The Downside of a Good Idea

http://community.brighton.ac.uk/jd29/weblog/22107.html

Full story at: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1361

More (slightly indirect) evidence that parcellation is needed to build rich and diverse learning environments. In essence, big, maximally connected groups solve simple well-defined problems better, but groups organised as a small-world network are far more effective for more complex issues. Not only does this resonate perfectly with one of the key principles I developed in my book, it helps to put another nail in the coffin of crazy, evil and pernicious ideas like national curricula.

Big and undifferentiated is inefficient and counter-productive. On the other hand, so is small, for different reasons. Middle-sized offers the worst of both worlds. What we need is small parcellated clusters, weakly connected.
Created:Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:52:06 GMT

I am a professional learner, employed as a Full Professor and Associate Dean, Learning & Assessment, at Athabasca University, where I research lots of things broadly in the area of learning and technology, and I teach mainly in the School of Computing & Information Systems. I am a proud Canadian, though I was born in the UK. I am married, with two grown-up children, and three growing-up grandchildren. We all live in beautiful Vancouver.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.