Blending Constructivist Educational Theory

with Technology Education

Paul Sarapas

ED 260

Seminar in Educational Issues

Professor Analucia Schliemann

October 17, 2002

Paul.Sarapas@Tufts.edu

Kazimir Malevich: Morning in the Village After Snowstorm, 1912

Source: http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/movement_work_md_Futurism_941.html

The main focus of this paper is to examine the structure of constructivist educational theory. In this examination we will explore relationships between artistic and literary expression and educational technology. The groundbreaking work of Marina Bers demonstrates how literature can provide a basis for educational theory and is demonstrated with her use of computer technology in aiding children with constructing imaginary/interactive societies. There will also be a brief discussion on how computer technology can limit education and intellectual pursuits. Are computers our ally or can they have ruinous consequences on learning?

What is meant by the term Constructivism?

In education, “the term refers to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves--each learner individually (and socially) constructs meaning--as he or she learns. Constructing meaning is learning; there is no other kind.” (Hein, 1991) Within Hein’s definition, there are important parameters which make constructivism distinct from traditional didactic learning. Before we apply these parameters to later examples of current work in the field, it would help to trace a brief history of the concept of constructivism. The term and concepts are not new. The ideas have found expression in the art and literature worlds, in both so-called “primitive art” and in the modern and post-modern eras. In their expressions in cave and rock paintings found throughout the world as well as in ancient artifacts which have survived the millennia, artists from pre-history exhibited abstract constructions of imagined, not real objects. Or, if their constructions were of real objects, these were often expressed in abstract geometric designs.

Photograph : Symbols Panel From: Lucas, K. Rock art of Campache Island, Brazil.

The Bradshaw Foundation, http://www.bradshaw-foundation.com/

Gino Severini: Spherical Expansion of Light, 1914

Source: http://www.futurism.org.uk/severini/sevpaintings.htm

In the art world, the cubist and futurist movements which began in the early part of the twentieth century are the modern manifestations of artistic interpretation that makes concrete the visions of the imagination. Prior to these artistic revolutions, artists of the previous several hundred years had been limited to the realistic depiction of the world. While reality was interpreted with the emergence of impressionism in the late 19th century, this was still a look at how light behaved in creating images. The appearance of a widespread artistic revolt in the early 1900’s brought significant and lasting change in not only art, but in thinking. Cubism and Futurism, dubbed “the dismantling of reality” (Rotzler, 1977) gained widespread acceptance and momentum throughout the early part of the twentieth century, and has made an impact on literature and education which lasts to this day.

M.C. Escher “Waterfall”, 1962

Source: http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/

One could forge a link with the writing of Italo Calvino in his literary creation of fantasy cities. In his work Invisible Cities, Calvino takes the reader on a voyage to many communities which are wholly the work of his fantastic imagination.

“Finally he comes to Isadora, a city where the buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells, where perfect telescopes and violins are made...Isadora... is the city of his dreams: with one difference. The dreamed-of city contained him as a young man; he arrives at Isadora in his old age. In the square there is the wall where the old men sit and watch the young go by; he is seated in a row with them. Desires are already memories.” (Calvino, 1972)

Continuing our definition of contructivist education includes adopting a view towards education which “give[s] up Platonic and all subsequent realistic views of epistemology. We have to recognize there is no such thing as knowledge “out there” independent of the knower, but only knowledge we construct for ourselves as we learn.” (Hein, 1991)

Education changes direction from…

the flow of “knowledge” from an instructor to® a group of students…

…to a flow of “knowledge”®from the student(s) ®to one another®and to the instructor.

The second construct is still rather two dimensional and didactic in appearance. A design for constructivist learning environments not only transforms this diagram to something much more three dimensional, it provides all of the remaining attributes which are necessary for a constructivist learning environment.

source: http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~jonasses/courses/CLE/main.html

This octagonal structure brings a large array of required attributes in which to plan or evaluate constructivist learning. What follows is a brief explanation of each of these attributes.

· Active: requires learners to be actively “engaged in the mindful processing of information where they are responsible for the result.”

· Constructive: learners “integrate new ideas with prior knowledge” [and] “construct their own meaning for different phenomena.”

· Collaborative: “work in learning and knowledge building communities, exploiting each others skills while providing social supports and modeling...”

· Intentional: “Everything that [is done] is intended to fulfill some goal

· Complex: the “need to engage students in solving complex and ill-structured problems...to engage in higher order thinking, [so as not to] develop oversimplified views of the world.”

· Contextual: ‘teaching knowledge and skills in real life...and providing new and useful contexts for learners to practice...ideas.”

· Conversational: Allow learners to seek out opinions and ideas from others

· Reflective: “articulation of what students are doing”; decisions made; strategies used; answers found.

(Jonassen, 1993)

Constructivist learning takes on “a personal and social construction of meaning out of the bewildering array of sensations which have no order or structure besides the explanations which...we fabricate for them.” (Hein, 1991) In other words, knowledge, in this view, is not a result of the “real” world; instead knowledge is a result of how the learner(s) construct it. At it’s best, constructivist learning incorporates each of these attributes in a learning endeavor.

In her work to liberate the computer as a data collector and simple presentation tool, Marina Bers draws inspiration from the work of Italo Calvino. She attributes the creation of a computer-based construction of imaginary cities from one of Calvino’s cities named Zora.

“This city which cannot be expunged from the mind is like an armature, a honeycomb whose cells each of us can place the things he wants to remember: names of famous men, virtues.…Between each idea and each point of the itinerary an affinity or a contrast can be established, serving as an immediate aid to memory.” (Calvino, 1972)

Bers has constructed a constructivist learning environment named Zora, in homage to Calvino. In examining the construct of this learning environment, one can see the direct affect of Calvino’s work as well as Bers’ careful attention to meeting each of the eight attributes listed earlier. Each player in the Zora construct gets their own personal “honeycomb” to create a personalized space in which they may place objects which are important to them. “Zora is a 3-D muli-user environment particularly designed to help young people explore identity as constructed by diverse and conflicting aspects and values.” (Bers, 2001) Kids design objects, players, and physical spaces, and once they have completed this, begin a community interaction. Users can move from room to room, and throughout the Zora world by “teleporting.” They converse with other players in real time through a graphical (typed) chat system, which is not unlike America onlines’ instant messager or similar chat boards. They can become involved with the construction of the cities private and public spaces, and have a choice of community centers, temples, and homes to construct as places which make up this city. Additionally, students may select from a wide list of available objects to decorate their constructed world. These include heroes, villains, and other objects such as national flags, soccer balls, and so forth. The selection of heroes and villians,as well as objects such as photographs, national flags and the like offer a rich expression of the individual who inhabits the virtual city of Zora. With teens, perhaps the greatest outlet for self-expression (besides the clothes they wear) is how they decorate their real bed rooms and the virtual rooms they control in Zora.

It would be illustrative to use the eight attributes of constructivist learning by finding examples from Zora which speak to each of these attributes.

Active: Zora requires learners to be actively “engaged in the mindful processing of information where they are responsible for the result” (Jonassen, 1993) by the fact their rooms are open and available for others to enter and explore the contents. “Learners can personalize their virtual places by selecting different textures and colors for the floors, walls, and ceiling.” (Bers 2001) This is true of both the rooms which they create as their private domains as well as public spaces known as temples. Though not likely, it is highly improbable that a participant in the Zora activity would place anything which they didn’t want others to see in their rooms, i.e. they know that they are responsible for their actions.

Constructive: Learners “integrate new ideas with prior knowledge” [and] “ construct their own meaning for different phenomena.” (Jonassen, 1993) In Zora this was played out in several ways, one notable example being the creation of a Junk shop. “One of the girls working remotely created a Junk shop to drop objects that ‘no one wants around but no one wants to delete.’” (Bers, 2001) This exemplifies integrating new ideas with prior knowledge and the “mindful processing of information.”

Collaborative: In Zora, learners exploited each other’s skills in the construction of case discussion in City Hall. “Most [cases] dealt with setting up the social organization of the virtual city, such as ‘ I think that people should not change or put things in other people’s rooms. Unless they have permission.’” (Bers, 2001) Learners discuss the rules of their society and agree/collaborate upon their adoption. This is a good example of “providing social supports and modeling...”( Jonassen, 1993)

Intentional: One of many goals of the participants in Zora is to learn how to use the computer in order to become effective in creating their personal rooms and in being able to interact with the other participants. One participant, dubbed “Pablo”, noted that although he didn’t learn “particular skills...I learned how to use Photoshop, Zora, and the computer better. But what I learned most was how to think about different ways and how to express myself a little bit better...” (Bers 2001) “Everything that [is done] is intended to fulfill some goal.” (Jonassen, 1992)

Complex: “In Zora, Communication is both synchronous (learners communicate with each other via a graphical real-time chat system using both texts and gestures) and asynchronous (learners post messages, read and write text stored in their artifacts and values dictionary).” (Bers, 2001) Carrying on conversations on two levels practically guarantees the “need to engage students in solving complex and ill-structured problems...to engage in higher order thinking, [so as not to] develop oversimplified views of the world.” (Jonassen, 1992) An example to elucidate this is the discussion which the Zora participants had in deciding to allow a “stripping bar.” A long discussion ensued over whether or not it could be allowed in their Zora community, whether the stripper character was a hero or a villain, and considerations about freedom of expression Vs what some might find offensive. (Bers, 2002) An ongoing conversation on different levels requires higher order thinking and aids learners in seeing the complexity of issues.

Contextual: Zora allows for the creation of “autopogaphies.” This is a landscape “populated by many objects and their associated values. These…can be visualized as a dynamic network in which a diversity of values interact with each other….This view provides a different alternative to think about values….(Bers, 2001) By being immersed in such a confluence of diverse and conflicting values, participants are provided with “new and useful contexts for learners to practice...ideas.”(Jonassen, 1992)

Conversational: As mentioned above, users of Zora conduct many types of conversations, in real and delayed time. In addition to this, users would follow up with face to face discussions. learners to seek out opinions and ideas from others. The on-line conversations would often serve as ice breaking or groundwork for follow up discussions which were more personal. (Bers, 2001)

Reflective: One young participant of African-American descent commented: “I go to a white school and when they talk about racism or stuff like that I am embarrassed and I feel all the eyes on me, but in City Hall it was easier because I could talk freely without feeling everyone staring at me.” Here is an example where a student sees the value of being able to type, not talk, and being able to know that she is being listened to but not stared at. (Bers, 2001)

Having made illustrative examples for each of the eight sides of the attributes needed to have complete constructivist learning, one could re-read each and use them to illustrate one or more other attributes in the diagram. Conversations help create context which help create complexity which inspire reflection that brings intentional collaborative activity which constructs a learning experience!

By using the graphic model and reading Ms. Bers’ account, we find a very rich and layered constructive learning experience. Knowledge is produced as a result of the collaborative efforts of many.

Salvatore Fiume:A village on the sea-shore of the island of Favignana, Sicily, 1950

Source: http://www.studiosoft.it/FiumeArchitectures.htm

Utopias and Dystopias: What are some of the adverse effects of

computer aided technology in interactive applications?

Lazar Lissitsky, Red Wedge, 1919

Source:http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/genres/Abstraction.html

“At the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon Anastasia, a city with concentric canals watering it and kites flying over it. I should now list the wares which can be profitably bought here: agate, onyx, chrysoprase, and other varieties of chalcedony….The city appears to you as a city where no desire is lost and which you are a part, and since it enjoys everything you do not enjoy, you can do nothing but inhabit this desire and be content. Such is the power, sometimes called malignant, sometimes benign, that Anastasia, the treacherous city, possesses…your labor which gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only its slave.”

(Calvino, 1972)

While the benefits of computer technology in bringing about education and community building are numerous, so argue some, are the ill-effects. At their worst, computers can bring disassociation from face-to-face discourse. Often, the discussion breaks down to arguments between two extreme views. Either computers will aid educators in enhancing or accelerating their teaching, or they are viewed as an enormous distraction and waste of time. Napster, the computer driven software which allowed free sharing of music, has been shut down by court order. (Fisher & Wright, 2001) While this paper has looked at a “utopian” model of computer use in constructivist education, it would be helpful to counter this with some so-called dystopian examination. The dystopian view looks at the internet as harmful to democracy which “negatively alters the practices and spaces of communication that had previously nurtured democracy.” (Fisher & Wright, 2001). “Power shifts focus, speed overcomes space, orders become disordered, community loses centers [and] values change denomination as the settings of industrialized human agency are completely shaken.” ( Fisher & Wright, 2001) Society becomes more fragmented and people become more disassociated from one another. Communication devices such as America On-Line’s instant messenger can fill enormous amounts of time with children chatting about seemingly nothing. Computers are often viewed as a panacea to fix educational problems, when perhaps money would be better spent buttressing music and arts programs. (Healy, 1998)

Conclusions:

In reading the article “Utopias and Dystopias”, I was struck with the point about how the dialogue on the beneficial and harmful affects of computers can have as being very polar and extreme. To the author’s credit, they point out the fact that there is a reasonable middle ground. In the writing of this paper, two very basic conclusions come to mind. The first is that any tool, properly used, can have both a beneficial or detrimental affect on humankind. Fire can be creative or destructive. Dynamite, invented for peaceful uses, also can have a destructive effect, and its inventor founded the Nobel Peace prize as a result. So too with computers. In one person’s hands, they can be a menace to society with destructive viruses, hacking , and worms; in the hands of another, a constructive and creative instrument.

The second conclusion is to when educators use computers on a constructivist model, they are using computers to their fullest potential. In her visit to our class, Marina Bers made the point that much of the educational world’s use of computers is aimed towards how to use computers in didactic presentation—really not much more than a fancy slide projector. Unleashing the full power of constructivist education takes real work and planning on the part of an educator. It requires not only the use of a constructivist model but also the ability and willingness to link art with learning. Allowing children to “zone out” on computers is the same as placing a class in front of a television to watch a one hour film. It can have a narcotic effect. Like all powerful tools, a computer can allow us to be its master, or we can become enslaved by it. We can be like the denizens of Calvino’s invisible city of Anastasia, where, “your labor which gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only its slave.” (Colvino, 1972)

Joaquin Torres-Garcia

Construccion en blanco y negro, 1934

Source: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~drclas/publications/revista/art/phelps.htm

Bibliography

Bers, M. Identity construction environments: developing personal and moral values through the design of a virtual city, The Journal of the Learning Sciences. V10N4, 2001?

Calvino, I. (Weaver, W. translator from the Italian) Invisible cities, Harcourt, Brace & Co.,New York 1972, 1974.

Fisher, D. & Wright, L.,On utopias and dystopias: Toward an understanding of the discourse surrounding the internet, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, V6 No. 2, January 2001

Healy, J., Failure to connect: How computers affect our children’s minds—for better or worse, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998

Hein, G. Constructivist learning theory, presentation given at The Institute for Inquiry at the International Committee of Museum educators conference, Jerusalem, Israel, 15-22 October 1991. available online at http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/constructivistlearning.html

Jonassen, D. Welcome to the design of constructivist learning environments (CLEs)

http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~jonasses/courses/CLE/main.html (1993)

Rotzler, W. Constructivist concepts: a history of constructivist art from cubism to the present, Rizzoli International publications, Inc, New York 1977,