The Great Learning Theorists and Their Facebook Status
B.F. Skinner’s Status Since many of B.F. Skinner’s research was done with pigeons, I decided to make his status update a work related one. I also decided that instead of having him post via iphone he would post his updates via messenger pigeon. It only seemed appropriate! I assume that B.F. Skinner and Pavlov would be friends on facebook, and of course Pavlov would like this status, so would his drooling dogs.
Plato and Locke on the other hand would not see agree with Skinner. They believe that learning is a passive process. Specifically, Plato’s theory is that knowledge is innate. As he states, learning is helping the mind remember what it already knows. Locke’s theory was slightly similar with different variations. He believed that we are all born as “blank slates”, and we learn through experiencing our surroundings through our five senses.
For Skinner both Plato and Locke, while great philosophers, would be missing a very big component of learning. He strongly believed in the positive effects of operant conditioning. With random positive reinforcement a student can be conditioned to learn a topic. He also gave five principles for effective teaching. His principles are give feedback, break task into small steps, repeat directions often, move from simple to more complex tasks, and give positive reinforcement. I believe that Skinner would have made a push for operative conditioning in his conversation with Plato and Locke, however in the end he would just have “agreed to disagree”.
Jean Piaget’s Status While I was looking for pictures of Jean Piaget to use for his profile I came along this one.
He looks like such a fun loving man, so I thought I would have a little fun with his status. I know how much he studied his children, so I went with an update about his son Laurent. A child at three years of age might ask a question like “why is the sun following us?” The next comment by Bill Cosby? What, Bill Cosby?!?!? I knew Bill Cosby was the host of a t.v. show called “Kids Say the Darndest Things”, so I figured that is what he would say to a facebook update like Piagets’. Next Vygotsky gets in the conversation with a smile. I believe that he would have been happy that his son asked this kind of question, even though he challenged Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages. He would then have inquired about Laurent’s ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). Vyotsky was more intrigued by the learners potential than by what could be learned independently by a student. Since Vygotsky made a comment, I thought that John Dewey would get in the mix as well, since he too is a social learning theorist. He would have suggested to Piaget, that getting Laurents’ friends involved in this line of thinking would be most helpful to his development as a learner. Dewey was a big believer that students were active inquirers of knowledge and as such should participate in an open and social dialogue. Piaget would love what all his facebook friends had to say. Since a previous assignment had us create a webpage for Piaget, I thought Piaget would have put in a plug for his website
learning_easy_as_1234.com.
John Dewey’s Status I don’t believe that John Dewey was egotistical, but I would like to think that if I had my own stamp, that I would publicize that kind of information. Of, course the Liberty Bell, a symbol of another famous U.S stamp, would approve. I wanted to get another social learning theorist involved in this conversation, so Vygotsky asks if this stamp was achieved through Dewey’s work in social constructivism. To this both Plato and Locke would be confused and appalled that someone would suggest that learning was anything other than an independent passive event. Lev Vygotsky would come back with the fact that learning can be best accomplished through collaboration. He would also have pointed out that facebook, while done on your own, is a social medium, and is a great forum for collaboration. I wanted somewhere in my facebook conversations to use a famous online abbreviation, lol, so I thought perhaps Dewey would use this expression. I also think that Dewey and Vygotsky would have debated their theories with each other often, hence the fact the Dewey will talk soon, or maybe they will even Skype!
I like to think that facebook would have been a place where all these thinkers might have gone to debate all their beliefs. Facebook would have been a contradiction for some, Plato and Locke. These sort of social networks could have benefited some of these great thinkers.
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