[ExI] whence will learning come

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 23 21:02:40 UTC 2016


I would like to hear BillW’s take on it.  spike


Let's take Pavlov:  classical conditioning occurs with or without conscious
effort to put something into memory.


Beyond that, much learning requires conscious effort (no sleep learning,
sorry), and beyond that, much requires repetition.  I probably cannot tell
you what I found on Google yesterday even if you told me what I searched
for. Probably.  I did not 'study' it; I just processed it a bit and then
went on to something else.  This sort of hit and run experience does not
lend itself to permanent memories.  I have not researched it but I suspect
that it has been or will be:  how good are memories of what the person did
on FAcebook, or Youtube or whatever?  I suspect that they are not very
good.


Now everyone has memories that they had no intention of putting into memory
and I have no explanation of those.  The unconscious has its own agenda and
often we don't know what it is.


Why would any teacher not ban the use of computers and smartphones and
iPads with telephone capability from the classroom?  When I am teaching
they'd better not be on simplenudes.com.  OK, so what do we do when they
tell us that they are typing their notes because they cannot read their own
writing?  Surely there is some gadget that can be turned on to suppress all
wifi activity in the classroom.  That will not prevent them from writing
letters, of course.  If someone is determined to avoid the proper kind of
study there's not much a teacher can do.


If students were not paying attention to me I'd call on them and get it.
I'll bet if I stopped here and Googled 'internet addiction' I'd find plenty
of data.  Now I have to admit that I turn on my computer in the morning to
see if any responses have showed up, or new posts, but what I read about
relating to this topic is just pathetic.  We'll just have to hope that
their grades will correct some of this behavior.


I don't know what other teachers did, but I told my classes how to read the
book, how to behave in class, how to ask questions - in short, how to
succeed in my class and probably other classes.


College students are suffering from being young and being more interested
in social things than classwork.  I drank beer and shot pool seven days a
week when I was a freshman and cut one class 22 times (met six days a week
at 9 - ouch! - aced every test and got a D in a 5 hour class - that still
haunts me)  Obviously I straightened out in time to graduate with honors,
which could easily have been highest honors had I not been so young.  Then
I could have gone to Harvard or Stanford.  Who knows how that would have
changed my life?


bill w

On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 2:15 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 23 December 2016 at 16:04, spike  wrote:
> > Here’s an interesting article with some jewels of wisdom, too long to
> read
> > perhaps.  The previous clause proves the point of the article itself:
> >
> > https://aeon.co/essays/can-students-who-are-constantly-
> on-their-devices-actually-learn
> >
> > Comment from the article:  An even bigger problem is the way that
> technology
> > damages critical-thinking skills. Because knowledge is so ubiquitous, we
> > don’t have to hone it as sharply and we don’t have to commit much to
> memory
> > – we can just Google everything. Researchers from University College
> London
> > report that readers skim information, rarely reread, and engage in
> something
> > called ‘power browsing’ rather than actual reading…
> >
>
>
> Also -
> <http://www.psypost.org/2016/12/study-internet-use-class-
> tied-lower-test-scores-46583>
> Quote:
> Warning: Surfing the internet in class is now linked to poorer test
> scores, even among the most intelligent and motivated of students.
>
> Michigan State University researchers studied laptop use in an
> introductory psychology course and found the average time spent
> browsing the web for non-class-related purposes was 37 minutes.
> Students spent the most time on social media, reading email, shopping
> for items such as clothes and watching videos.
>
> And their academic performance suffered.
> ----------
>
> That result seems pretty obvious to me. What else would anyone expect?
>
>
> BillK
>
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