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Dipti Mandalia Assignment 10 1. What did you find interesting about this article? The most interesting idea that was discussed in this paper was that of learning being an integral part of work. The paper identifies very well the fact that we need to change the very nature of our education system to be able to prepare students for such workplaces. The paper not only identifies this need but also gives ways to facilitate this change of mindsets. 2. What did you find not interesting about this article? The article discusses the idea of self-directed learning and puts forth the idea of providing society with learning possibilities for those who want to learn. However I would debate on the "motivational factor" of such a set-up. Most of the education systems are built the way they are because the students in a lot of ways have to be "forced" to learn (atleast till a certain level, say undergraduate level). It is noticed that the attempt on the teachers part to make the class "interactive" is not well-taken by the students because they are not interested per se in participating beyond a point. How much success would a "self-directed learning" policy attain in a situation like this. 3. What do you consider the main message of the article? The main message of the article is that we change the structure of our education systems to prepare the students for workspaces of which collaboration and learning are integral parts. Also we should design and develop new media and technology with "new" mindsets of learning, collaboration, work and education. The tacit but important message in the article is the need for organisations to support some form of learning beyond "training" in the form of organizational memories so that workers can take advantage of the symmetry of ignorance in the organization. 4. Describe in detail your mindset about learning how did you develop it? when did you develop it? did you ever change it? what made you change your mindset? I agree with the mindset about learning that is presented in the paper; that learning should be lifelong and that learning doesnot stop after school. However I believed earlier that the system that I followed as a student (till my high school, in India) was not completely incorrect. We had a conventional classroom like set up where the teacher would be the "sage on the stage" and give lectures regarding the topics in the curriculum. This is where we would learn the theory and then we would have laboratory sessions where we performed experiments and got hands on experience. I think that till a certain age education should be of this pattern. This is the part where we develop the "basic skills". This pattern of teaching changed at the undergraduate level where we had more interactive classes, group projects etc. This is where I realised the importance of communicating with other students and also deduced that this form of learning worked well. Now though I agree that collaboration is really helpful in learning I still would doubt the validity of such an approach in the begining few years of formal education, where we dont really posses the bare minimum knowledge to even take advantage of factors like symmetry of ignorance and disributed cognition. Hence I would classify my mindset towards learning as being at the median point between formal and informal education. 5. Has our course ("Design, Learning, and Collaboration") so far influenced in any way your mindset about learning? Yes, this course has most definitely influenced my mindset about learning. I think that since this is a undergraduate/graduate level course the participants most definitely have the basic skills so that we can take advantage of the symmetry of ignorance of the menbers. By encouraging group discussions, projects etc. this class has given me a chance to interact with the other students and thus get varied perspectives to the same problem. What is the impact of media / technologies (e.g., computers) on the formation of mindset – if any? I would say, currently we are still at the "gift-wrapped approach" phase as far as media/technology influencing the formation of mindsets about learning is concerned. New media however is being conceptualised so as to facilitate change in this mindset. Research intitutions like the L3D are inventing technologies that will help change the way media is percieved to assist learning.
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