Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How theories supporting IT fit into Educational Theories

I decided to attack this problem from the obvious to the more problematic? paring. First a quick rundown:
Perennialism->Systems Theory
Essentialism->Behaviorism Theory
Progressivism->Communications Theory
Reconstructivism->Constructivism Theory

Okay, here's the "whys" of what's been done.
I put progressivism with communications since communications deals so much with how the process of comm. works. This lends itself very well to the project based ideas of progressivism. Overall I perceive a good overlap in their respective fields of experience.

Essentialism was paired with behaviorism since both of them seemed to lend well to mass education. Also the chance to civilize those masses would make both Skinner and Pavlov begin to salivate. :)

The truth seekers we know as perennilists seem to agree with the process of systems theorists. The only snafu I forsee is the fact that systems theory has a focus on the procedure or process, but the perennialism school of thought knows that the truth is out there and there is a tried and true way of finding that truth. Could be a bump int he road for that marriage.

Last, I paired the global view of reconstructionism with the learning theory of constructivism. The whole idea of shifting from consumers to producers matches well with the social and moral issues that are addressed by reconstructivists. There could be issues with needing a facilitator, but at least that guarantees me a job.

Not all perfect fits, but good enough to make a good strong case.

No comments: