Month: November 2012

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ETEC 522 Posts

Virtual world dangers

Virtual World Dangers….
Okay, as a bit of a tech geek and a member of a MMOG household I get pretty fired up about how great it would be to integrate a virtual world into my f-f classroom. Just reading some of the advances many of you are making in this arena is enough to get me slightly woozy at how it’s going to play out. Coolness factor aside – I can’t help but feel that their are so many “teachable moments” available from helping students to become digital citizens and learning about being involved in this context: gaming or educationally.

But then I start to go to the dark side

And think about the issues that are emerging with youth right now and cyberbullying….gaming addictions…over active peer networks….digital marginalizations & divides etc..etc.. I really need to ask myself, not if I am ready and willing, but are the students that I work with ready and willing. And how would the parents and the school boards react to such changes? And should I incorporate their feedback?

I have recently come from a very reserved technological district. And I think that it’s made me hyperaware of some of the issues that may arise given a virtual world teaching concept. For example, how would I instill digital citizenship in the students that I teach? Would this be something that I had to introduce and moderate, on top of designing the VW classroom and implementing the curriculum?

As impressed as I am by what I see from everyone else’s adventure into this arena, and as excitied as I would be to get involved as a part of a team, I do find it hard to imagine effectively creating such a venue as a lone-wolf in a big system.

PC

Categories
ETEC 512 Posts

The Sum is More Than The Parts

This week’s exploration into the topics of Situated Learning and Distributed Cognition were quite challenging for me. This difficulty stemmed from what I perceived to be a complete separation between the two ideas. It was like trying to compare apples…. to kiwis.

For comparisons sake, I can say that with both of these philosophy’s the summation, or the outcome of what we perceive in an individual’s learning is significantly more than what we, the observer (be that parent/educator/researcher) can visualize happening. And that’s when all similarities seem to stop.

As to identifying which one has a greater implication for teaching and learning – that is not a question that I am able to answer. Although I am quite familiar with the philosophy behind situated learning I did need to really dissect both the papers that were provided on distributed cognition and even further some research of my own so that I was sure that I got the fundamentals right. And after learning what Distributed cognition actually is and how impactful it is to understanding the role of educator and learner I cannot honestly say which theory would be more influential.

When you consider distributed cognition in the light of transactive memory, there are certain parallels. In fact, the idea of transactive memory did pop into my head during the course of the reading but it is in the subtleties where the differences lay. While transactive memory refers to the storehouse of knowledge bases that a person has memorized (be those other people, websites, reference books) it does not necessarily incorporate the learning that may have occurred from utilizing those resources. Here in lies the important difference: Distributed cognition does incorporate an individual’s multitude of experiences (including scaffold), conversations, and involvement with readings/artifacts/technologies in their ability to perform a cognitive task.

Alternatively, situated learning describes how a cognitive task is best achieved and reinforced when it is completed in an environmental manner befitting the particular task. I read in another class that it’s bringing someone to the lake and helping them swim versus giving a person a book in a classroom on swimming. That learning activities need to be appropriately “situated” to be maximally effective. A task that can seem monumental from a public education classroom.

 

PC

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