Yancho

I believe that learning occurs naturally and is happening all the time. There are some things, however, that are more difficult to learn than others. If we are seeking to push beyond the natural learning that occurs, we need to a) motivate the learner to take that leap and b) make available an instructional setting that will provide them the new knowledge. If one has the perfect setting and instruction for learning but the student is unmotivated to learn, he or she will not learn (or at best will learn minimally). If the student is motivated to learn, but the setting impedes the learning, I believe motivation will ebb and learning will not progress. The second step of creating a conducive instructional setting is admittedly rather broad, but I believe that an appropriate instructional setting different for different types of knowledge to be learned. And the instructional setting concept includes a setting where a student simply reads a book as well as a classroom of hundreds of student...

I tend to lean toward pragmatism and getting things done, rather than dwelling endlessly on whys and hows . But, I have been known to ruminate on such things from time to time. I like wondering about why things work and how. Yet, I also grow frustrated by the fact that there are few firm answers. The more I think about it, the less confident that mankind will ever come to a certain knowledge of anything pertaining to this “crude matter.” In reality, you just can’t ever be too sure of yourself. The dozens and even hundreds of theories on behavior, learning, and life are ample evidence that there is a lot more out there to be known than is currently known. I think that is why the concept of a technological theorist appeals to me. Down in the trenches, the practitioner can delve in and brainstorm and test and develop and tweak a design with a specific goal in mind. It doesn’t take a deep vocabulary or lot of hyperbole, just some elbow grease and creativity. Technologists push the bounda...

In the movie "Cool Hand Luke," Paul Newman, as the title character, has a tendency toward antisocial activities. At the beginning of the movie, he is arrested and put in jail for cutting off the tops of parking meters with a pipe cutter. (An act that had no discernible motive.) Throughout the movie we see him doing a variety of things that run counter to what might be accepted as normal or expected behavior, even for a miscreant. At one point, the warden (an apparent behaviorist who is pulling out his last card) puts Luke in solitary confinement. After his time in solitary, Luke becomes a poster-boy for obedient, reformed prisoners. The warden seems to relish having tamed Luke. But, the other prisoners seem to watch him with a sense of disappointment at his subservience and at his broken spirit. That is, until Luke absconds with the water truck and escapes from the warden while the prisoners are all performing some community service. I reflected on this movie as I read about ...

Radical Behaviorism is the concept of viewing stimulus and response as the only measurable constructs in psychology. To B.F. Skinner, the human mind is a "black box" and is essentially irrelevant. What goes on inside the mind is unmeasurable and not useful to a study of human behavior. Only observable behaviors should be considered. More to come ...

A personal learning environment consists of Web 2.0 tools utilized by a student to enhance their learning. In essence, it provides tools for tracking one's progress, setting goals, collaborating with fellow students and interacting with an instructor. It is flexible and suits the needs of the student/learner rather than the directives of the institution or professor. This contrasts with learning management systems, which are designed to assist instructors and institutions in simplifying many of the logistical things associated with instruction, such as assessment, assignment tracking, and grade management. Where PLEs are flexible and individualized, LMSes are generally rigid in design and structure. PLEs are often made up of open-source and freely available software and services, whereas LMSes tend to suck more resources from the institution and, as a result, seem to languish as other more agile technologies flourish and evolve. RSS stands for real simple syndication. It is an XML ...