Theories of Learning in... A(sociocultural approach)...B(ehavioristic apprach) ... C(ognitivistic approach)...

Behavioristic approach... Pigeons pecking...

Just to share a pretty random illustration (for this approach) which struck me...

When I was having lunch in school, I saw the prescription of such an approach by the cleaners for Arts Deck. I observed the metal shelves we sent our trays to after our meals have been modified over the semesters. There were yellow streaks of plastic chains dangling from each segments of the shelves, there were nasty-looking nails placed on top of these shelves as well.

My friends and I made a guess and it was spot-on, the explanation for modifying these shelves to exude such an ominous presence was simply to keep birds away from the plates of leftovers. Therefore, the birds, if they were to land on these nails and suffer the painful consequences, will learn through experience that the Arts Deck cleaners are not to be messed around with.

In this instance, the educator aka the Arts Deck cleaners have a goal in mind - to shape the behavior of the birds and ensure they do not further add on to their workload.

I personally do not concur with the behavioristic point of view where, in its radical and extreme form, regards humans as merely reacting to an unintelligent system. Comparing animals to humans, in my view, is equivilant to comparing apples with oranges. Albeit both of them are fruits, but are different on many levels, the only similarity which I might consider drawing them together would probably an intelligent creator who has designed an intelligent system.

The simplistic form of explaining human behavior disregards the various thought processes which includes the free will to make complex, informed decisions based on past experiences and knowledge.

However, sad to say, I do agree that the human sense of superiority should be punctured!

Despite having head knowledge and free will to make wise choices, we often land up in a situation where "history repeats itself" and end up making wrong decisions that lead to dire consequences.

The cognitivism approach takes it a step further from merely recognizing stimulus-response to the study of the intention and context of various situations. Therefore, similar stimulus may actually result in different responses considering every individual's own experiences in their own contexts.

A key tenet which identifies behaviorism and cognitivism is that the unit of analysis is the individual. Moving on to the socio-cultural apporach, which takes into consideration the big picture, identifies learning where social tools enables and empowers complex ways of thinking individually and augments participation in an environment as a whole.

To connect these approaches with E-learning, we can see that at the advent of personal computers, it appears that the educators adopted the behaviouristic approach, using computers as a learning tool for "drill and practice".

As E-learning develops further, the cognitivistic approaches were implemented where learners were able to participate and provide feedback to their educators. Various systems can also be programmed to gain an insight on the internal mental representations of the individual after a learning exercise.

This goes on until networks becomes widespread, and the collective knowledge of indivudals are being harnessed, thus explaining the socio-cultural approach where information transcends time and space and converge on a common ground where knowledge can be fully exploited to a certain extent (limited by the digital gap due to various socio-cultural-economic factors).

Jumpstart to E-learning

A brief introduction was given by our lecturer Mr. Alfred Low to set us thinking about various issues of E-learning for the weeks to follow.

The class was presented with a comic image which illustrates how in today's society, people are being gridlocked and caught in the whole frenzy of being in the bandwagon of technology race. On a technological deterministic perspective/ note, it spurs us on to think about whether technological advancements are spearheading creating social changes. Besides the fact that people are gridlocked and bounded by technology, another image which caught my attention was an elderly man trying to catch up with the "bandwagon" and a small child easing alongside the "bandwagon". This illustrates the digital divide, with various generations at various stages of technological skills and knowledge, some playing the catching up game whilst others living alongside and growing up with technology.

A video briefly summarizing the progress of E-learning was also screened, giving us the context of how E-learning came about. The history, the present as well as predictions of what the future has in store for us - virtual classrooms, holographic learning amongst others.

The definitions presented were aplenty, keywords which I barely managed to jot down were as follows:

Electronically
Web browser
Internet/ intranet
Strutured, purposeful use
Learning process
Web-based training

... and a whole lot more other terms....

The important factor of learning being pointed out by Mr. Alfred Low was...

HUMAN COMMUNICATION

The element of inter/ intra- personal communication is an important factor of learning, without which, I believe, E-learning will be impeded one way or another.

On a personal note, I do agree with this element of "human touch". On top of it, I feel that the online medium, by and on its own, will be limited and its potential will be heavily constrained without incorporating an offline element to it. This is especially so in the case where social aspects of E-learning are involved, where communities of being formed and relationships are forged.

Then again, I believe there are many faces to e-learning and various objectives of E-learning, considering how broadly learning as been defined in some of the readings. For example, if one were to just seek informational knowledge or access to a database of information, such element of human communication may not be as significant.

A Time-Place concept map was also shown to us. Learning can be executed in terms of...

Time
- Real-time (synchronous)
- Different time (asynchronous)

and likewise for...

Place
- Same location
- Different location (Distance learning?)

A group of 5 was also formed and we were given choices on executing various assignments. Our group chose to create a time-line for the progress of E-learning and I will now be digging for information from our readings... Ciaozz!