Posts Tagged ‘learning’
Using Acronyms to Aid in Memory
Posted by Nick Roy in Psychological Foundations of Learning Wednesday, 24 December 2008 11:33 No Comments
Forgetting assumes that information that was stored in the short term or long term memory is now not available or is not accessible. It is in terms of availability and accessibility that the importance of forgetting, with regard to demonstrating separate stages in memory is to be approached. Failures of availability and accessibility include encoding failure occurs when data is not stored in the short or long term memory. Trace decay involves the physical form of memory disappearing with time due to neural decay; it explains sensory memory, short term memory forgetting and the effect of rehearsal.
There are seven explanations as to why we forget information that we have stored in memory. These include: decay, interference, failure to retrieve, repression, construction error, failure to store or consolidate, and infantile amnesia.
To minimize forgetting information that we just learned, we can use a number strategies to store the information. If we organize information in a logical way, it will facilitate retrieval and minimize forgetting. Encoding is a process of storing information in memory by modifying it in someway as to make it easier for recall at a later date. One type of encoding is the use of acronyms. This is an advanced cognitive strategy where people devise unique ways to remember stuff. For example, if I want to be able to remember the concept of conceptual knowledge, I can devise this simple formula.
DK + PK = CK
Where DK represents declarative knowledge, PK represents procedural knowledge, and CK represents conceptual knowledge. This formula represents a way of remembering that when people integrate their declarative knowledge and their procedural knowledge, it results in conceptual knowledge.
Encoding strategies such as acronyms have helped me in remembering concepts for long periods of time, as is the case with the KASH model. The KASH model was a concept that I first learned about in a course on Human Resources Development. It was a way of teaching people how to turn what you just learned into a habit so that the task becomes second nature. KASH was an acronym that stood for knowledge of a better way, ability, skills, and habits. Acronyms such as these are easy to pronounce. If you are reading a list of words and they are easy to pronounce, you will have a better chance at remembering and recalling it later.
The Nature of Memory
Posted by Nick Roy in Psychological Foundations of Learning Wednesday, 24 December 2008 11:33 No Comments
The nature of memory can be explained as a set of stages that are necessary but not sufficient for memory to have taken place. These involve “input” -registering or encoding information, where a memory trace is formed from translating the sensory data, “storage” which is either temporary or permanent and “output” which involves retrieval – memories would be useless unless they could be retrieved. It is these stages that form the fundamental characteristics of the process of memory and in order for this to occur it is necessary for the data to become engaged in the memory structure. Memory structure can be separated into three distinct categories, sensory memory input store where the sensory data remains unchanged in the mind for a brief time but is rapidly lost through decay; short -term memory- which has a relatively limited capacity approximately seven items with rapid decay being prevented through rehearsal and finally long-term memory which is a relatively permanent storage system with an apparent unlimited capacity with information being held in enactive, iconic or symbolic form. The evidence for separate stores comes from empirical studies of duration, capacity, coding differences, serial position effect, brain damage and forgetting.
Piagetian Theory
Posted by Nick Roy in Psychological Foundations of Learning Wednesday, 24 December 2008 11:33 No Comments
Definition/Role of learning
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development explains how human cognitive function differentiates as a child grows. From birth, a baby starts to interact with his surrounding through his sensory and motor activity. From 2 years, a child begins to represent the world through language. From around 7 years, he/she operates on objects. From 12 years, a child is able to think formally and logically without concrete objects. This developmental sequence doesn’t change. Each stage comes from the earlier stage and it is also basis of the next stage. For cognitive development, there should be four factors, such as maturation, social interaction, environment and equilibration. At each stage, the importance of each factor is different and each factor interacts with each other.
Increase in learning
Piaget’s concept of learning occurs in five stages. The first stage, sensorimotor stage consists of infants experimenting with their world through the use of their senses. The second stage, preoperational stage is most know for children having problems solving the conservation problem. This stage consists of the play years for children. By age 6 or 7, children are entering the school years, and marks the concrete operational stage.
Critics of Piaget state that children do not develop through stages. However, we can use Piaget’s theory as a baseline to see how children are developing. Some children can move through the stages more slowly or more quickly than other children. Children that move more slowly can indicate either a learning disability or neurological problems. One extreme can be the case of a child who is 15 who is locked in a closet with little environmental stimulation for a number of years and thus causing the child to have a mental age of 5. On the other extreme, children of two income families where both parents are in the workforce are developing at much younger ages.
Goal of learning
The goal of learning reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things. Typically, in order to learn new skills, students often go through a phase of confusion, failure, and discomfort.
5 main points of Piagetian Theory
1. Children are active and motivated learners
2. Children organize what they learn from their experiences
3. Children’s learning occurs when there is an interaction with their physical surroundings and with other people.
4. Children adapt to their environment through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.
5. Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences–or interactions with the surrounding environment–play in student learning.
Learning Through Computer Interaction
Posted by Nick Roy in Distance Learning News Wednesday, 24 December 2008 11:33 2 Comments
We are one the brink of a major revolution in means of learning. Very few people understand what is about to happen. Even most professional educators are still unaware of the implications that human-computer interaction has on learning. The revolution will occur within the next 10 years and will affect out educational system at all levels.
This revolution in the way people learn will be based on the technology of the digital computer. Learning media from other aspects of modern technology will also figure significantly.
A brief review of the history of learning will help explain the situation. The earliest humans learned primarily through experience and interaction with other humans. Until recently in human history, and even now in early childhood, this has been the principal learning mode.
In classical Greece, several new learning modes became prominent. One of these was based on the technology of writing, which was already well developed in Greece. The Greeks realized that written documents could serve as the basis for learning.
The lecture, or group discussion, also seems to have originated in ancient Greece. Perhaps the mode for which Greece is best known is the dialog, exemplified in the works of Plato. Teacher and student worked on a one-to-one basis. The teacher avoided directly lecturing the student, but by a careful set of questions led the student to discoveries.
The lecture was a solution to a problem that continues to be of great concern in education which is how to accommodate very large numbers of people who need to learn. The development of print provided another such mass mode which the advent the textbook. Almost 200 years elapsed from the invention of the printing press until the widespread use of textbooks in school environments.
Why will the computer lead to another major change in education There are a variety of reasons, some concerning the advantages of the computer as a learning and teaching device, and some concerning today s very rapidly decreasing cost of computer technology, a decrease that will continue for many years.
A major advance of computer is that they make learning an active process, where students play a constant thinking role. This contrasts with large lecture classes where many students struggle to take notes. In a lecture, few students participate actively in the learning process. Most psychologists agree that active learning is far superior to passive learning.
A closely related issue is individualization. Each student at a computer display has a unique interactive experience based on the student s past performance or other information. Students can control the pace of learning, which is impossible in the lecture situation. They can review material at their discretion and can be given remedial or more advanced material as appropriate. Students can choose both content and learning sequences.
The fact that the cost of computers is diminishing rapidly is well known. Yet the speed of this decline is startling. The figure often seen in the computer industry is that for equivalent power, computers decrease in cost by about 30 each year.
Not all parts of the computer are equally affected by this decrease, however. In recent years, the most dramatic decreases occurred in computer memory and hard drive capacity, the section of the computer that stores information and instructions. The reasons for this decrease are twofold. First, we are just beginning to explore a new and exciting technology. We are rapidly becoming more skillful in using the technology. New techniques are appearing frequently and many of these are successful. The second factor that reduces costs is mass production of components.
We can already begin to see the results of lower costs in the appearance of computers for the home market, computers that cost about the same as color television sets. While these machines lack some capabilities desirable for educational purposes, they are close to providing what we need. Given the rapid pace of development, we can expect their descendants tin a few tears to offer good environments for learning.
Computers help people learn in other ways, too. For example, there are a few methods of teaching that are just now emerging because of computers. One of these methods is distance learning. The students can view the lectures at their own pace, during a time that is good for them, at home on their computer systems. This has been proven to be highly effective for learning disabled, blind deaf, and mobility impaired students. In addition to viewing lectures on the computer, the students can discuss what they learned with other students in the same course, and even the teacher, through live video conferencing using a program called CU-SeeMe.
Not only are the computers becoming less costly, but the telecommunications media used in distance learning are falling in price and rising in quality every day. Ten years ago, the only way to make a video conference call was to make a long distance phone call from one person s costly black-and-white video phone to another s. Now, all one need is a connection to the Internet approximately 20 per month for unlimited use and he or she can talk to and see multiple users at the same time on a large color monitor .
One place you can see this new technology in action is England s Open University. When it was established in 1969, it was radical innovation in many ways. Specifically, the teaching system was based on a combination of broadcasting computer, television, and radio and specially written printed texts. This concept of a “University of the Air” was a major factor in bringing the Open University to the forefront of public attention, ensuring widespread publicity and the heavy enrollment essential for political survival in the early years.
Thus, the combinations of increasing educational effectiveness plus decreasing cost of computers will be the primary generator of the educational revolution based on computer and other technologies. It appears likely that computers will soon be more important in our educational process than books, and may entirely replace the book medium for many purposes. These changes will have profound effects on our institutions, our teachers, and even our way of life.