tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139380866860511018.post736076058996127518..comments2024-03-28T15:25:37.037+00:00Comments on Improvisation Blog: Looking down the wrong end of the telescope? What's with the 'learning' fetish?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139380866860511018.post-28343541163239400632011-07-04T18:17:36.820+01:002011-07-04T18:17:36.820+01:00At the time I wrote this I would have absolutely a...At the time I wrote this I would have absolutely agreed with the emergentist account regarding individuals and institutions: this is basically the structure-agency distinction of Bhaskar (and to some extent Giddens).<br /><br />However, now I worry about the implicit progressivism in that account. History seems to indicate a cyclical life of institutions: things repeat. Emergence doesn't have a way of articulating the recurring patterns, which is giving me a lot to think about.<br /><br />More broadly, I think that the issue with learning technology is about identifying the 'grain' of the institution and working with it. The 'learning fetish' strangely seems to run against the grain: it often presents itself as an exhortation to 'think against the system'. I think we need to get better at thinking with the system, but understanding better what the system does and what it is for - both at a surface and a deep level. I don't think that's subservience. It's more ecological.Mark Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12438712149227569557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139380866860511018.post-78351638437864885972011-07-04T14:30:18.761+01:002011-07-04T14:30:18.761+01:00Interesting piece.
Is it not reasonable to think ...Interesting piece.<br /><br />Is it not reasonable to think of society and its institutions as being emergent structures which form from the interactions of many individuals? Those institutions with greater longevity may have their behaviours codified in sets of rules, but are still capable of being moulded and changed by the ephemeral humans who are currently extant and involved with them.<br /><br />Having those individuals capable of learning well, of adapting to changing environments, is (currently) key to the ability of the institutions to adapt. At the moment it is also likely that the only models we can develop for the institutions themselves to be able to learn are based on our models of how people learn, although I can envisage it being possible to develop other models for institutions and communities at a later point.<br /><br />Although I am not a liberalist, I do see a slightly sinister overtone to the idea of the individuals being subservient to the institutions of which they are part. The lag time on institutional change tends to be quite high in comparison to the individual, and personally I would think it important to focus first on understanding human learning and developing pedagogies which work well with the disparate types of people the institutions are there to serve.Pat Parslowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02506915711552549107noreply@blogger.com