Response to “The Fun They Had” – a short story by Isaac Asimov

Belinda — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:43:52 +0000

The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov, 1951

This is a fantastic science fiction story about schools in the year 2155 (Accessed from EDF6447 Flexible Learning Moodle Entry, 28 July 2011).

QUESTIONS

What learning theory is assumed in Isaac Asimov’s futuristic school? The learning theory assumed in the futuristic school is that of behaviourism. Behaviourism was the dominant learning theory in the era before modern schooling (anytime before the 1970s) and still exists in some aspects of education today. The basic tenet of behaviourism is that all behaviour can be conditioned – that is, that all knowledge can be acquired through the process of “stimulus-response”…. that positive reinforcement leads a passive learner to learn knowledge, and negative reinforcement punishes a learner until they get it right (similar to the way animals are trained). In behaviourism, repetition is a key defining feature. In the early period of computer technology, behaviourist ideas influenced the way computers were used in education. This learning theory is what is behind teaching strategies such as quizzes and tests which were the predominant type of education software in early computing.

What role is assumed by computer technology? In this story, computer technology takes on the role of the teaching machine, which is an idea that was developed by American behaviourist B.F. Skinner. In this futuristic story, Skinner’s dream for teaching machines to take over the role of the school teacher is realised. Skinner’s work into programming computers to deliver lessons is underpinned by the behaviourist ideology – that learners are passive beings that can be programmed to acquire knowledge through rote learning using computer technology.

Critics of this style of teaching suggest that humans are not like animals that can learn (or acquire) knowledge through behaviourist methods. Though tests can be helpful, research in the 1970s by Marton and Saljo found that students who used rote learning methods to pass exams had only achieved “surface learning” (memorisation of facts) and not “deep learning” which is sustained and allows a learner to apply learned concepts to other dimensions of life.

The 5 Ws: The Who, What, When, Where and Why…..?

Belinda — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:15:14 +0000

Hi hi.

Who? My name is Belinda

What? This is a running commentary of my thoughts and reflections on eLearning. It is where I will comment on interesting (and uninteresting) articles, books, websites, reports, books, news, blogs, videos, tv shows — anything that I experience that may be worth talking about (and maybe in retrospect NOT worth talking about)

When? It’s happening right now

Where? Here on the World Wide Web. The Web 2.0.

Why? Because it’s important for me to have a place to store all my thoughts because within minutes these thoughts will be gone. If only the human memory could be upgraded to process faster, better and store more data!

I was thinking about this before and thought I might figure out why it is I actually decided to do this Master of Education (specialising in ICT), and though I know instinctively why I’m doing it, it might be worthwhile for me to articulate it. I guess it has to do with where I’ve been already:

I studied Multimedia during my Undergrad at Swinburne University

I worked in the Internet industry for 7 years (I entered the dark side and worked in two evil realms of the industry: Can you figure out which two industries these were?)

I needed an escape route from the evil Internet and my love for training in the workplace led me to do a Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary)

Secondary!? Ha that worked out well. No, to be honest, for this overgrown teenager it really was a lot of fun, and I think I developed a lot personally and professionally because of it. Unfortunately the school I worked in asked me to teach Literacy and English (not my methods) and though I worked hard at it, my heart just wasn’t in it. I could have stuck around to teach multimedia the following year but as the school didn’t have a lot of resources, I thought I would exit while I had the chance.

Not many teaching jobs for those with ICT and Media Studies as their methods. There are a LOT of media teacher graduates. And not a lot of churn with media teaching positions either!

So that brought me back to my second love: administration. I love administration. I love spreadsheets and stationery and problem solving with procedures. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I am not kidding!

Some history: While I was doing my Dip Ed, I did a few casual stints with Monash University working on research publication administration and somehow I moved from department to department and the work at Monash just kept going. The money was decent, the people fairly nice to work with, and the job was easy. And in the end I figured working in University admin was my next best option. It combined the two things I felt passionate about: education and admin. Also it was nice to have a break from teaching teenagers! It was nice to go home at 5pm and not worry about anything. It was nice to be able to sleep at a decent hour. Or heaven forbid: go out and have a social life again! So, I found a long-termish contract with the Department of Management in their Academic Services Office. It was fairly mundane at first, but once I got the gist of things and settled in, I got bored (ha!) which brings me to….

The Catalyst

The next conflict or tension I observed in the office were the problems going on in the teaching and learning sphere. I had a student call up to complain about a Distance Education unit she had enrolled in: She had not received any learning materials and it was already Week 2! As I took the student’s name, I realised it was somebody I knew! So this conversation was the catalyst for me finding an opening, a gap, a problem that needed to be solved in my workplace. Something very wrong was going on in with the delivery of our Distance Education units and I wanted to find out a way to solve the problem. This is one of the main reasons I have decided to undertake the Master of Education course.

I felt compelled to do this course was because I felt that an educational institution would probably benefit from more staff actually trained in education! I am hoping that this course might open up some career pathways into instructional design, or perhaps some curriculum development. In any case, it’s not the end result or outcome that is entirely important to me. The journey of self-discovery can be a lot of fun too.

Thesedays…

At present I am working with the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash and am looking to find a way to weave some instructional design magic back into the multimedia and digital arts programs. I am also now one of the Forum Coordinators for the Monash University Critical Thinking Forum, a professional learning community of practice for academics and learning skills advisors in the university. It’s a lot to juggle with full-time job, part-time study, and side projects… but I feel invigorated and passionate about the changing space of learning with, through and about digital technologies.

I look forward to learning more each day and sharing my learnings through this blog.

Speak soon! Belinda

Reflections on eLearning

Response to “The Fun They Had” – a short story by Isaac Asimov

The 5 Ws: The Who, What, When, Where and Why…..?