Holeton, Composing Cyberspace Discussion Threads Chapter 9

Chapter 9 index || Forward Thinking || Research Links || More Online Readings & Resources ||

1. re: Wallis and Stoll
2. re: Wallis and Zito
3. re: Wallis, Zito, and Neill
4. re: Stoll and Neill
5. re: Neill and Card
6. re: The Classroom of the Future
New Thread for CC Online:
7. re: Reinhardt and New Ways to Learn
8. re: Courses on the Web

re: Wallis and Stoll
1. Clifford Stoll says that "real learning means inventing my own ways of solving problems" (Ś 29), and Claudia Wallis offers several examples of "constructivist learning" using computers at Dalton School that would seem to meet or exceed Stoll's definition of "real learning." To what extent do you think Stoll and the teachers at Dalton would agree about the purpose or goals of education? In what ways would they disagree about how to achieve those goals?

re: Wallis and Zito
2. How would you apply the idea of "constructivist learning" from Claudia Wallis's article to the instructional technologies at Cornell's engineering school described by Kelly Zito? What comparisons can you make between specific learning tools or educational software being developed at the Dalton School and Cornell? Based on these two articles and your own experience, how do you think new technologies are changing the relationship between students and teachers? What's your opinion of that change?

re: Wallis, Zito, and Neill
3. Imagine a dialogue between Monty Neill and teachers and students at the Dalton School and Cornell's engineering school about this topic: "Using computer technologies to promote higher-order thinking skills and to facilitate social or collaborative learning." How might Neill criticize the activities in Dalton School's Rooms 711, 608, or 307? What might he say about Cornell's CoNotes or CD-ROM textbook? How might the Dalton and Cornell people respond to each of those criticisms? With whom do you agree more, and why?

re: Stoll and Neill
4. What similarities and differences do you find in the critiques of educational computing offered by Clifford Stoll and Monty Neill? In what ways do you think the social and political values underlying their critiques overlap, and how do they differ?

re: Neill and Card 5. In Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, an alien race threatens the survival of the human species. In this context, do you think the authoritarian design of Ender's computer training is more justified, if it's intended to shape him as a potential military commander? How do you think Monty Neill would interpret Ender's educational game-playing as a reflection of today's social and political forces? What other interpretations can you propose?

re: The Classroom of the Future
6. Based on the selections in this chapter, other reading you've done on this subject, and your own experience, consider the social purposes of education and the appropriate methods, media, or technologies for achieving those goals. In terms of those purposes, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of particular computer or network technologies for teaching and learning at the dawn of the 21st century?

re: Reinhardt and New Ways to Learn
7. How would you apply Andy Reinhardt's "changing educational paradigms" or his examples of "new ways to learn" to the particular cases discussed by Claudia Wallis, Kelly A. Zito, and Orson Scott Card? How do you think these paradigms or examples would be criticized similarly and differently by Clifford Stoll and Monty Neill

re: Courses on the Web
8. Study several course Web sites about any subject at your school and/or course Web sites available from another educational institution, such as the courses addressing emerging technologies from the University of Michigan, California State University at Northridge, and Duke University. To what extent do you think the uses made of the Web for these courses embody principles suggested in the articles by Claudia Wallis, Kelly A. Zito, or Andy Reinhardt? How might these Web sites be changed to better implement a constructivist learning model or better embody the new educational paradigms suggested by Reinhardt?