“The extended mind” has focus some of my attention recently. It seems to be one of the basic epistemological assumptions upon which many teaching, learning, and schooling decisions are made. First, the mind. Let’s adopt the materialist view that it exists in the brain. There can be little debate in the central role for that Read More
Category: Theory
Essence and Variation
The word “essential” is interesting. It describes that which we cannot do without. Food, water, and oxygen (in the right concentration) is essential to human life. It also describes the fundamental character. When we remove the unimportant or marginal parts of something we are left with its essence; removing anything more changes what it is. Read More
On Not Being Taught How to Teach
I left high school as a 17-year-old (yes, I am old enough that they let me start school a few weeks before my fifth birthday) who knew that he wanted to become a science teacher. My path to my undergraduate as not as circuitous as many, so five years later I was a middle school Read More
Thinking About Connectionism
For most of human history, communication was an aural or gestural activity. We spoke and we made gestures, other heard and saw our movements. In both cases, the communication was ephemeral. Unheard words and unseen gestures are lost. There is evidence of humans creating painting and other artifacts which presumably were intended for meaningful communication, Read More
Authentic Learning
Much of the 20th century recitation script for education, in particular the articulation of measurable goals and the focus on efficiency, was based on the assumption that becoming educated was a tame problem. So that curriculum goals could be achieved efficiently, the problems that became learner tasks were de-contextualized; the context of rich information and Read More
Thoughts on Digital Information in Culture
In the 20th century, electronic media (such as radio, movie, and television) became widely used throughout the industrial world. In the last quarter of the 20th century, electronic media also included computers. In the last decade of the 20th century, telecommunications networks to which computers could be connected further extended the media landscape in many Read More
Another Explanation of Cognitive Load Theory
Cognitive load theory is an idea I have been integrating into my presentations and workshops for a few years. (It has been addressed in this blog previously.) This is a version I have been including this summer: While technology acceptance is a theory that can explain and predict the decision to use a technology, cognitive Read More
Profile of an Early Adopter
This is an excerpt from some work I did recently in which I described school leaders whose adoption of technology planning appeared to reflect Rogers’ (2003) stages of adoption of innovations. Our school had been struggling with some aspects of our educational technology. Both our teachers and our technology people were trying, but we seemed Read More
Perspectives on Learning
One of the reasons there is so much debate about teaching and learning and what we should have students spend their time doing when they are in schools is that there are different theories about human learning. By theories, of course, I mean ideas supported by evidence that accurately predict and explain what we observed. Read More
On Psychology
What educators believe about how human brains function and what causes brains to change is one of the most important factors that determines how they organize curriculum and deliver instruction. Even those educators who claim to be unaffected by psychology or learning theory (in my experience a large majority of teachers eschew theory), their teaching Read More