Before the GA Fellows start their next round of Blog posts I thought I would briefly summarize and tie their work together in this post.
Beyond the tool of the day that seems to draw the attention of the popular press there are a host of interesting topics to explore in relation to how we learn and especially how we learn online. Donny starts us down this path by exploring the real world implications of learning and working in a distributed environment. There is a vast array of tools at our disposal today that we can use to connect electronically with each other, but they do not guarantee dialogue (the social constructed knowledge pursued in a trusted environment) nor do they guarantee the social connection or social presence that we value. While we often have one to two members of our team connected remotely it is all too easy to center the conversation around those that are present and physically engaged in the discussion. This may leave the remote participants to feel disconnected even when we do our best to constantly reach out to them. Thus, whether we are involved in formal, non-formal, or informal learning environments working remotely in these situations is still a challenge socially and emotionally. Further, as advanced as our technologies are we still experience video lag or dropout and temporary disconnects in the audio stream. Thus we need to do better for our online learners in synchronous and asynchronous situations.
The next post lead us to explore the ideas of formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments. Here I use the term learning environments as these terms are about the structure of the learning experience and not about learning. We learn in all kinds of situations and learning is not dependent on a particular structure. Although our emotional engagement may vary from situation to situation.
Within our discussion of these environments Xinyun discusses the idea of tacit and incidental learning. Both of these are very interesting constructs and raise a host of questions. While incidental is discussed in the frame of informal learning we are not sure it is restricted to this format or structure of a learning environment. Can we not have incidental learning in formal learning environments? We may think of these incidental foreys as tangents as we are exploring a concept. A string of thought that takes us down an unintended path. These tangents may wrap back around to our original intent or focus, or they may just dead end and remain as an interesting new mental model or schema that we may choose to revisit someday. Further, the idea of incidental learning being across the learning environment spectrum is support by the UNESCO study NFE-MIS Handbook: Developing a Sub-National Non-Formal Education Management Information System (Connal & Sauvageot, 2005) which discusses the notion as random learning. In the study they state ‘Random learning refers to unintentional learning occurring at any time and in any place, in everyday life.’ (p. 36), and it ‘need not match any criteria (e.g. learning taking place on a daily basis, without intention, organisation, an institutional framework, etc.)’ (p. 37).
However, in Xinyun post the concept of tacit learning was the one that engendered the most debate and discussion. As discussed in Xinyun’s post this is knowledge that cannot easily be coded or passed along. It is only learned through experience, such as balancing on a bike or learning to float, or as in Xinyun’s example how to balance on skates. While we can describe these concepts we cannot teach them and thus it is only learned through experience and practice. Tacit learning is also possibly an example of embedded cognition or what may be seen as muscle memory. A question that we debated around tacit learning/knowledge is how it may involve working memory when we are learning tacit knowledge. It is not necessarily drawing on long term memory, but it is likely using a part of working memory, that is related to intrinsic cognitive load, as we are concentrating on the task. Also, tacit learning is likely intentional and not incidental as we are very focused on learning these skills through experience.
The concepts of incidental and tacit are areas that we can definitely explore further in terms of their impact on working memory, embedded cognition, and our use of our learning tools such as keyboarding skills. In other words, how does the task of keyboarding, once learned, impact working memory and thus cognitive load? Further, how does keyboarding impact working memory vs. the task of note taking? Does one use more working memory than the other, although they both may be examples of possible tacit knowledge.
Junxiu continued our exploration of formal and informal learning and explored the notion of a continuum of learning situations the feedback on each other. In other words it is a natural flow between formal, non-formal, and informal learning situations that all build on each other to move our mental models and schemas forward in terms of our understanding of topics. In other words, similar to the UNESCO study learning does not end in one situation as we transition to another learning environment. It continues and we are likely drawing upon the same long term memory schemas as we encounter a topic in different situations. As Junxiu discussed in her post it is very difficult to separate learning into such a discrete binary model of simply formal or informal.
Junxiu also provides a nice example through the description of the Liberia tailor mentor-apprenticeship model. This example explore the idea of how what is possibly a formal apprenticeship/learning model blends with informal and possibly tacit learning as an apprentice learns the trade. To try to separate these is very difficult and likely without meaning.
In the final post of the first round of blog posts Tugce introduces yet another important factor in our ability to learn – the emotional element. In her posts she focuses on the humanization of learning in online learning environments. This idea goes beyond the idea of social presence or the feeling of being there and to a much deeper level of personal connections to others in an online course. It brings into question how empathy, vulnerability, and other emotions may play into one’s learning experience and ultimately their success and satisfaction in an online course. The question that Tugce raises is how do we do this within our online courses that are offered at a distance. What is the tool or technique that can best allow this type of emotional/humanizing connection and what is the ratio of student to instructor that could possible allow this to happen. It is also likely that students are not looking to connect with automated bots as they will see through this and the emotional connection will be lost.
In exploring this construct Tugce opens up the possibility of engaged story telling, music and other media as possible areas to explore to understand how these mediums, when developed well, pull us into the story and engage our emotions with the characters or the story where we want to learn more. What are the hooks that make us stay up all night reading a great novel, what is it about music that heightens our emotions, and what is it in great documentaries that instill in us action to volunteer. We need to explore these further to understand how we can integrate these aspects into our online courses.
Across the four posts of our first round of blog posts the GA Fellows have raised wonderful questions and an underlying theme of engagement across learning environments has emerged. Further, these posts tie into the broader work we are exploring around working memory and cognitive load, and how these various constructs may impact learning. Also, from neuroscience it is currently accepted that emotions draw from the amygdala in the brain. Thus in our learning process we are engaging the frontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala in a well-choreographed dance. One that culminates in working memory as a type of control area that orchestrates the learning process as it pulls from long term memory, integrates with long term memory, inhibits extraneous interference, and uses our emotions to enhance attention to the moment of learning. As we continue to explore these interesting topics and constructs that are introduced in the posts, we hope to inform the design and teaching process involved in online learning at a distance.
References
Connal, C., & Sauvageot, C. (2005). NFE-MIS Handbook: Developing a Sub-National Non-Formal Education Management Information System. UNESCO. France.