Part one of a final paper Introduction

I know I was supposed to write about methods but I found myself writing an introduction. I needed to work on cementing what I was doing before I could write about how I was going do it.



Introduction
In the observing and documenting of learning/education one must use more specific techniques to gather a complete picture than might be used to study a different subject. Before you set out on the task of “observing” and “documenting” learning one must first understand what it is you are trying to observe and document. To define learning one must considered some implication or assumptions. Firstly what is intelligence? For the practicality of this study we shall call someone intelligent if they have the ability to overcome challenges that present themselves in their environment. Granted that is a lose definition and may not be the best definition for all case studies but for the purposes of this study it shall suffice. Next was does it mean to be educated? What is education?

 (Need to expand and introduce some of the articles that have been read over the past few weeks)

For this study it made sense to embody the term education as making use of the culture narrative to manipulate thus enhancing one’s ability to overcome challenges. In this sense one would be educated if they are a farmer who understands the growth of their crops and impact different environmental factors might have on it. They would be educated if they used internet access to read up on articles about increasing production or quality of crop (assuming internet access). They would also be educated if they began talking with other farmers in the surrounding area about their growing methods.

Both the definition of intelligent and education call on the use of analytical skills and a certain amount of cultural currency by the individual (term used properly?) Like sports would not be present without athletes and the physical motion unique to each game, so to education does not exist without the learners and those learning. So, what is learning and who are the learners?

Some Anthropologist have come to view “learners as mentally and physically active seekers of knowledge and skill.” (Zimmerman Pg 614, 1986) Modern western society has created school systems, internships, etc to further the knowledge certain individuals have, but is this to closed off a look at learning and education for a “truthful” interpretation of what is going on. Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, the authors of Reflections on Situated Learning Legitimate Peripheral Participation, claim that “learning is a process that takes place in a participation framework, not in an individual’s mind.” (Fave pg 15 Year)

 Anthropologists are familiar with the term participant observation. During the action of collecting data through participant observation one must do a few things. First, establish a credible role within the group being observed. This is the fundamental in the research and data later collected. The research should “work methodically to avoid being identified as the member of any particular group” as this might limit access to information or the quality of information obtained. (Wilson, 254 1977)

In a presentation online the author claims that “Man coming to grips with his environment and to understand the nature through experience, reasoning and research” (Sidhar, 2008) I sought to understand my life, I am a college student after all, and the basic principle behind it.

Upon my initial research period, my question had been “how do the keywords typed impact the knowledge that we would “learn” from what came up and then how we applied that knowledge later in life?” To start gathering information, as every good study starts, I began typing words such as “education”, “learning”, “internet” or similar words into the Google scholar search engine and waited calmly for it to generate a list of articles that I could choose from. I also read Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows. It was a bit of an Ironic way to gather information on the impact keywords would have on our intake and application of knowledge.

The concept that our brain was literally being altered every day as we use technology resonated deeply within Carr’s text. It is a scary concept and it would seem to me one not talked about enough. Consider if you pull through most fast food joints and get a cup of coffee there will be a warning on the side of the cup “caution: Hot fluids”, there’s no warning on the side of your computer “mind altering device, limited time advised”. Why is that?

After reading Carr I began to read some o f the articles that had come up from Google scholar. They began to be on the synthesis of education and technology and were surprisingly oriented in East Asia.  One of these articles focused on the future of East Asian classrooms over the next 20 years. Chan, proposed a few “conjectures”; firstly that a “digital classroom wave- is imminent” (essentially that technology is constantly improving an invading other aspects of our lives thus has to intersect the education sphere at some point, as shown in the image to the right), the next conjecture was that “classrooms undergo radical change over the next 20 years” (for this Chen held his own small experiment on a classroom to create an ‘individualized’ classroom setting), Conjecture 3 was that eventually with both the option of e-books and e-boards people would choose the just as efficient but more practical e-book, conjecture 4 was “individualization will be increasingly emphasized”, for this change in classrooms to occur conjecture 5 must occur “teachers increasingly (become) Mentors” , the final conjecture I will mention though Chen goes on state a few more, is that these new classrooms would solve the age old  “all-up-to” and “mobility” problems.

The “all-up-to” problem is that the education system pushes all students to reach up to the same standard. Think of an industrial packaging line, packing all the minds of students with the same information and expecting to get a uniform result of educated people out. (Robinson, 2011) Even though Chen was discussing East Asian classrooms, Robinson who makes a similar mention of this problem was talking about worldwide classrooms so I think it safe to assume this dilemma crosses cultural boundaries. Robinson when addressing this problem also raises a serious question; is this how we want out students to be treated and to end up?

In a talk by Noam Chomsky on the purpose of education talks about the “crisis of democracy” arguing that certain “institutions are responsible for the indoctrination of the young and that they aren’t doing it effectively.” Chomsky claims that the debt that most students of today face was created in such a way that students once they have gone through this process of indoctrination are so trapped from their limited monetary resources that they are trapped into a light of conformity. He contrasts this to the classical view of learning and education that rose out of the enlightenment era. During the enlightenment era learning was viewed of as harnessing the quest for knowledge. It placed an emphasis on the methods and ability to question doctrine, authority, work with others not simply on the conformity and rope memorization that most standardized education contain.

Later in this interview Chomsky points out the importance of the ability to cultivate knowledge. This is especially important he claims with the access to the internet that many of today’s students have. Without some guidance he claims that students will have a “cultish” understanding of things. If all you know about a subject is a fact here and a different fact there the image that you  have created from these facts will be very different from the image someone who had background knowledge or at the very least the ability to cultivate their knowledge may have created. Ultimately does the education system teach student to cultivate their own knowledge. Are modern classrooms teaching people to be free thinkers who can be trusted to make the right decision or people who cannot be expected to really understand what’s going on?

Over and over these scholars raised the same question essentially what is the final goal of our education system? To me, while this is a very interesting question, I want to look at not what becomes of people as they reach then to of the education system but rather as an anthropologist look at all the modes one might learn.  The contemplation of this question in its many forms leads me in a logical circle. How is technology going to change and alter the way that students of the future learn? Is how students of the present are being taught appropriate for the outcome they want from the education system? How does the outcome they are imaging when they reach the “end” of education differ from the end that the system has in mind? Are there different modes that people could take to achieve a “learned” status? Assuming there are what are they and how do the end results of students then compare to the prized scholars of an education system?

These questions began churning in my mind and I honestly was feeling overwhelmed as I looked into the vast abyss of this thing we call learning. What was I going to finally pick for my research question? It would need to be something that I could research in real life not simply research through the pages of others ideas (though that is a very important part of any research process).

My mentor suggested I create a mind map of what I had learned thus far, so I did. I think this is an appropriate moment to point out the connection in my own personal experience to the guidance that Chomsky refers to. There I was floating of my own free will, wonderfully ignorant among a sea of knowledge, only truly aware of the potential all of this had because of the mentors that guide me. They could have simply told me what to think about certain ideas.

When I think of the many talks that Dr. Griffith and I had when she could have simply said this is what you are supposed to think about this subject. But she didn’t Dr. Griffith asked me questions on what I thought about it, why did I think that, had I heard about an article on a similar subject about this, or a writing by a different author about that always providing me the opportunity to find out more about a topic and allowing me to reach my own conclusions. They may be a bit murky right now in the study, and in all truth probably will be murky for as long as I desire to research, but they feel like my murky ideas and that seems incredibly important.

Feeling this as I was learning in my study, and talking to fellow students who felt frustrated about classroom settings brought up another important issue with learning the feeling that you had control over your learning environment and most importantly the implied motivation that was strengthened by this belief in control or lack thereof.

My question had begun to form itself. I could feel it circling around the relationship between learning modes and motivation (implied in there is the potential access to resources that the learners would have). One day in a meeting with my mentor we narrowed down the question to What factors influence the acquisition and application of knowledge? Perhaps I will do my study on the different forms of education. From the “on-demand” adult learning, to childhood quests for knowledge, to higher academic classroom learning what are the key moments in the learning experiences and how do the end results compare. 

(Need to find a better transition)

Importantly I believe, based on my research so far and my own personal experience, that all people have the potential to have access to learning and with the ability to become learned given a consistent motivation. At the risk of sounding to far removed from the reality of one with limited resources I would propose that anyone could reach the same point of knowledge as anyone else once said knowledge has been made physically present in the world (such as might occur during the printing of a book). Two individuals may have to overcome very different obstacles, one may need to overcome more obstacles than another, but theoretically once the knowledge has reached a physical state all living people have the potential to obtain it.

For example a by living in an American lower income suburb who comes from a home where English is not the native language but has the desire and motivation to learn more about quantum physics has several obstacle to overcome. The boy has several options as I see it that he could take to gain this knowledge. He could learn English, find a way to attend higher education and ensure that he becomes a quantum physicist and use the resources then available to him to answer his questions. On the other hand the boy could forgo the years of education and use access to physics knowledge on the internet (either through a personal computer or a public computer) or in a public written text to the point where he has developed an understanding of the text.

Both ways would have created a deep base of knowledge in physics but through different paths extremely dependent on the motivation of the boy do reach his end result.  The end may not take the classic path that many think of when “learning” is talked about but many an individual has been learned without a college diploma and many have overcome obstacles such as low socio-economic status, war, racial differences, etc. to reach an end desire.

In my study I would examine the different modes people took to learn a concept, examine the different forms of motivation (perhaps even the ways that this motivation is altered by internal and external sources) and look at the over all results. 

Notes:

Research on kindergarteners sounds like it could be good. The students would still have the “fresh” perspective on how to access certain knowledge without the training of formal education but would their physical development impair the research collected?

Need to find a way to work in more outside sources and smooth the transition between definition of learning, intelligence, education and the actual research being conducted.

Needs many more go overs to trim to desired material

Works Cited (Incomplete)

M, Sridhar S. "Introduction to Research and Methods." Research and Methods. SLideshare.com, 17 Dec. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. <http://www.slideshare.net/mssridhar/introduction-to-research-methodology-presentation>.

YouTube. Dir. Gram Brown-Martin. Perf. Noam Chomsky. YouTube. Learners without Frontiers, 01 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08>.