Philosophy of Education and Theories of IT Readings

I have four readings for this week. The first is titled Learning Theories - An Overview from www.infed.org. This reading primarily dealt with the different ideas about what learning is, how it is achieved, and for what purpose. As a former elementary education student, I am familiar with the different theories and ideas, but it was nice to take a look at them again. I have never been a person to subscribe to just one of those ideas. I admire and agree with the work of many researchers under all of the headings. In my opinion, learning is really some part of all of them, with no one of more importance than another. It is interesting how many people view learning as just an acquisition of facts however. I have always believed in learning as an application as opposed to an acquisition. It was actually the topic of a novel that I attempted to write in 2009.

The second reading is titled Systems Theory: An Overview from  www.panarchy.com. It looks like it's a selection from a book called General System Theory by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. I will admit that I had some trouble understanding what a lot of this had to do with what we are learning. Generally, what I took away is that we are a complex organism operating under an "open system" and therefore there is no singular theory that can attest for or give answers to every little thing we do and think. We seek challenge, stress, and strife to give our lives meaning, which general theories should not be able to explain. This seems to work a bit in line with my views regarding the previous reading. The many theories about learning are good, but because we are complex, no single theory can account for everything.

The third reading is titled Shannon Model of Communication from www.exploratorium.com. It discusses a communication theory proposed by Claude Shannon about information, particularly transmission of information through telephone, but it can be applied to other areas as well. It is fairly simple and I can see it easily being applied to teaching and learning through technological means.

The fourth and final reading is titled Shannon-Weaver Model from communicationtheory.org. This dealt more with the same communication model. I can definitely see how it relates. I have heard about this model before, but I have not heard it called any given name. It is interesting, but very necessary to think about communication theories when it comes to education and technology.