A4StarbirdButler

A4StarbirdButler

To Do

• please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)
• read Fischer, G: "Lifelong Learning - More Than Training", Special Issue on Intelligent Systems/Tools In Training and Life-Long Learning (eds.: Riichiro Mizoguchi and Piet A.M. Kommers), Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Vol. 11, No 3/4, 2000, pp. 265-294. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/lll99.pdf
• reflect on the following statement about Lifelong Learning:
  • "If the world of working and living relies on collaboration, creativity, definition and framing of problems and if it requires dealing with uncertainty, change, and intelligence that is distributed across cultures, disciplines, and tools-then education should foster transdisciplinary competencies that prepare students for having meaningful and productive lives in such a world."
• in your statement, address the following issues:
  We are asking "YOU" questions - use this as an opportunity to discuss your individual experiences among the members of your group → you can answer individually or find the largest common denominator

Part 1

• do you agree with this statement?
• what does the statement mean for YOU?
• do you prepare yourself to be a lifelong learner? what are your most important activities you undertake?
• does your education at CU prepare you for being a lifelong learner?
  • which activities are most important for this objective?
  • which activities are "in the way" to achieve this objective?

Part 2:

• which support from Information and Communication technologies (or: which Digital and Social Systems) are most important for lifelong learning?
  • describe requirements for them
  • describe your personal experience with them

Group response

1. Members of the Group

Stephen Butler, Kate Starbird

2. Statement Part1

Very nice work

Part I:

Do you agree with the statement?

We believe in the premise of the concept, but have mixed feelings about the specifics of the statement. On one hand, the concept is reasonable; that if we are living in a world that requires collaboration, creativity, defining and framing problems, dealing with uncertainty and change, then education should foster those skills. When you take apart the statement a bit more, you start to see the difficulty in language. As a society do we tend to collaborate or cooperate? What is the significance of trans-disciplinary? It is synonymous in a dictionary.com search with interdisciplinary, though has subtly different connotations. Interdisciplinary suggests being between or bringing together separate disciplines. Multidisciplinary means to have more than one separate field of expertise. The Latin root 'trans' suggests moving over or across disciplines - rather than between. Further definitions of transdisciplinary relate it to integration of disciplines, participatory research, and addressing real-world problems (Wilcox et al., 2008), with this last definition seeming to fit the statement reasonably well. There are other concerns with the wording of the statement. Does the working and living world really require collaboration? We aren't completely convinced, as there are tons of jobs where collaboration isn't needed, expected, or wanted. There are also different degrees of collaboration; not to mention usages of the word collaboration. It is often used when cooperate would be more effective. Collaborate means to work together to solve a task, project, or problem, while cooperate means that we each work individually on part of an overall project or task. Why does a garbage man need to collaborate? How often do programmers collaborate? They typically break the task down so that each one is working on a different part - therefore they cooperate.

The changes that need to occur require a significantly different model of the world and education. Our society is built on the concept of trying to hold change at bay. We get something setup and we keep it for as long as possible. What happened to the metric system in the US? What about the QWERTY keyboard? Although the world constantly changes, as a society we still struggle with this notion and need to alter our mental notion before we can readily teach people to deal with it. There is also a trend to focus on globalization, but does the working and living world really rely on intelligence that is distributed across cultures, disciplines, and tools? There are still a number of native cultures (particularly in the Amazon and Africa) that have maintained a successful lifestyle for centuries. Perhaps their societies survive because "ignorance is bliss" but those cultures seem to have significant issues when brought into modern society - look at the issues with adjustment from the "Lost Boys of Sudan". While #bubblec("I believe", "The I comes a little surprising… Who is I?") it is beneficial to have influences from various cultures, I don't know if I could say that it is essential.

What does the statement mean to us?

Although there are concerns about the specifics in the statement, the premise is one that holds better promise. To us, it describes that fact that we should be looking at skills needed in today's society and find ways of teaching those skills through authentic practices. The world is a dynamic and changing place and it requires people who are dynamic and adjust to changes well. It also hints that future progress will be based off of collaboration and globalization and we need to be prepared to work in such an environment. The question that still needs to be addressed is how to go about educating our youth for such an environment. The world of working and living may also require other things, like a strong domain knowledge base that acts as a jumping off point for both hypotheses and investigation, a basic skill set (literacy and numeracy) as fundamentals for productivity, depth of understanding, critical thinking, and creativity.

Do you prepare yourself to be a lifelong learner?

This question put us at odds a bit. One of us discovered herself to be a lifelong learner during a period of relatively low mental stimulation while the other one thinks that it is more of a mental state. One has to see the value or fun in education and learning. He has to maintain a curiosity about the world and look at road blocks as temporary instead of permanent. We both maintain orthogonal interest, take time to smell the roses, try new things, are willing to make mistakes and fail occasionally, and try to constantly improve ourselves.

Some of the activities that we have undertaken:

• Explore new topics and ideas • Nurture my excitement in fields outside my field of work/study • Allow myself time/resources to pursue different and new things (hobbies, interests, research fields, projects) • Engage in several specific long term intellectual conversations with peers and mentors

Does your education at CU prepare you for being a lifelong learner?

This is another area where we had differing opinions.

Stephen suggested that he wasn't sure his education at CU has prepared him to be a lifelong learner. He came to CU as a graduate student because he was already a lifelong learner. He was interested in growing, learning, changing, and adapting. Does a standard education at a university (CU or otherwise) instill a mindset of continual growth and adaption to change? Not with the traditional focus on learning by lecture.

Regardless, there are activities that we both believe are important. They include creating a sense of wonder and joy in learning in the individual and in relationships; having mentors, working in multiple research groups, focusing on collaboration, and being surrounded by others that focus on lifelong learning; the academic institute is a good example of this - which is probably why professors tend to be lifelong learners. Does a person's interest in lifelong learning come first, or do they become a professor first? Items not helping were uninspiring classes and professors, fear of change, fear of failure, being around others who are happy with the status quo, technology related distractions, and the difficulty of mental focus in a technologically connected world.

3. Statement Part2

Part II:

Which ICTs are most important for lifelong learning?

Most important are ICTs that provide access to information and knowledge (Internet access, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc). This also includes the need for search engines to sort through the massive amounts of information (Google, ACM library, etc). Tools for communication are essential (email, discussion forums, conferencing tools, etc). Tools that can help organize thoughts and ideas are also important (Zotero, Papers, Mindmapping software, etc.)

The requirements for these tools are that they need to provide access to information and they need to provide enhanced communication. The technology needs to be fast, reliable, and allow one to get to the task at hand rather than fumbling with the technology. They need to help people organize and store thoughts. There needs to be more ways to filter out excessive information. We also need to be able to apply the information in authentic ways - project based learning. The tools need to allow for creative expression and connect to both mental and physical sides of students. We are utilizing all of these technologies on a daily basis.

Work cited:

Wilcox et al. Transdisciplinarity in EcoHealth: Status and Future Prospects. EcoHealth (2008)

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Kate Starbird and Stephen Butler worked on this assignment together through email, word documents, and face-to-face discussions. Our postings are based on the completed work, and only one person posts the results.