Thursday 16 February 2012

Principle 3: Learning may reside in Non-human appliances?



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Learning may reside in non-human appliance?
"Connectivism Principle 3 "

   What exactly is a non-human appliance?
  • A computer? 
  • Or a library? 
  • What about a school? 
  • How about books? 
  • What about videos or films -
    documentaries or fiction?
  • What about churches? 
  • What about the Bible? 

5 comments:

  1. This principle of connectivism is the most difficult principle for me to grasp. I can understand how a device can increase its memory load in density or size, but is that learning? I can understand how a device can settle into a mode of action, normalizing to its operating environment, much like the cantankerous Ford Maverick I had in college whose clutch had a mind of its own, but did the machine learn or was it merely shaped by the environment? What law of mechanical physics to it learn? Reacting as part of a mechanical system is not learning, it is functioning as a device. I can understand how repeated action can wear a tool into a groove or pattern that results in a better fit for human or mechanical use, like my guitar, but does it think about that before it does it? Does my guitar select for those changes?

    I can't seem to get past this huge barrier of a agreeing that a non-sentient object has the power to think. I believe learning at some level is defined by an act of cognition. Cause and effect for example is a very simple model of learning. It is almost mindless and learning often occurs on the unconscious level in as little as one trial, but can my computer, my desk or my chair learn from a simple SR pattern too?

    While all live things can and do learn, how does a non-human device perceive phenomena and encode it into a memory space of some sort for later retrieval?

    Hmmmm, What has your blogspot learned from my post?

    Thanks.

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  2. Sin duda es importante contar con los contenidos y con un buen método de búsqueda; para encontrar lo que necesito en el momento adecuado. Por eso no estoy tan de acuerdo con los que piensan que por tener un computador ya disponen del conocimiento. Tienen acceso a lo que está escrito o incluso a videos y/o audio que nos puede facilitar el entendimiento de algo; pero, como dice el dicho: "del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho"
    Una cosa es ver que alguien anda en bicicleta. Otra que yo pueda hacerlo. Una cosa es que hable desde la teoría y otra que hable desde la práctica. Que hable de lo qu he hecho y no tan sólo de lo que puedo hacer.

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  3. Hello Carmen,

    I used Google translate tool to read your post. I hope I understood you correctly. I want to respond to this statement:

    "Otra que yo pueda hacerlo. Una cosa es que hable desde la teoría y otra que hable desde la práctica."

    It was translated as this: "Another that I can. One thing is to speak from theory and one that speaks from the practice."

    I must say I agree with it. I believe there is a difference in knowing about something and knowing through it, or as a result of it. The experiential tied to the theoretical is how I define intrinsic knowledge-- a deeper state of knowing characterized by automaticity in thought, an accurate understanding of the knowledge chunk in relation to other knowledge or phenomena, and the idea that this fact, or chunk of knowledge, is part of something much, much larger and connected to yet more knowledge.

    I believe this line of metacognitive abstraction is very possibly only available to humans. It is the crux of why I believe learning cannot reside in non-human devices.

    I may be uninformed. As part of CCK12, I'd like to learn whether devices can engage in this kind of complex reflection on knowledge.

    Thanks for replying and buenas dias.

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  4. I think learning in this context (may reside in a non-human appliance) refers to the notion that information may be held within a group of things, not just a single person. for example, by taking something apart and looking at it, you can learn how it works and how it was made. There is also the notion that a network may contain something that is not known by a person until they join that network. For example a class of students may know a lot as a group, but each student may not know everything, therefore the "class" is a non-human appliance which contains the knowledge.
    Interested to hear other ideas and thoughts. Sorry for being 3 years late..!

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    Replies
    1. Hi! Mr Stephen. I am having problem in getting the exact references for the definition of this principle..learning may reside in a non-human appliance

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