Forum 3 - Changing Patterns, Changing Perceptions
Name: Anne Dalke
Username: adalke@brynmawr.edu
Subject: Tuesday morning's questions
Date: 2003-07-21 18:07:05
Message Id: 6083
Comments:
Friends--
Welcome (back). We're delighted you joined us for Monday's session, and are even more delighted that you've returned for more!
Let's start off today (as we will start most of our morning sessions this week and next) by telling one another what we learned yesterday:
- what struck you?
- intrigued you?
- puzzled you?
- made you want to know more?
- what do you want to know more about?
- what do you find yourself questioning/resisting?
I was myself delighted by our rich conversations, learned a lot from our talking together, and am hoping that we can return to a number of the key notes we struck:
- where do patterns come from? do we impose them on the world, or are they there for our perceiving?
- can we be more open to surprising patterns, ones we don't expect to see?
- or can we only see the patterns we look for?
- are all the patterns we recognize good ones? (what about the categories--especially the labels of disability-- that school systems put on kids?)
- what about free will? (in a "bottoms-up" system: is there MORE of it than when an architect designs or controls what is happening, as in Lowry's The Giver?)
- I was confused by Paul's saying that the unconscious can make observations. I thought that only consciousness can experience what....we experience, that experience is only experience when we are conscious of it. Are observations different from experience?
Explain, please??
Name: Mitch Schwartz
Username: tintindeo@aol.com
Subject:
Date: 2003-07-21 18:22:14
Message Id: 6085
Comments:
We're currently reading the latest Harry Potter novel at our house. All of the novels are set at a special boarding school for wizards,called "Hogwarts". In this installment, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", a teacher responds to Harry's complaint that she is teaching only the theory of magic rather than its practical application. She invokes the name of the Ministry of Magic, an agency that has assumed control of the school from its headmaster and says, in reply,
"Now it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination which, after all, is what school is all about."
The echoes of a beaurocratic takeover and passing the test as the objective of education have me convinced that there's a world out there outside of Philadelphiaz, Pennsylvania. What do you think?
Name: Paul Grobstein
Username: pgrobste@brynmawr.edu
Subject: Life, education, and the unconscious
Date: 2003-07-21 18:39:15
Message Id: 6086
Comments:
For Mitch:
I think there's very little new under the sun, except perhaps for the increasing recognition that something new is needed, maybe even describeable/achievable? Here's Charles Dickens on education in Hard Times (1850's England):
"You are to be in all things regulated and governed," said the gentleman, "by fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it."
For Anne (et al): Language is ... a problem. "make observations" was loose language but it is certainly so that without consciousness one can gather information, infer patterns, collect new information, change the pattern inferred. All living things do this, almost invariably without "thinking" or "being aware" of what they are doing. To put it differently, one can meaningfully "make observations" without "experience"ing the making of them. So yeah, using language loosely, one can observe without experiencing. I think.
Name:
Username: Anonymous
Subject:
Date: 2003-07-22 09:30:49
Message Id: 6087
Comments:
Everyone brings to the table differences. The uniqueness of our perceptions and the manner in which we express and receive them--is different, this is exactly what educators need to bring to the diverse group of learners in the classroom.
Name: Geraldine Brown
Username: brownthankyou@aol.com
Subject: Firts Day Experience
Date: 2003-07-22 09:31:01
Message Id: 6088
Comments:
Yesterdays experience was good. It provided more insight on Science and Patterns that stretched my thought processes more on a conscious level. I'm always looking for new cheese.
Name:
Username: Anonymous
Subject: Just Thinking
Date: 2003-07-22 09:31:24
Message Id: 6089
Comments:
The first day, just like so many other first days. It was a day filled with apprehension and anxiety; but I got through it and it was interesting and fun. I've always been interested in number and letter patterns,blocks and other patterns of such are a strain on my eyes. What I liked most about yesterday's class was the observation of the Sharon Burgmayer picture. It's interesting how we all looked at the same image, yet came away from it with such varied responses. The idea that the picture represented some aspect of life for so many fascinated me as well. As the participants read their comments I saw a pattern emerging. Was the seed for finding a pattern in the picture planted and did I miss it?
Name: Dawn
Username: Anonymous
Subject: No thoughts. . .
Date: 2003-07-22 09:31:28
Message Id: 6090
Comments:
Yesterday was interesting and informative.
Name: Mitch
Username: Anonymous
Subject: Monday's Session
Date: 2003-07-22 09:36:07
Message Id: 6091
Comments:
It's good to be back at Bryn Mawr, where the brain is held in such high esteem. I think that the unifying or underlying idea of Emergence(as well as Brain and Behavior) is to shape educational practice to the way the brain works and then let it work.
I was struck by the many ways that learning took place in collaboration: decoding the colored shapes on the screen, finding Serendip, etc.
I think that the unconscious is pattern-seeking all of the time, as a thermostat seeks to find the ideal temperature.
Name: Regina
Username: reginatoscani@hotmail.com
Subject: Patterns
Date: 2003-07-22 09:36:24
Message Id: 6092
Comments:
What struck me yesterday are the varied interpretations to the picture. The different opinions allowed me to view the picture from a different perspective. I think the patterns that we see (at least are initial ones) are influence from our life experiences, and the mood we are in at that time. Yes, some patterns are imposed from nature (weather patterns, movement of the planets, etc.), but we impose the vast majority of patterns. I will also go out on a limb and suggest that the patterns we impose on the world are the ones we can change if we want to. I will also suggest that changing patterns is the most important work we do as educators.
Name: Wendy
Username: simplyMarrvelous@yahoo.com
Subject: The First Day's Experience
Date: 2003-07-22 09:37:38
Message Id: 6093
Comments:
Day 1/July 21, 2003
Boy, oh boy! I was out of it. Meaning, this was my second class since the end of the 2002-2003 SY.
That said, the information was good, the comraderie was needed, and the computer experience was timely.
PS- Forgive my tiredness :(
Name: brian malin
Username: malinb1@yahoo.com
Subject: comments
Date: 2003-07-22 09:39:49
Message Id: 6094
Comments:
I was intrigued by the thoughts that other people in the room had on the picture in Mondays session. I would not have conceived the response in the same way that others conceived their responses. It was interesting to see their responses. it was interesting to see how experiences influence their perception of patterns they see in pictures and other activities.
Name: Claudette
Username: cwilliamsstone@phila.k12.pa.us
Subject: scientific method vs.summary of observations
Date: 2003-07-22 09:40:01
Message Id: 6095
Comments:
I found it interesting to look at the scientific method(inquiry) as a summary of observations that evolve over time. The summary of observations suggest we cannot become stagnate but dynamic ever changing, making new discoveries, reviewing, revisiting,etc.
Name: Lois
Username: loismackey@yahoo.com
Subject: Comments
Date: 2003-07-22 09:40:08
Message Id: 6096
Comments:
Good Morning!
Very interesting sessions yesterday. I particularly found the name game very interesting, I was able to share the information with my mother.
The emergence pieces we've discussed was an eyeopener.There are patterns emerging but the "conscienous" has yet to inform the "unconscienous" to emerge together for the common good of the class.
Oh well! It is only the second day of class, be patience with me.
Name: Sylvia
Username: scooper@phila.K12.pa.us
Subject: First Day
Date: 2003-07-22 09:40:28
Message Id: 6097
Comments:
I enjoyed the name game and thought that it would be a good opening exercise for the first day of school.
It was interesting to listen to the various interpretations of the drawing
and to compare our responses to that of the artists.
Paul's redefining of Science was very good and helped to give me a new way of viewing Science and presenting it to my students.
Name: JK Johnston-Malin
Username: malinb1@yahoo.com
Subject: Review: Day#1
Date: 2003-07-22 09:41:11
Message Id: 6098
Comments:
Yesterday was enjoyable for many reasons for me. In response to your inquiry, I think that patterns are present in just about everything I've ever encountered. I have observed that positive or negative is a subjective response of the observer to a situation - but the patterns are there irregardless of the interpretation. Free will versus destiny has been hotly debated forever - why not free will designs destiny.
Name:
Username: Anonymous
Subject: YESTERDAY!!!!!!!
Date: 2003-07-22 10:07:50
Message Id: 6099
Comments:
Its 8:00, and I,m literally falling out of the bed. Trying to get my baringsm while wondering why did you commit to this workshop?? While in this thought, I suddenly heard a loud ringing siren like sound and realized oops.....the alarm was tripped. I waiteed for the "are you alright call", which never came I proceeded to try and get focused with my cup of coffee. Without too much more unsolicted details, the next thing I hear is a lou8d knocking on the door....the police and Gerry Brown. Thats it I thought!
When we finally arrived it was 9:30 and
Name: Marita
Username: Anonymous
Subject: response to Anne's question
Date: 2003-07-22 10:08:28
Message Id: 6100
Comments:
When your nervous system receives stimuli it is making an observation. This "information" is then collated with other incoming stimuli/ information. Information that arrives close in time to other stimuli may be perceived as related even though it may not related in actuality. Because most information that is related does occur together this is a good model for processing /linking "events" (for example, you press a button and hear a sound--this is interpreted as a causal relationship). As long as we continue to receive stimuli in a consistent way we continue to "think" that our "observation" is true. However, our most basic perceptions of which we may not even be aware are engaged in these sort of processes constantly. continued elsewhere..
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