A Theory of How We Learn

I first heard about the theory of multiple intelligences (Walters, Gardner & Harvard Univ., 1984) when our school system enthusiastically embraced it as the latest, greatest, most brilliant learning theory to come along. Gardner (1983, 1993) identified seven intelligences: visual-spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, and linguistic.  As we interacted with our students, we were encouraged to follow the tenets of this amazing learning theory. At the time, I could not quite grasp the excitement over this theory. I had always believed that people possessed different learning styles, and I thought, naively, that others believed what seemed so obvious to me.

I believe that people learn best when they absorb information by using a familiar method. Some people are visual learners who need to “see” the lesson; some are literal learners where they prefer a verbal or written presentation; others are logical where information must be presented by using a “building-block” approach.

 

Our experiences in teaching and the experiences expressed by others, usually in empirical studies, influence our beliefs about how people learn. The purpose of an accumulation of empirical studies, referred to as learning theories, is to develop a foundation for defining the recurrence of behaviors in the learning process over a time. Those learning theories may remain constant as other theories build on their findings. What we believe about the learning process may change as later theories emerge.

Gardner, H. (1983, 1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1995). Reflections on multiple intelligences: Myths and messages. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(3), 200-03,206-09. Retrieved from http://www.kappanmagazine.org/

Walters, J., Gardner, H., & Harvard Univ., C. o. (1984). The crystallizing experience: Discovering an intellectual gift. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED254544.pdf

Addressing the Digital Divide

It is difficult to speculate what I would do as a leader in educational technology to "make emerging technologies valuable to others while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity." William Gibson's quote, "The future has arrived; it just wasn't equally distributed," brings to mind the fact that there are those in the world for whom technology is probably still a mystery while others complain about how overwhelming it could be in their daily lives.

With so much strife, so much turmoil in the world (which has always been the case), technology has placed us instantaneously in the middle of it all, making it seem so much closer, so much more urgent. Soloway says that one out of two people in the world has access to a cell phone, which means that thousands can be rallied, keeping them all informed during a melee, with the touch of a button. They have a little bit of the future at their fingertips, but just not enough to level the playing field of technology.

Perhaps working in my own educational community to provide technology awareness to students would be a start. Most students are unaware that there is something called emerging technology, since they are still grappling with understanding emerged technology that is right in their midst. They have access to laptops and computers in the school but those tools of technology are not used very much because a budgetary squeeze negates hiring instructors. It would probably be beneficial if students could take laptops home to enhance their sills but is is against the city department of education policy. It is extremely frustrating to see that in this country there is an unequal distribution of the "future" within our own communities.


Soloway, E. (n.d.). The digital divide: Leveling the playing field [Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc., Walden University.

Thornburg, D. (2009). Diversity and globalism. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc., Walden University.

DVD vs VOD: And the winner is....

Thornburg defined the term Red Queen as pertaining to two competitive technologies that leave other technologies in their field behind as they jockey for dominance in the marketplace. The leader wins big by experiencing increasing returns where the market favors the leader by widening the gap between it and all competitors, providing it with extremely high profits, leveraging and linking other products to it, and forcing competitors to back down unless they have a superior product. (The leader need not have the best product in order to win.)

In choosing a mode for acquiring an assigned movie, I decided to purchase the video (DVD) rather than rent it or use the video on demand (VOD) options available. DVD rental companies like Netflix and Redbox are attempting to dominate the DVD market thereby having the opportunity to experience increasing returns as a result. VOD and download service providers, like Movielink and CinemaNow, providing videos through cable, satellite, or broadband networks, are also trying to dominate their market.

But the competition between DVD and VOD is an example of Red Queen. One of them, undoubtedly VOD, will be the emerged technology for viewing videos and the other will slowly fade and become an obsolete form of technology. Consumers are less inclined to travel to video stores to buy or rent videos and are impatient in waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Consumers often prefer to sit at home and instantly access videos when they want them through their computers or television sets using a setup box or software to stream over the internet. As a result, purchases of DVDs and their players are decreasing.

There was a time when the window between movies being released by studios on DVD and their availability on VOD was almost a month but now that window has condensed to same day. Consumers know that they do not have to wait to view their favorite movies/videos. However, at the moment, the quality of videos on DVDs (HD-DVDs, Blu-Rays) surpasses that of VOD but as the demand for VOD escalates the quality of its technology will improve. Also VOD videos are only available for 24 hours where DVDs remain viable for an unlimited amount of time. Again, it is just a matter of time before both offer the same advantages.

On the McLuhan tetrad, DVDs enhance the viewing of videos and VODs reverse the use of DVDs. Depending on the length of time it takes for VODs to emerge as the dominant technology for viewing videos, a Wild Card, that is being created/invented now, will probably emerge to obsolete VODs...but that may take a few years.

Anderson, C. (2004). Tech's long tail. [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html

Hawk, T. (2005). The staying power of the dvd vs vod. dHomeUpgrade. Retrieved from http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2005/04/23/the-staying-power-of-the-dvd-vs-vod/

Lawler, R. (2010). Studios giving up on dvd, pushing vod instead. Gigaom. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/video/studios-giving-up-on-dvd-pushing-vod-instead/

Thornburg, D. (2008a). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/14936/CRS-WUWSUX8812-3730077/emerging_technologies_and_mcluhan

Thornburg, D. (2008b). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Second Life -- Disruptive Change

In Second Life avatars develop social relationships with one another, communicating, interacting, learning, gaming, buying, and selling virtual properties using virtual money and creating a virtual existence created and controlled by the individual. The avatar itself is an online manifestation of the real world person who has chosen to be whomever he chooses, whether male or female, tall or short, attractive or not, passive or aggressive. The reflection of the individual is usually how he perceives himself and may have nothing to do with reality. Second Life just gives the individual a stage on which he can act out his fantasies wthout a great deal of restrictions. That behaviour in itself may portend the existence of a technologically disruptive influence.

The creator of Second Life, Rosedale (2008), admits that because of perceived reflections of their other selves while in the virtual world, individuals may prefer being away from reality and immerse themselves in the virtual world which may become an unavoidable inevitability. Garvey (2010) says that dissociative behaviour may occur where individuals have "out of body" experiences and actually feel that they are someone else (the avatar) as they interact in the virtual world.

Familiar "play stations" such as Nintendo, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, and Play Station have virtual worlds with graphics that far surpass that of Second Life at the moment, but it is conceivable that Second Life will displace these as active social networking experiences because users will not only be able to participate in these virtual worlds, but will also be able to mainipulate them as well, creating their own environments. As the Edutechtalks Blog states, "it could displace all of these virtual reality platforms, educational, training classrooms, office meeting, work collaboration areas, a streaming server, and even Skype...with comparable, in come cases, superior audio and visual 3D experiences."

The technology that may displace Second Life will make it possible to work in conjunction with emerging holistic technologies to immerse oneself on a physical level in a virtual world where everything mirrors reality. Participants will have sensory experiences in the virtual world which may cause addictions equivalent to chemical dependencies and a propensity to just live in that other world rather than deal with their own real world. The timeframe for displacement of Second Life could be anywhere from 15 to 20 years in the future.

A social benefit of Second Life is that individuals do get to socialize with strangers with whom they would not ordinarily interact. In some cases that will probably develop social skills that could be translated into real life experiences, but will they? I do see this virtual world socialization more as a negative than a positive in the development of social skills. Why bother socializing in real life when one can be whomever one wishes and boldly say and/or do whatever one wants in a virtual world.

In the case of my industries of education and business, there are a number of professional contacts that coudl be fostered to further ones career and those contacts could be subsequently developed in the real world. But I wonder if that will happen in a world where anonymity seems to reign supreme and one can falsify or exaggerate ones skills and abilities to satisfy the needs of the moment.


Garvey, G. P. (2010). Dissociation and Second Life: Pathology or transcendence? Technoetic Arts: A journal of Speculative Research, 8(1), 101-107. doi: 10.1386/tear8.1.101/1

Jones, C. (2009). The economies of virtual worlds: Lessons for the real world. Policy, 25(2), 27-31. asi: 43154219

Rosedale, P. (2008). Second Life. [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html

Sanchez, J. (2009). Facing realities. Library Technology Reports, 45(2), 5-8. asi: 37251465

Second Life. (2010). Edutechtalks Blog. Retrieved from http://edutechtalks.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/second-life/

Thornberg, D. (n.d.). Disruptive technologies. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc: Walden University

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Thornberg (n.d.) describes "rhymes of history" as a reawakening of the impact of an older technology in a new form. During the 17th century the "town crier" would travel through different villages shouting out the latest news dispensed by the king or ruling gentry to large crowds since most people of the time could neither read nor write. I imagine it may have been quite hard on his vocal chords to project his voice and, until protected by law, on his person as well, from whence came the term "don't shoot the messenger," since news brought was often unpleasant to hear.



Previously, in sixth century Greece, a funnel-type device, incorporated into the actors' theatrical mask, was utilized to project their voices to audiences. That eventually developed into the megaphone (also known as a bullhorn, speaking trumpet, and loud hailers) which, being a practical instrument of voice amplification, is still used today in varying forms.



Using the lessons of ancient voice amplification, E.E. Wente of Bell Labs (Budham, n.d.) developed a condenser microphone in the 1910s which transformed funneled sound waves into electrical impulses. The technology inherent in that microphone forged the way for sound in film....but then that leads us to another "rhyme of history."





Budham, L. (2010). Microphones: History and development. Retrieved from http://www.lloydmicrophoneclassics.com/mic_history.html

Evans, K. (n.d.). Facts on megaphones. EHow.com. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about?5063561_megaphones.html

Kelly, K. (2007). The next 5,000 days of the web. TED: Ideas worth spreading. [Vodcast]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Thornberg, D. (n.d.). Rhymes of history. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.: Walden University.

The eBook Phenom: A Tetrad

When I bought my Kindle in 2008 I knew that I had a new and phenomenal form of technology that would take off as a "must have"...eventually. With my busy schedule I always managed to read at least a book each week or so and the Kindle made it so much easier to carry my favorite book of the moment with me wherever I went. The cost was a bit prohibitive for most casual book readers as opposed to a thick hardcover but I also knew that as an emerging form of technology, and due to the law of supply and demand, the cost would drop considerably...which it did, two years later.

The catalogue of available books for my Kindle is about 775,000 now, most of which, if I lived a very long time, I would never be able to read, but I do have a vast choice at a nominal cost compared to the cost of a hardcover book. It is easy to read, even outside in the sunlight, and automatically saves my page when I close its cover.

Amazon was not the first to offer an electronic reading device, but through clever marketing (including a plug by Oprah!) and a built-in customer base, it was brought to the attention of millions of readers everywhere. As a matter of fact, back in 1971 Michael Hart of Illinois University decided to create a digital library for books from the public domain with his Project Gutenberg. Imagine being able to read books on a computer (way before pc's surfaced) by inserting a disk into the drive. It started out with one book per disk when the capacity of a disk was 350k, but "necessity, being the mother of invention," increased that considerably with the advent of zip drives, compression, and then ever increasing storage capacities. Project Gutenberg is still going strong offering free books, documents, and downloads.

Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, at Xerox's PARC, were ahead of their time as early as 1972 when Kay envisioned a reader the size of a notebook and developed a prototype, Dynabook. Unfortunately, technology and the availability of book titles limited what they could do with their system at the time. But to me, the prototype looks very much like a Kindle or even an iPad.

Many people, including me, enjoy the look, feel, smell of a "real" book and seem to frown on the possible obsolescence of the book...won't happen, at least not in the foreseeable future, IMO. Electronic reading devices are just another means of disbursing information. It will become an emerged technology at some point, but not to worry. I would just like to see it in the public school systems soon to alleviate the necessity of students lugging big old texts around and probably ruining a lot of backs.

I am certain that consumers will eventually tire of having a bagload of devices with which to communicate daily. Most smartphones are multifunctional right now. So, one universal device will be used for communication: to talk; to read; to access the internet; to text; to write communiques; to listen to music; and/or to play games. Hop-skip a few years and it may be a mini-device, the size of a quarter, which will project onto any surface and be manipulated to act as a reader, a monitor, a keyboard. As the old s

aying goes -- whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve. By then we will remember fondly when we used a Kindle-like device for reading, which may remind some that a man named Gutenberg started it all with a printing press that could mass produce..."books."

Gutenberg Internet Archive. (2010). Project Gutenberg. Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/details/gutenberg

Kay, A. & Goldberg, A. (1977). Personal dynamic media. Computer, 10(3), 31-41. Retrieved from http://www.newmediareader.com/book_samples/nmr-26-kay.pdf

Kindle. (2010). Amazon Store. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/

Lebert, M. (2009). A short history of ebooks. NEF, University of Toronto: Canada. Retrieved from http://www.etudes-francaises.net/dossiers/ebookEN.pdf

Whittaker, R. (2010). The print media. CyberCollege Internet Campus. Retrieved from http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/book1.htm

From Analog Box to Digital Circle

Bringing a selection of movies to the classroom was accomplished by using VHS (video home system) tapes which appeared on the market in the late 1970s. Teachers no longer had to fret over the task of winding spools of lengthy tape onto a projector to show a film on the screen. VHS held the tape within one small box that could be put into a machine that projected the image onto a television screen. Tapes initially had a capacity of 3.5 hours which was adequate for a full length movie.

As the digital age progressed, so did the ability to show movies. The DVD (digital video disc) was created and by 2006 VHS quietly became obsolete. Schools, often slow at integrating new technology, began using DVDs in the computer DVD trays to view movies on their computer monitors and in machines that projected images onto a computer screen. The DVDs' greatest disadvantage is that they are easily scratched or develop hairline cracks. In the hands of school-age children, it would prove disastrous. DVDs also have shorter recording time of 6 hours compared to the VHS of 12 hours (T-240). Because they are digital, they are also susceptible to macroblocking where square areas annoyingly do not show a correct image.

However, its small size makes the DVD convenient to handle and store in large quantities which is needed in a classroom and the discs are inexpensive to purchase. Since many schools have computer labs where students are seated at individual computers, each student may have access to their own DVD to watch movies or store information.

Society embraced this technology because of the benefits of its low cost and its compactness, but there are problems and challenges still associated with it in addition to those mentioned above. One of those problems is that the protocols for DVDs used in the United States and Canada differ from those used in other parts (regions) of the world, so future universality of DVDs would be appreciated.

Although blue-ray discs are an emerging technology, it will take considerable time before they are adapted to the classroom due to the expense of converting from DVD usage to yet another form of a similar technology. What would make this technology even better is creation of a smaller, unbreakable, unscratchable disc that has greater capacity and can sitll be used in clasroom computers without changing delivery methods.

Links: http://didyouknow.org/dvdhistory; http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/DVD-History; http://www.burnworld.com/dvd/primer/history-of-videotape.htm