Integrated and Holistic Perspectives on Learning, Instruction and Technology: Understanding Complexity

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J.M. Spector, T.M. Anderson
Springer Netherlands, Dec 31, 2000 - Education - 268 pages
One outcome of recent progress in educational technology is strong interest in providing effective support for learning in complex and ill-structured domains. We know how to use technology to promote understanding in simpler domains (e.g., orientation information, procedures with minimal-branching, etc.), but we are less sure how to use technology to support understanding in more complex domains (e.g., managing limited resources, understanding environmental impacts, etc.). Such domains are increasingly significant for society. Technology (e.g., collaborative tele-learning, digital repositories, interactive simulations, etc.) can provide conceptually and functionally rich domains for learning. However, this introduces the problem of determining what works in which circumstances and why. Research and development on these matters is reflected in this collection of papers. This research suggests a need to rethink foundational issues in educational philosophy and learning technology. One major theme connecting these papers is the need to address learning in the large - from a more holistic perspective. A second theme concerns the need to take learners where and as they are, integrating technology into effective learning places. Significant and systematic progress in learning support for complex domains demands further attention to these important issues.

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About the author (2000)

J. Michael Spector is Associate Director of the Learning Systems Institute and Professor of Instructional Systems at Florida State University. Previously he was Professor and Chair of Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation at Syracuse University and Professor of Information Science and Director of the Educational Information Science & Technology Research Program at the University of Bergen, Norway. He was the Senior Scientist for Instructional Systems Research at the United States Air Force Armstrong Research Laboratory from 1991-1996. Before joining Armstrong Laboratory, Dr. Spector was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Jacksonville State University. His research is in the areas of learning in complex domains, intelligent performance support for instructional design, and system dynamics based learning environments. He has published widely in the area of instructional design research and technology enhanced learning and instruction. He is active in professional associations and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship (1995/1996) to work at the University of Bergen creating and testing an interactive simulation of project dynamics for large-scale courseware development efforts. Dr. Spector served on the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction ("ibstpi") as Executive Vice President, is a member of the IEEE Learning Technology Technical Committee, is a past-President of the Design and Development Division of the Association for Educational and Communications Technology (AECT), and is Editor of "ETR& D-Development.

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