and educational media).
the current state of instructional design is prescriptive (and therefore, oppressive).
what of the future? what about proscription ("what NOT to do?")
Technorati Tags: behaviourism, cognition, constructivism, education, media, technology