reflect on effects of it on students and their learning: new species in learning revolution? wing...

Reflect on Effects of IT on Students and their Learning: New Species in Learning Revolution?

Wing Kwong TSANG

On the Sociology of Adolescence, Youth, and Generations

Basic sociological premise: The Debates Adolescence, youth, teenager, are socially

constructed categories rather than definitive stages of life with essential biological and psychological attributes

More recently discourse on generation X, Y, post-80s, post-90s, ...are also socially constructed categories invented by marketing strategists rather than collectivities of distinct worldviews, identities and/or orientations of actions.

The sociology of adolescence and youth: Adolescence and youth is defined as “betwixt

and between” stage in lifecourse. This stage has been prolonged in modern industrial society. A large number of newcomers are deferred or denied of full membership, i.e. adulthood.


The sociology of adolescence and youth:… Social conditions for the emergence of

adolescence problem Industrialization and urbanization Functional differentiation of modern family:

Functions of economic production and education had been differentiated to other formal social institutions, i.e. factories and schools.

Legislation changes: Illegalization of child-labor Legalization of compulsory education


The sociology of adolescence and youth:… Social conditions for the emergence of youth

problem The advent of post-industrial society and affluent

economy The expansion of tertiary education The emergence of postmodernity

Incredulity of metanarrative Ephemerality, fragmentation, discontinuity and

chaotic Periodic moral panic


The sociology of youth culture in late capitalism Culture of production and spirit of capitalism:

Max Weber has characterized the cultural and spiritual conditions contributing to the rise of capitalism in the 19th century Europe as culture of asceticism, endurance, industriousness, enterprising and investment


The sociology of youth culture … Culture of late capitalism and consumerism: As

industrial capitalism advanced to late capitalism, the dominance of ascetic culture of production also gave way to culture of consumerism, the constituents of which consist of Hedonism: Consumption as desire-satisfaction was replaced

by consumption as desire-creation. “Desire does not desire satisfaction. To the contrary, desire desires desire." (Bauman, 1998, p. 25)

Ephemeralism: "Consumer goods are meant to be used up and to disappear; the idea of temporariness and transitoriness is intrinsic to their very denomination as objects of consumption" (Bauman, 1998, P.28)


The sociology of youth culture … Culture of late capitalism and consumerism: …

Instantaneousness: "Ideally, the consumer's satisfaction ought to be instant, and this in a double sense. Consumed goods should bring satisfaction immediately, requiring no delay, no protracted learning of skills and no lengthy groundwork; but the satisfaction should end the moment the time needed for their consumption is up, and that time ought to be reduced to a bare minimum." (Bauman, 1998, p. 25)

Fetishism: From consumption of commodity to collection of commodity; from consumption as act of desire-satisfaction to consumption (or possession) as identification of status and life style


The Sociology of Digital Generation

The Hurried Child: Growing Up too Fast Too Soon (Elkind, 2001)

By simplifying the access to information through TV and then PC and Internet, it opens children to experiences that were once reserved for adults, e.g. sex and violence

By blurring the boundary between adults and children and revealing the secrecy of adults in electronic media, children are less deferential to adults’ authority and they become less likely to trust or respect simply because they are adults

“Growing up too fast too soon.” (Elkind, 2001)

“Growing up too fast in the world of sex and drug.” (Winn, 1984)

Disappearance of Childhood: From literacy of printed materials to literacy of TV and then

IT, the closure of adult world erodes and evaporates as the disclosure media of TV and then PC rise to dominance

These result in the exposure of the “backstage” of adulthood in front of screens of TV and then PC (Meyrowitz, 1985) and the disappearance of children (Postman, 1983)

Exposure of children to mass media (Sanders, 1995) and “unrestricted knowledge about things once kept secret from nonadults” (Steinberg and Kinchloe, 1997) have caused the death of childhood and the loss of the literal selves of children

The screenagers embrace discontinuity, turbulence and complexity. They have the natural adaptive skills that enable them to deal with the problem pf postmodernity. (Rushkoff, 1996)


The consuming children (Kenway and Bullen, 2001)

Young consumers in late capitalism: Fetishism, hedonism, ephemerality, immediate-gratification, and low threshold for boredom

From passive advertisement receivers from TV screen to active consumption information seekers from PC screen

Great divide among consuming children in information age


The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998) and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)

The Net Generation “have new powerful tools for inquiry, analysis, self-expression, influence, and play. They have unprecedented mobility. They are shrinking the planet in ways their parent could never imagine. Unlike television which was done to them, they are the actors in the digital world.” (Tapscott, 1998, P.3)



The psychological complex of the N-Generation Tolerance and acceptance of diversity: “On the Internet,

nobody knows you’re a dog.” (p. 86) A curious generation: The interactive world of the Internet

elicits intensely heightened curiosity. Assertiveness and self-reliance: “They begin to develop self-

reliance at an early age: they can find what they need quickly, easily, and honestly” (p.87) in the Internet.

A contrarian generation: “Because they have master the tools to question, challenge, and disagree, these kids are becoming a generation of critical thinkers” (p. 88) and not easily submitted to authority at face value.



The psychological complex of the N-Generation A generation of high self-esteem: They acquire the capacities

to act on the environment and to mastery in the computer-mediated working environment at early age. They enhance their self certainty. They also learn to establish their identity through a much enlarged social world through the Internet.

Generation of multiple self and virtual self: A generation of intelligent / multi-intelligent: “Jean Piaget…

argues that intelligence develops in all children through the continually shifting balance between the assimilation of new information into existing cognitive structure and the changing accommodation of those structures themselves to incorporate the new information.” Internet and other computer-mediated environments provide ample opportunities of the kind.



The psychological complex of the N-Generation A generation of stronger spatial orientation A generation of divergent and multi-media thinking

The social complex of the N-generation: The question of the social skills of the N-generation: The question of the attention span of the N-generation The question of the predisposition to cruelty A generation of vanity The question of stressfulness of the N-generation



The Learning strategy of the N-generation: From broadcast learning to interactive learning

Broadcast Learning Interactive Learning

Linear, sequential/serial Hypermedia learning

Instruction Constructive/discovery

Teacher-centered Learner-centered

Absorbing materials Learning how to learn

School Lifelong

One-size-fits-all Customized

School as torture School as fun

Teacher as transmitter Teacher as facilitator


Edutainment the Screenagers

The myth of making learning fun “Most learning isn’t fun. Learning takes work, discipline,

and commitment, from both teacher and student.” (Stoll, 1999, p. 12)

“The program forces the child to do a math problem in order to be rewarded with two minutes of entertainment. Then the torture begins anew. What a great way to teach hatred of math.” (p. 17)

“Many subjects aren’t fun. I wonder how the fun-to-learn teacher handles the Holocaust, Rape of Nanking, or American slavery. Perhaps her class creates Web sites about the subjects - and the students concentrate on graphic design instead of history.” (p.18)


The myth of making learning fun “The intention should be enlightenment, not entertainment.

Learning isn’t about acquiring information, maximizing efficiency, or enjoyment. Learning is about developing human capacity. To turn learning into fun is to denigrate the two most important things we can do as humans: To teach. To learn.” (p.22)


Multimedia comic lesson The limitation of hypertext in multimedia

“Hypertext doesn’t allow narrative: Depending on which hot link you pick, the tale take different turn. It turns a story into a computer game.” (p. 56)

“The programmer doesn’t know where a reader came from. So every page on the Web has to stand on its own, independent of every other page. How do you develop a plot when its’ difficult to read the text from beginning to end?” (p.56)

“Consumers neither like nor expect long, densely written texts on their computer screens. Long texts addle the eyes; slow the rapid-fire ‘interactive’ process, steal precious screen space from the animation, video, and multimedia’s other.” (p. 57)

“The Web trivializes text. With only a second to catch the reader’s eye, the Internet emphasizes flashy graphic, and bright color.” (p. 56)


Multimedia comic lesson The limitation of hypertext in multimedia

“Just as multimedia turns writers into hacks, it likewise stifles readers. The computer pushes us to fool around instead of digging for meaning in the text.” (p.58)

Multimedia comic lesson turn classroom into video-game store

Learning for the 21st Century: Learning Revolution or Mantra as Usual

Paradigm shift in the conception of learning Behaviorist conceptions of learning “focus on behavior

modification via stimulus-response pairs and selective reinforcement. Their pedagogical focus is on control and adaptive response.” (Wenger, 1998, P. 279)

Cognitive theories of learning “focus on internal cognitive structures and view learning as transformations in these cognitive structure. Their pedagogical focus is on the processing and transmission of information through communication, explanation, recombination, contrast, inference, and problem solving.” (Wenger, 1998, P. 279)


Paradigm shift in the conception of learning Social theories of learning conceive learning as

“social participation. Participation here refers not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but to a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities.” (Wenger, 1998, P.4) According, Etienne Wenger conceives learning is a social process consisting of four components:


Paradigm shift in the conception of learning Social theories of learning …. learning is a social

process consisting of four components: Learning as experience: Learning is “to experience our life

and the world” (Wenger, 1998, P. 5). And it is through these “lived experiences” that we gain the “deep understandings” of the meanings and meaningfulness of the world in which we find ourselves.

Learning as doing: Learning is also to act and to practice the social engagement with other fellow humans in a sustainable and cooperative way by making use of “shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives.” (Wenger, 1998, P. 5)


Paradigm shift in the conception of learning Social theories of learning …. learning is a social

process consisting of four components:… Learning as belonging: Via the lived experiences and

practices shared with one’s co-learners (as well as practitioners), learning is then to forge the sense of belonging to the community of the respective practice and lifeworld.

Learning as becoming: Learning is finally to change who we are and create a prominent membership (i.e. social identity) in a given community of practice. (Wenger, 1998, P. 5)


Paradigm shift in the conception of learning Knowledge-building theory of learning conceives

learning and education in general as an process of enculturation to the “three worlds of knowledge”, especially the “world-3 knowledge” (Berieter, 2002)


Learning of what? The mantra and myth of the policy rhetoric of “Learning

to Learn”: Two of the most oft-quoted “objective” appeared in policy documents of education reform for the 21st century all over the world are “learning to learn” and lifelong learning, yet none of these documents have ever provided any definitive specification on the question of “what is to be learn?” One of the most obvious example of this policy mantra and myth is the phase “learning to learn”, logically it is an empty tautology with no substance at all, because syntactically both the predicate and the object are the same.


Learning of what? Aspects of knowledgeability: As expounded in

Lecture 12, Carl Berieter has defined the primary objective of education in the 21st century is “more than learning what is in books” but to be “enculturated into World 3”, i.e. more specifically to learning to master the six kinds of knowledgeability that Berieter has categorized. They are


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Statable knowledge: “This is knowledge the knower can

actually put into some explicit form…such that it can be conveyed, argued about, compared with alternative, and evaluated by others. It is part of what cognitive scientists refer to as ‘declarative’ knowledge.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 137) It is the kind of knowledge we learn from books. (P. 239)


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Implicit understanding: “Work on expert systems,

knowledge engineering, and expertise has led to a heightened appreciation of the role of knowledge people apparently have and use but cannot state. Unstated, tacit, or implicit knowledge covers a very wide range. ….Implicit understanding refers to those aspects of our knowledge that characterize intelligent relationship to things or situations in the world.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 138) It is the kind of knowledgeability that moves beyond the statable knowledge. It is a stage in which the experts or masters of the craft have gained a “deep understanding” of the problem, the situation, the materials to work with, the equipment in use, and the matters as a whole. ….


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Implicit understanding: “….. As a result, the knowers can

not only have intelligent connectivity and prediction of the issue at hand but also can obtain these connectivity and prediction with ease and spontaneity. In other words, the implicit and deep understanding has made the conceptual artifacts in operation in World 3 become an integral and “natural” part of the thinking mind.


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Episodic knowledge: It refers to “the stock of

remembered experiences we called on to suggest what to do in the present.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 240) It is the kind of knowledgeability, which can be construed as repertoires that the experts have developed and accumulated through years of experiences. As experts or masters, they are by definition can call on the relevant repertoire to situations and to solve the problems at hand.


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Impressionistic knowledge: “This is knowledge in the form

of hunches and feelings. To the extent that students are engaged in creating or improving conceptual artifacts, they rely, as creative people always must, on impressionistic knowledge that points them in promising directions. The same is true in thinking critically about received ideas.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 240) This kind of knowledgeability can be conceived as the connoisseurship and impressionistic judgment that the experienced creative workers can rely on in situations of uncertainty and chaos.


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Skills: “As with getting around in aphysical environment,

getting around in World 3 involved in the multitude of skills. There are the cognitive shills involved in reading and research and the social skills involved in argumentation and collaborative problem solving. In a conventional curricular approach, one would try to itemize, teach, and test these skills, but that is not the direction implied by the idea of enculturation. Instead, we may assume a whole constellation of skills that develop through working in World 3.” (Berieter, 2002, Pp. 240-41)


Aspects of knowledgeability: … Regulative knowledge: “Include here the habits that

develop through working in knowledge domains and the norms of conduct and judgment that characterize different disciplines, some of which hold across disciplines.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 241)

“Enculturation, of course, involves more than can be captured in any list of elements. As with enculturation into a profession or a tribe, it involves that whole personality.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 241)


Learning as knowledge building: In light of the conception of knowledgeability and Poppers’ three world of knowledge, Berieter and Ng (Ng and Berieter, 1991) propose to make distinctions between three goals of schooling Task-completion goals: “Students focusing on task

completion are engaged in the learning activity at a behavioral level but are not cognitively engaged.” They are simply doing what is expected of them. “In Poppian terms, the focus of these students is World1, the external world of people, things, and action.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 257)


Learning as knowledge building: …. Learning goals: “These goals distinguish students

who are purposefully engaged in learning.” They are cognitively engaged in receiving and retaining information or knowledge taught by teacher and in textbook. But “their focus is on Popper’s World 2. They are concerned with the content of the individual mind―specifically, their own. …They are trying to learning what the teacher is trying to teach.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 257)


Learning as knowledge building: …. Knowledge-building goals: “These goals

distinguish students who are actively engaged with problem beyond the immediate situation.” They are discussing and working on conceptual artifacts that could help to solve problems and more generally “arrive at the truth.” The discussion they are engaging in is World 3 discourse dealing with such World 3 object as theories and explanations, carried out in a mode of critical inquiry.” (Berieter, 2002, P. 257)

Reflect on Effects of IT on Students: Immature as Usual or a New Species?

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reflect on effects of it on students and their learning: new species in learning revolution? wing...

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