1st Southeastern Conference in

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The Online Student as a Learning System
Implications of Chaos Theory for Instructional
Design
Linda J. Smith Doctoral Student Educational
Psychology and Learning Systems Florida State
University
1st Southeastern Conference in Instructional
Design and Technology Mobile, AL March 11-13, 2005
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Topics

• A systems view
• New Science theories
• The student as a learning system
• Implications for instructional design

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A Systems View
A System Is . . . a set of elements standing
in interrelations. Ludwig von Bertalanffy
(1968) Creator and chief exponent of General
System Theory
Some contrasts of system types
Open vs. Closed Organic vs. Inorganic Linear vs.
Dynamic
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Contrasts
A Systems View
Open vs. Closed
Energy
Input
Import
SYSTEM
SYSTEM
Export
Output
Energy

• Energy comes from environment
• Supports operation
• Supports reorganization and adaptation
• May achieve same final state from
• Different beginnings
• In different ways

• Energy is limited
• Operation depletes energy
• System moves towards immobility
• Final state is determined by starting conditions

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Contrasts
A Systems View
Organic vs. Inorganic

• Living
• Open
• Adaptable

• Mechanical

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Contrasts
A Systems View
Dynamic vs. Linear
Begin
Feedback
Monitor
Step 1
Module 1
Step 2
Module 2
Step n
Module n
Goal

• Feedback mechanisms monitor system state
• Sequence determined as system operates
• Adaptable

• Predefined sequence

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Some key terms

• Wholeness
• Self-regulation
• Centralization
• Hierarchical order
• Finality
• Connections

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Wholeness
Sum of Parts
The Whole

• The whole is more than the sum of its parts
• Evaluation of a part in isolation gives a
  different result from evaluation in its total
  system context
• A change in any part of a system has an effect on
  the whole

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A Systems View
System Characteristics
Self-regulation

• A system will tend to achieve a new balance in
  reaction to a disturbance
• Internal feedback mechanisms provide information
  for determining appropriate reactions

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Centralization (in the learning context)

• Applies to the social structures where learning
  takes place
• Each course with its instructor and learners may
  see the emergence of organizers within the system
  with certain individuals taking some type of
  leadership position

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Hierarchical order
Country, etc.
Classroom
Community

• Systems function as subsystems within their
  larger context
• Systems experience impacts of events and
  influences that occur throughout the entire
  structure

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Finality

• Fitness for a certain purpose
• OR
• Dynamic direction of processes in which goals
  appear to direct current behavior to a future
  state

• Goals may evolve as a system responds to feedback

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System Characteristics
A Systems View
Connections

• Relationships and interconnections among parts
• How components interact
• Roles and responsibilities
• Information flows

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From the New Science
Theories
Old Newtonian views

• Mechanistic universe subject to decay of entropy
• Systems can be understood by analysis of
  individual parts
• Behaviorism and psychoanalysis

New Science views

• A systems view is holistic
• Many systems have organic properties
• Living systems self-organize, self-regulate, and
  adapt for survival

Some New Science theories

• Quantum theory
• Chaos theory
• Network theory
• Field theory

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From the New Science
Theories
Quantum Theory

• Relationship is the key determinant in the
  quantum world
• Subatomic particles are not independent things
• They come into form and are observed only as they
  are in relationship to something else
• Events are probabilities rather than certainties
• The observer cannot gather data without
  influencing the thing observed

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From the New Science
Theories
Chaos Theory

• Attempts to deal with the disorder seen in nature
• Erratic and unpredictable phenomena cannot be
  explained by the mechanistic Newtonian view

Two main concepts 1. There is order hidden
within chaotic systems 2. Chaos precedes order as
a system tries to reorganize and achieve a
dynamic equilibrium.

• Chaotic systems are sensitive to their initial
  conditions
• Outcomes can vary depending on even slight
  variations in beginning states
• What appears to be unrelated events may be
  recurrent behaviors in a system if enough
  observations are made

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From the New Science
Theories
Network Theory
"How is it that assembling a large collection of
components into a system results in something
altogether different from just a disassociated
collection of components? (Watts)

• Attempts to explain how networks grow, form
  patterns, and affect collective behavior across
  the network

• Concerned with how communication takes place
  among the nodes in a network, including the
  social interaction and information flows across
  human networks

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From the New Science
Theories
Field Theory
In all of these theories, fields are unseen
forces, invisible influences in space that become
apparent through their effects." (Wheatley)

• Can be applied to social structures and group
  behavior
• Attempts to explain influences and effects within
  these structures

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The Living System
The Student
Humans have the characteristics of organic systems

• Part of a larger system the organism and its
  environment
• Exhibit two principles essential for life
• Organization (wholeness, unity)
• Primary activity (self-organizing,
  self-regulating, self-correcting)
• Nonlinear, dynamic

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The Learning System
The Student
The individual who is a student

• Can be viewed as a learning system
• Is part of a larger system when s/he connects to
  the instructor and other students in the learning
  process
• In the learning environment is also part of a
  larger system context
• Community
• Country
• Etc.

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The Learning System
The Student

• The systems of instructional design and
  instruction delivery find their meaning and
  purpose in relation to the student learning
  system.
• Their role is to create chaos and to support
  reorganization and restabilization of the
  self-organizing student learning system.
• Cognitive dissonance is experienced by the
  learner as s/he tries to incorporate new
  knowledge into his or her existing structure.
• Adding new information may require restructuring
  and reorganization of the learner's experiences.

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The Learning System
The Student
Five Key Elements

• The student learning system as part of a larger
  context
• 2. The student as a living system that is
  nonlinear and dynamic
• 3. The tendency of living systems to organization
  among their interacting components and to be
  self-regulating and self-correcting within their
  environments
• 4. Creating cognitive dissonance (chaos) in the
  student learning system
• 5. Supporting reorganization and restabilization
  in the self-organizing student learning system

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The Learning System
The Student

• The student learning system as part of a larger
  context

Context affects development from childhood on and
is significant for any learner's quest for
meaning in his/her learning experiences.
Theory Support

• Piagets interactionism
• cognition is an interaction between heredity and
  environment)
• Behaviorism
• Looks at the organism in relation to its
  environment
• (Consider adaptation of positive reinforcement in
  which reward from the external environment is
  replaced by internalized reward of learning
  satisfaction.)
• Situated cognition
• Emphasizes the importance of communities of
  practice

Interaction between the individual and his or her
environment includes other persons, all of whom
are transformed by the interactions with one
another and the world they live in.
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The Learning System
The Student
2. The student as a living system that is
nonlinear and dynamic
Learners respond to their environment dynamically
depending on sensory input and interaction with
others.
Theory Support

• Cognitive information processing theory suggests
  that a learner responds dynamically to sensory
  input
• First stage - sensory memory, learner responds to
  stimulus attracting the most attention
• Input transferred to short-term (working) memory
  could easily be replaced by a subsequent event
  considered more important
• Or, short-term memory could triggers pattern
  recognition from long term memory to link to
  prior knowledge
• Lack of a recognizable pattern might trigger
  efforts to create a new schema to organize new
  information
• Meaningful learning and schema theory
• Learners use schema dynamically, responding to
  events as they occur and processing information
  according to perceived need

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The Learning System
The Student
3. The tendency of living systems to organization
among their interacting components and to be
self-regulating and self-correcting within their
environments
A number of theories are consistent with the
characteristic of living systems to be internally
self-organizing and self-regulating and
self-correcting within their environments.
Theory Support

• Piagets interpretivism
• Equilibration as the master developmental process
• Meaningful learning and schema theories
• Development of schema is a process of accreting
  new information, tuning schema to resolve
  inconsistencies, and restructuring to add new
  schemata or significantly revise old ones
• Bruner's discovery learning
• Includes the ideas of self-direction and
  intentionality in making sense of the world by
  testing hypotheses and reorganizing mental models
  
• Gagné's cognitive strategies
• Constructivism construction of new knowledge

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The Learning System
The Student
4. Creating cognitive dissonance (chaos) in the
student learning system
The role of the instructional system is to create
chaos in the student learning system in order to
stimulate learning.
Theory Support

• Piaget
• Instructional strategies should be adopted that
  make children aware of conflicts and
  inconsistencies in their thinking.
• Keller's ARCS model
• Strategies for gaining and sustaining attention
• Constructivist conditions for learning
• Embedding learning in complex, realistic, and
  relevant environments

The many ways of creating a tension between the
learners entry level and his or her learning
goals can result in a healthy chaos.
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The Learning System
The Student
5. Supporting reorganization and restabilization
in the self-organizing student learning system
Instruction should be designed so that student
learning systems are not thrown so far into chaos
that they are frustrated in their attempts to
regain equilibrium.
Theory Support

• Vygotsky's zone of proximal development
• Keller's ARCS model
• Enhancing relevance provides encouragement
• Building confidence supports expectations to
  achieve equilibrium
• Generating satisfaction supports the
  stabilization

• Gagnés nine events of instruction, particularly
• Relating new knowledge to prior experience
• Eliciting performance
• Providing feedback
• Enhancing retention and transfer

Reorganization and restabilization are necessary
to provide a starting point for the next bout
with chaos.
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Implications for ISD and E-Learning

• 1. Students learn in the context of a hierarchy
  of systems.
• Typical e-learning student -- an adult learner
  closely linked to
• Community
• Employment
• Family
• A network of fellow learners
• Learner backgrounds, support needs, time
  constraints, and communication issues will be
  varied and require accommodation in course
  design.

• 2. Instructional subjects are part of a larger
  system context.
• Relationships to other disciplines
• Contexts in which knowledge and skills will be
  applied
• Both learning and evaluation increase in
  relevance as this larger context is incorporated
  in the learning experience.

3. As instructional systems move towards
openness, opportunities for gaining energy and
authenticity from their contexts increases.
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Implications for ISD and E-Learning

• 4. Flexibility in instructional systems may
  provide better support for students as learning
  systems with characteristics of being open and
  dynamic.
• Instructional designs that permit achievement of
  final states from different beginnings and in
  different ways
• Sequencing based on feedback mechanisms that help
  determine next steps

• 5. The dynamics of group interaction among
  learners and between learners and instructors
  should be considered and supported.
• Beyond the benefits assumed for collaborative
  learning
• Awareness of influences exerted by leaders and
  how information flows across networks
• Reduction of the sense of separation felt by
  distance learners

6. Instructional designers may find ways to
energize course designs by taking advantage of
the natural tendencies of living systems to
self-regulate, self-organize, and strive for a
new equilibrium in response to chaotic events.
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Website Information
The Online Student as a Learning System
Linda J. Smith http//agil-ed.com ljs04d_at_fsu.edu
Download
Presentation http//agil-ed.com/SCIDT05b.ppt Paper
http//agil-ed.com/SCIDT05b.rtf
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