April 2 , 2008
Gerhard Fischer, Walter Kintsch, Hal Eden,
and Yunwen Yu
Transformative Models of Learning and Discovery
by Exploiting the Long Tail
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Abstract
Most traditional learning paradigms have focused
on core concepts and coverage of basic material, often at the expense of cultivating
the learners' interest and appreciation of the broader picture of a subject and
the ways that the capabilities represented by a field of study interact with
other domains and real-world situations. Top-down perspectives often drive this
focus on basic elements; the teacher's interests, strengths, and background knowledge
as well as the perceived efficiencies of transmissive model are the primary determinants
of class activities. This results in teaching models that mirror the "shelf-space" marketing
limitations of most retail stores, where the diversity of learning opportunities
is constrained rather than adapted to the needs of learners.
We will discuss ideas and proposed research to learning environments drawing
on insights from these new marketing approaches to exploit the "long tail
of distributed knowledge" and allow learning and discovery to be grounded
in the learners' (1) interest and passion; (2) self-directed learning and intrinsic
motivation; and (3) personally meaningful problems with the goals of enhancing
human cognition and generating new knowledge from a wealth of heterogeneous
digital data by supporting the movement from consumer cultures to designer
cultures of learning. These design cultures represent approaches in which the
learners become active participants in their learning by utilizing computational
support.
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