Amy Allcock

Last week I was fortunate enough to be in attendance for David Jonassen’s thought-provoking talk “Engaging and Supporting Problem Solving Online”. I had not heard of him prior to this engagement but within minutes of his presentation I wished that I (along with everyone else involved in education) had heard of him sooner.

What he had to say was simple and obvious yet totally overlooked for the most part in education - knowledge that is constructed in context is more meaningful, more easily integrated, better retained, and more transferable than knowledge created in an artificial situation like an exam. Given that we encounter numerous problems during the day - from where to park to what to make for dinner - problem solving is the most meaningful and relevant activity that we engage in.

Instead of teaching for tests Jonassen suggests that we should be teaching in for the real world - after all, it’s in the real world and not an examination hall that the application of knowledge truly counts. This means you have to engage learners by creating an authentic learning environment that has meaning and Jonassen suggests that technology can be a useful tool in creating these environments. Currently, technology for the most part is being used as a way to distribute course content that was previously delivered on paper - class notes, readings, tests, etc. This is all fine and dandy, and hopefully a few trees have been spared thanks to this electronic distribution process, however this hardly classifies as online learning. You don’t change learning by simply changing the distribution of the learning materials.

Jonassen suggest that we go beyond this distribution model and use technology to create meaningful learning environments that support problem solving. In these environments, technology is used both to distribute information about the problem and to help guide users towards a solution. Although problems will differ both in complexity and across domains, what is consistent is the way that technology can be applied to assist in the problem solving process. Simulations are easily accomplished thanks to the data crunching power of computers and are an excellent way for students to experiment with different variables and their resulting outcomes. Simulations would work for a variety of different problems including supply/demand analysis in economics and physical simulations for engineering. Jonassen also suggests the use of constraint-based discussion boards where restrictions are placed on the types of posts students can make in a discussion by encouraging researched-based as opposed to opinion-based responses. These types of boards would be very effective in for domains where problem solving requires decision-making and argumentation skills, such as design or policy analysis.

Using simulations and constraint-based discussion boards are just two examples of the many novel ways to use technology to create meaningful learning environments that engage the learners in problem solving. These are by no means fancy solutions - they are novel in their underlying approach and not in the technology used to implement them. Before we can effectively use technology we must look at how we are teaching. Once we understand that technology is the tool and not the teacher we will be able to harness the full power of the technology and teach to meaningful learning outcomes that support problem solving.

More information on David Jonassen’s work can be found at the Center for the Study of Problem Solving and on the Design Constructivist Learning Environments resource page.