Situated Learning - Lave & Wenger

Greetings all,

I'm about half way through the book and came across some links in my research that help me connect the dots. Here are the web addresses:

"Ascend to the concrete" pg 38 http://www.lust-for-life.org/Lust-For-Life/DialecticOfTheConcrete/DialecticOfTheConcrete.htm

Vygotsky
http://webpages.charter.net/schmolze1/vygotsky/kerr.htm

Engestrom (check out the powerpoint on this website)
http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_engestrom.html

Activity Theory
http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/pages/chatanddwr/influences/
http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/pages/chatanddwr/chat/

Theory of Practice, Bourdieu (because it makes me want to read the book)
http://www.arasite.org/bdieuprc.htm

This list is by no means comprehensive... just some links I wanted to share with the group.

More later...
Sean

Making it official

Let's do the 6 am time slot and the 7 pm time slot in Tapped In this Thursday (8/28/08).

Remember:

6 am Pacific / 7 am Mountain / 8 am Central / 9 am Eastern

7 pm Pacific / 8 pm Mountain / 9 pm Central / 10 pm Eastern


Sheila P and Janey, do those times work for you? (Sheila P said she could do Friday morning and if Thursday won't work, let me know Sheila P. Janey said Th during the day would work...) Terry, would you be so kind and forward this to all of the Cadre?

(Do you all have a Cadre nickname?)

Other times

It sounds like Labor Day weekend might not be the best time for folks to meet online in Tapped In. That's cool. I can do Tuesday, Thursday or Friday morning (26, 28, 29) if one or two of those days work better. I can do 7-8 am Pacific Time (oh geez that's early, but I guess I better get used to 6 am with you!) or 9:30 - 10:30 am Pacific Time.


I would like to get a quorum in each session. I don't think I can manage to do 2 sessions in one day. If you all feel ready for Tapped In, and this isn't necessary, then please let me know. If you haven't used Tapped In, or another chat system in a group session I would recommend that you try to get in with me (and a quorum) to see what it's like. It takes a little practice if you've never done a large-ish group chat. If you're really proficient at IM, you won't feel too fish-out-of-waterish. Okay. Let me know.

(I feel like I've hijacked this blog. Sorry about that. Any one else feel like making a post?)

First set of readings

Terry Smith just alerted me to the fact that you all can get into Blackboard and I can't! Christie is working on it! [Real time blogging I just got in! Yay Pepperdine HelpDesk! I put up an announcement with links to all the first set of readings in Blackboard and by Wednesday I'll have many things (if not all) up for you.]

I'm thrilled I got in to Blackboard today. Wooo!

Not just books

Hey everyone, hope your August is going well. I made a room in Tapped In for us. The room is called 770A Cadre 14. See if you could find it (hint click on the Pepperdine Tab and then the Groups Sub-Tab) and then join it. If you learn something along the way as you join the Cadre 14 group room, leave a comment and share what you learned.

On a related note, I was thinking we might want to touch base in Tapped In before the semester gets going. I'll plan to be online in Tapped In on Friday 8/29 and Saturday 8/30 from 9 to 10 am Pacific Time.

If you'd like to meet, leave a comment and indicate the time that works for you. It'll be more like what class experience will be like (and more fun) if we can get a quorum in each session. If neither time works, leave a comment and suggest another time option.


(Posting for real now!)

hang on

If you saw the other post I did about Tapped In, hang on one minute (or a day) while I figure out with Dr. Polin if she wants me to use her room or the room I created. (I'll post the other post about joining Tapped In, and which room we'll use as soon as I hear which room.)

Thanks!

On Intelligence

I started reading On Intelligence by over the weekend. I didn't happen to have the Wenger book with me, which is what I really wanted to read, so I delved into the world of artificle intelligence (AI) through the eyes of Jeff Hawkins. I'm only towards the end of chapter one, but what I gather so far is that Hawkins believes that computer CPUs and human brains are so fundamentally different that true machine like article intellence will not be a possibility.

The author makes this very simple to understand...basically humans can take data and twist it around and analyize it in an infinite number of ways. New influences on what we think are always being factored in...this might include sights sounds and perceptions. The computer on the other hand can only understand what it is programmed to understand. Though a massive amount of data can be programmed in, processed, and recalled at light speed, it is not flexible. It is limited to do only what the programmers invisioned...it can't understand the look on someone's face, a smell, or the inflection in someone's voice.

Well, Hawkins says it a lot better than i did, but I found it very fascinating and hope that it motivates you to dig into this book...required reading for Paul Sparks course.