Smart Schools

Chapter 5
Creating the Metacurriculum

Model of good thinking with dispositions at the core. One of the seven is #5 – the disposition to be intellectually careful. What does this mean. It almost does not make sense to me, or at the very least seems to be already stated in the other statements made. – p116.

Entity vs. incremental learners = entity learner believes that you either “get the information or you don’t.” learning is a matter of catching on or getting the hang of it, and if you don’t get it right away, you won’t.

Teaching for tranfer = learning something in one situation and being able to apply it in another.. seems that this is the secret of the primary way in which adults learn. When I hear something new, I always try, not even consciously, to compare it to something that I already know about or is similar in some way to what I have heard before. Smart Schools is concerned about teaching children who do not have a reservoir of past experiences upon which to build linkages and make connections.

Good shepherd theory = transfer seldom occurs spontaneously, but strong transfer is possible if one sets up conditions that foster and encourage the transfer to occur.

Hugging without bridging is bad construction. In other words, if I think if one just teaches the specific problem without making the bridging or linking connections explicit, then one might end up with the just that specific event or piece of knowledge being learned.

In training for athletic events, that notion of specificity has been around for a long time. That is the experience one may have of being in good shape to cycle, but when it comes to running, you end up hurting and not necessarily will be able to run well or easily. Because you are using different muscle groups in the two sport activities, and one does not necessarily prepare (or transfer) one for the other.

Chapter 6
Role of Distributed Intelligence

This notion of distributed intelligence reminds me of the discussion of DEOS list about what to call e-learning. Several felt that the best term to use is distributed learning, instead of distance learning or e-learning or online learning. It makes me think of one big (potential) community of practice which is busy all over the place creating knowledge from endless sources of information.
As Smart Schools says, “the world of work gets done in groups.”
Person-Plus perspective:













Distributing cognition physically
Usually has to do with input put output is usually less varied. Keeping of journals is what is mentioned, but this is CLEARLY a BLOG application. “such journals look to be good both for the students’ understanding of the subject matter and their own metacognitive development. P 136.

Also journal or blog use as means of student portfolios to showcase key products.. “portfolio functions as object of review and assessment for the teacher, but also as a gauge of progresss and occasion of reflection for the learner. P137


Distributing cognition socially
Cooperative learning – jigsaw method


Fingertip effect – belief in the immediate opportunism of the human organism, “If you give it to them, they will use it.” – requires setting up of physical and social support systems to enable this to happen. THIS DOES NOT JUST HAPPEN.

Reasons why:
Opportunities not recognized
Cognitive burden
Motivation structure – especially in cooperative learning the most able member of the group ends up doing the bulk of the task, and everyone prefers it that way.

Fingertip approach doesn’t work – Cuban’s work testimony to that. Innovations need to be more than just brought into a situation. Requires mediation or guided discovery.

Project-based learning is person-plus perspective.

IJET Articles (January, 2001) - v2,n2 [ISSN 1327-7308] Wiesenberg and Hutton (1995) conclude that building a learning community is of critical importance to the creation of a successful virtual classroom. This article suggests that building an online learning community may occur by introducing participants and assigning them to group projects, thereby, serving the needs of the four MBTI preferences, and, especially, learners with an extroverted preference. Hence, building community becomes a critical issue for teachers and instructional designers. Moller (1998) states, "A community in a distance-learning situation functions similarly to any community in that its two prime functions are to provide (a) social reinforcement and (b) information exchange. More specifically, community plays an integral role in successful asynchronous distance learning by providing the learner with three different types of support: (a) academic, (b) intellectual, and (c) interpersonal (Moller, 1998)." By incorporating consensus building and group projects and structuring courses to involve learner?s collaboration with distance colleagues, this article proposes designers can establish the formation of community. Such activities support the social reinforcement element by enabling learners to feel included and part of the group, a factor that affects learner satisfaction and achievement. "The nature of asynchronous communication combined with a dialogue-based approach enables a high degree of individualization, which can lead to the learner?s feeling a sense of control (Moller, 1998)." Fostering learning-to-learn, self-directed learning and critical reflection activities are ways to fulfill the needs of the diverse preferences within the community.

Capstone Planning - Entry 6
This is part justification for the creation of a discussion group as part of the learning spaces for UVM. For the TI course participants will have the option to participate in the discussion groups. We envision that the innovators and early adoptors might only want to participate in the discussion groups, as a means to further their own set of knowledge and deal with more advanced questions or situations. Other learners new to using technology may be reuired to enter the discussion space to check it out, but their level of participation will not be expected to be the same as the first groups of users.