I’ve heard some critiques about embodied learning – that they are too self-absorbed…driven too much by the subjectivity of personal experiences. I have been thinking about this quite a bit..mainly because I was giving a presentation on mobile learning – I was trying to capture a lot of information in few words…models are great for that….you summarise, you abstract. I realised that in order to do this I FELT as if I somehow had to transcend my everyday world, and live somewhere above it..in the clouds…romanticised…lacking proper words to describe the feeling – only have cliched ones..but SOMETHING like that….

also I have been reading a book about an architect…the architect talks about how women are too involved in detail and therefore are not able to design big, inhuman structures, aeroplanes, things that do not embrace the body.

And there’s the Situated cognition paper, about how to escape the trap of situatedness – that the solution is in abstraction. Only in this way, through theories and models and philosophies can we begin to transcend the current world and move towards the future…..actually I think Varela and Thomson have something to say about this – perhaps? Let’s hope so.

anyway, I just have to get my mind around this a little more.

And I think I also need to get my mind around…

the relationship between emotion and body in learning and thinking (decision-making in particular?). getting there. have some good books, just need to consolidate in my mind.

distinguish between embodiment as engagement and embodiment as allowing body, emotions, etc to colour and affect learning – perhaps the two are the same but requires further exploration. Embodied learning as deeply engaged, transformative learning. Embodied learning as using mind, body AND emotion to learn.

Can you say using your mind, body and emotions to learn makes it automatically deeply engaged and therefore transformative? Perhaps there is a correlation between the three but they might not be directly causal?

What is the difference between embodied and situated/experiential or action learning?

and am I really talking about metalearning skills? Or is it metalearning skills – the skills to develop one’s own approach – to reflect upon, create etc..these are metalearning skills – I’m interested in ones that specifically deal with deep, holistic engagement with learning – so a particular area of metalearning skills perhaps? Or perhaps ALL of them?!!!!

I first read this paper by Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn on the Embodiment of Learning about a year and a half ago.  At that point I felt that it was an important paper but I couldn’t get my head around it.  Since then I’ve been doing some serious thinking…..and then yesterday I was searching for papers on raising bodily awareness and the reference to this paper popped up.  I duck it out of a pile – it was seriously worse for wear – I think it lay on the bottom of my car for about a year.  I read it again and it was as if something switched on.  In particular the authors seemed to be mirroring exactly how I was feeling.  things I wrote a couple of days ago, in rough, awkward language were expressed beautifully – in particular my difficulties with the way in which bloom and piaget categorise and create a hierachy of learning and knowledge.  It also helped me recognise the centrality of Varela’s work to my own thinking.  (It’s a booked I also rejected as way beyond me about a year ago……).  I think it is going to get a lot more scrumpled over the next few years!

Brent’s thoughts on embodied learning (well..it’s primarily location-based, but if it got people thinking about their movement habits, it’s a good start).

Actually I’m a member of foursquare already…now all I need is an iphone…

http://elearndev.blogspot.com/2010/06/location-based-apps-social-media-savvy.html

I wish I’d thought about the Knowledge Domains (rather than learning activity categories) earlier.  They would really have been helpful.

As I’ve mentioned innumerable times before I’m interested in holistic learning from the metacognitive skill perspective and the social perspective……(trust, sharing of context etc).  However I also imagine the two feed off each other…so I really don’t think I should separate them.

Anyhow, on the metacognitive level….

Thank you to Paul Pintrich for this great article

“Three Types of Metacognitive Knowledge

In Flavell’s (1979) classic article on metacognition, he suggested that metacognition included knowledge of strategy, task, and person variables. We represented this general framework in our categories by including students’ knowledge of general strategies for learning and thinking (Da–Strategic knowledge) and their knowledge of cognitive tasks as well as when and why to use these different strategies (Db–Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge). Finally, we included knowledge about the self (the person variable) in relation to both cognitive and motivational components of performance (Dc–Self-knowledge).

Strategic knowledge

Strategic knowledge is knowledge of general strategies for learning, thinking, and problem solving. These strategies are applicable across all or most academic disciplines or subject matter domains in contrast to more specific strategies from the disciplines or domains. Consequently, these strategies can be used across a large number of different tasks and domains, rather than being most useful for one particular type of task in one specific subject area (e.g., solving a quadratic equation in mathematics, applying Ohm’s law in science).”

I have wished I could project dockers onto the walls of West India Quay for my Dockers’ Dilemma game.  It seemed to solve two major challenges……it meant that not only could our physical movements help us interact with a digital game, but it meant the digital game could begin to change the physical environment….and it also meant there was less peering into tiny screens, more looking out into the real world.  I also started to feel that one way to help connect distance learners more physically with one another would be to create moments when students’ physical and digital paths might cross cross, in the way that our paths cross fortuitously in the real world me…leading to those informal learning moments that can often be the most memorable, and which can bring people together and help develop trust….

This TED lecture begins to realise these ideas….in a much more integrated way than I had imagined….but in a rather lovely makeshift way that I think it brilliant because I feel as if I could begin to meddle with these ideas as well.  I really think this is the way I want to go with my own research…but looking specifically at learning and collaboration between people…

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However I’d also argue that ideally we should be aiming for greater engagement……(some theorists sit here – Hayles, Ravichandran and others?)

In reality I’d say the level at which elearning engages our body is much more than we admit.

Our perception of how elearning engages the body is pretty negative (some theorists sit here, eg Dreyfus – others?).

so there are gaps – we need to move everything up and together….close the gap between perception, reality and the ideal…but this helps me understand and resolve some of the issues of the embodied/disembodied argument of elearning – it’s somewhat right, but not entirely right……as usual the truth is somewhere in the middle I’d say.  Might current gaming consoles help fill the gap?  I’m not sure yet….yes perhaps in terms of engagement..but I’d say they need to be extended hugely before they’ll really be more than just novelties…

..more fluffy terms…

People argue that the more multi-sensory our experience, the more immersed we are likely to be.  And the more immersed we are the more powerful the learning…..But I’d say there is no direct link between any of these.  I can be totally immersed in a book – without physical engagement.  I can be totally immersed and not learn a thing…..suspend disbelief and I don’t necessarily have to apply any of the lessons I learn in a book to my own life……..(even if I think they’re a good idea for someone else to learn).

…..in a number of research papers recently I’ve read that in a game, we are more immersed if we are physically engaged a game…what does that mean for learning?  Well…possibly nothing…..level of immersion has no direct link with learning (I’d argue that engagement does…).  So is there any relevance to learning?  Need to think more about this one.

we are always physical learners.  The question is how much do we need to acknowledge this at every moment?  When do we need to be aware of this and place greater emphasis on it?

Dewey suggests at the start of our learning we need to use lots of references (if not interaction) with the real world….as we progress we become happier dealing with the abstract.

Ron suggests it’s OK to send information to people in an abstract form but when it comes to behaviour changes and transformational learning it needs to be much more face to face and real world oriented…much more 3D and physical….

Dreyfus also argues that at the mastery end of the scale, we require physical presence (and so I am also presuming more physical activity – is there a link), in order to feel risk and therefore be motivated to learn when the going gets tough. The more we’re aware that our bodies are vulnerable, the more motivated we are to learn well.

MIT studies suggest understanding physical affordances of place, location etc… (e.g. health and safety training) requires on site experiences.  And no one would suggest that pilots are safe to fly planes without physical experience.  Regardless of the number of simulations they take beforehand I don’t think we’ll be hearing about students learning to fly planes on distance learning courses in the near future…

I’ve found it’s useful to be aware of your body when establishing your own learning patterns – your meta learning skills.  I know that in the shower I find it easy to think and reflect.  So I give myself time to have a long shower.  I’ve not tried to cut down on my shower time (unlike the amount of time I spend choosing clothes, brushing hair (if it happens at all), etc etc.

Regardless of whether I agree with all of the above…when does virtual become physical reality?  How do mirror neurons contribute to this discussion?  When do mirror neurons no longer provide a powerful enough stimulus on their own and need to be replaced by real physical activity?

Whilst drawing to brainstorm and get your ideas out can be helpful, (more so to me than mindmaps), I still find them a bit limiting sometimes…..I prefer the drawings I have in my mind as they are 3D, maybe sometimes 3D.  The only problem is that they are very hard to pin down, capture and then express in other forms (text, 2D drawing, sculpture).

I have been feeling a bit bad recently.  But the moment my brain acknowledged that the feelings I was having in my body were also related to my brain, rather than just the fault of my body (and it was HARD to admit that), then I felt better.  Instantly.