From: anderson@acs.ucalgary.ca (Terry Anderson)
Subject: Last words for the Theory Discussion?
Originator: banthy-m@udevdiv.unibase.sk.ca
Reply-To: <banthy-m@udevdiv.unibase.sk.ca>
Organization: Unibase Telecom Ltd.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 04:25:19 GMT

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>From: Margaret Riel (co134f1@sdcc4.ucsd.edu)

 Michael Moore said in a past message:
What new metaphors might transgress the boundaries of Distance
Education?

I have been using a book with my communication students that I
find very interesting with respect of the use of metaphors that
recommend highly:
Lakoff, G & Johnson, M Metaphors we live by, Chicago:University
of Chicago Press 1980

Language is by its very nature metaphorical and we are always using metaphors
to create some sense of shared understanding. He starts by showing that our 
cultural methaphor for an arguement is war.  We take positions, fire points,
defend our ground argue with force etc.

We can't use language without using metaphors, and how we talk about things
constructs them in powerful ways. I also wanted to respond to the conception
of learning as a process that take place with the student working alone.
You can't know the world apart from social interaction.  From
the moment a child is born a process of "shared attention" begins.
At first this process is non-verbal but soon it involves language.
School learning that is not involved in negotiating ideas
is not likely to be of much use.  This negotiation does not
take place silently. It demands active interaction.
But that doesn't just mean talk.  We need to look at the WAY
teachers talk and allow their students to talk.
Teacher talk in classrooms is critical.  Consider the following
statements:     two plus two is four.  Do you know what two and two make?
Can you show my how many you have if you have two and two?
Under what conditions  do two plus two make four?
Can you think if ways in which two plus two are not four?
Each of these statements convey much more than numerical facts.
The first says "I am the teacher, I have the knowledge, you
are the student, your job is to learn and here is my fact for you."
The last says "You and I are both capable of learning things that
are true under many circumstances but there are many different
contexts and facts are not absolute, how reliable do you find
this number "fact".

Each of the statements take a different stance for the teacher, project a 
image of the learner and suggest a process of what learning might be.
If learning is conceived of as an active constructive process, than knowledge 
is not handed to the student but pulled from the child from their interactions.
When Danny suggests the statement about communication:
"Who says what to whom and how." be applied to education, he  immediately 
moves to a "knowledge transmission" metaphor for education.  This is at odds
 with a "knowledge construction" metaphor of education.


DISTANCE EDUCATION METAPHORS...
In my own effects to design a  distant education mode, I have used a
different methaphor that has led to different structure.
Since I carry the notion that learning is inherently a social
process of negotiating meanings, I have been working on models
of collaboration across classrooms.  This is collaboration of
both TEACHERS and students.  I called the groups Learning Circles.
The term Learning Circles came carries two metaphors I wanted to
use in combination--one for students and one for teacher--interation.
1) From Primary schools where students have "circle time" to
verbally share information about themselves, their families or
their ideas and experiences.  In Learning Circles older students
use written work to share information in the same domain with
peers in different countries using telecommunicatons as the vehicle
2) From participatory management proceedure in industry--
Quality circles are groups of workers who together provide
management plans for their work.  Similarly, in Learning
Circles teacherS from distant classrooms work together to
team teach their students with a respect for the collective
knowledge that is shared in a group  of 6-8 teachers in
classrooms around the world.

Learning Circles represent a different metaphor for
distant learning.  It is not a single expert working
a number of distant students.  It is instead a collaborative
effort of both teachers and students who respect the
fact the knowledge is distributed and that through
sharing local expertise and world views from people located throughout 
the world, the way we think is changed in very important ways.

LAST POINT... USEFUL KNOWLEDGE..
People who have achieved expertise in a domain have blended
their intuitive knowledge with their conceptual knowledge so
that if faced with a problem in the world they can use many
different strategies for thinking about the issue.
Kids come to school with a rich base of knowledge that they
have constructed throught their interactions with the world.
In school they mostly learn to distrust what they think and
to accept a set of facts for talking about the world.
The problem is that facts are easily forgotten and then one is
left with an intuitive system that is likely to be wrong
and no way to think creatively about the issues.

Education, either face-to-face or distant needs to be about
creating a shared way of thinking.  It is impossible for this
shared system to develop without social interaction.  Talk
with and among students and teachers and written "talk" with
those in other places about science, math, literature, ideas,
and beliefs are a critical part of the educational process.

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