Architects of Learning

[Peter Morville]

My teaching experience is limited, so I'm glad the article resonated with yours. I think you are completely right about the importance and complexity of the skills vs. concepts dichotomy. Skills require practice. Concepts require understanding. And, whether it's information architecture, information literacy, math, or physics, each subject requires a different mix. That's why teachers are the real "architects of learning." Thanks for your feedback and ideas!

Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://findability.org/




On Dec 19, 2012, at 12:06 AM, Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D. wrote:

> This article is actually quite good.  The one concept that stands out is that of the "whole game".  It needs refinement, but it resonates well with my own teaching experience -- and perhaps more important -- with my own academic experience.  It is a concept that can be scaled up or down in a sense (games within games).  
> 
> Side note, connected somewhat to the article but not directly addressed by it: I have often observed the skill vs concept dichotomy.  When, as a graduate student, I taught physics to undergraduates I made an obvious discovery... the instructional staff evangelized the teaching of concepts -- but tested the students in a way that measured acquired skills more than acquired concepts.  When I made a point of this in an invited lecture when my department hosted a physics teachers group, the teachers thought I was on to something, but my own department treated me like a heretic.  I remembered this as I was reading the article -- stimulated in an oblique way by the whole game analogy.  So... hitting and running are skills and playing the game provides a natural testing environment for them.  Is the whole game a concept or set of them?  What I would see among students is that if they were well equipped mathematically it did not guarantee they did physics problems well -- as demonstrated by math majors in my classes -- but they got by okay.  On the other hand, nobody who lacked a decent mathematical skills foundation had a prayer of doing well on quizzes and exams.  The interplay of skills and concepts is, I think, a lot more subtle than one is tempted to believe.  Do we always know what the game is and what skills are needed to play it?  Mathematicians are extraordinarily clever at solving equations without a clue as to their application.  However, physicists have often been the ones who found mathematical representations of solutions to real problems using, to a degree, physical reasoning that would elude mathematicians.  It sometimes works in reverse...  Its not obvious how this works....  Anyway, I toss that out just to see if it stimulates any follow-on ideas.
> 
> Thanks for sharing the article.
> 
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 7:23 AM, Peter Morville <morville at semanticstudios.com> wrote:
> I've written an article centered around learning, literacy, and libraries...
> 
>         http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000662.php
> 
> ...and would be interested in your thoughts and feedback. Thanks!
> 
> Peter Morville
> President, Semantic Studios
> http://semanticstudios.com/
> http://findability.org/
> 
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> Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D., J.D.
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