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=Learning through experience not through mediation= //A parable about how we learn and how we teach...//

Recently my five year old came home from school and told me about the planet Saturn. He explained that Saturn is a planet and that it circles the sun. I asked him where he learned this. He explained "teacher's book". We talked more of Saturn. I added, "Saturn also has rings!". Aiden questioned, "How do you know?". We chuckled, and then I thought about how profound this was. I thought to myself, did I know of Saturn's rings from a book, or from experience? Was there a difference? I thought how significant it must be for a child to see for himself the very rings of Saturn that I so happily referred to, and took for granted. I thought also about how convenient and inexpensive it is to create instruction void of actual experiences - to be satisfied with a book "experience". I wanted Aiden to see first hand what had been presented in the "teacher's book". I wanted to show Aiden the rings of Saturn. Several days later, on a clear spring evening, Aiden and I went out to see Saturn through our small telescope. The image in (Fig. 1) is what we saw. Mind you, Galileo first described the rings of Saturn over 400 years ago. Using one of Galileo's scopes, the image in Fig. 2 was produced. Galileo illustrated Saturn as is presented in Fig. 3. After Aiden and I viewed Saturn, we went indoors and then also attempted to illustrate what we saw. Aiden's illustration looked very similar to Galileo's of 1616, and represented more closely the grainy, blotchy, and blurred image of Saturn that we saw through our scope. Aiden's illustration was depicting his experience with saturn and not his experience with the "teacher's book". Interestingly, the image of Saturn from the "teacher's book" is presented in Fig. 4. It was taken from the Hubble telescope.
 * [[image:saturn_20_03_09.jpg width="135" height="103"]] || [[image:Stars_Over_Xville_5-13-08-1.jpg width="136" height="91"]] || [[image:Galileosaturnus.jpg]] || [[image:59712main_image_feature_179_hstfull.jpg width="201" height="154"]] ||
 * //Figure 1// || //Figure 2// || //Figure 3// || //Figure 4// ||

It looked nothing like what we saw. It was sanitized, crisp, focused and colored. Unlike our view, which was opaque, fuzzy and small. The point here, is that Galileo taught us a lesson regarding how he learned. Galileo learned through experience, through going out on his own and studying the night sky. Saturn can be seen most anywhere in the world, with little assistance in the way of magnification. A scope that can resolve Saturn, costs approximately [|$10-20]. A small price to pay for genuine experience. Reading from a book or listening to a story of Saturn is not the same as seeing Saturn on your own. - Just ask Aiden. Several weeks later, Aiden was talking again about Saturn. Aiden was describing the rings of Saturn and that they were flat like a plate. I asked Aiden the same question he asked me a while back "How do you know?" Aiden looked straight at me and said "Because I saw it myself". This is not to say that the images that have come from Hubble are not worthy of study or our attention. They most definitely are. However, I would argue that before one can fully understand what the images of hubble mean, that we must first have our own gaze at Saturn and see for ourselves. Experience, then, is paramount to the learning process.

When we apply this lesson to teaching and learning in the information world, we must recognize that, even though access to information is much different today than even 10 years ago, what has not changed is the importance of experience in the learning process. Being able to identify that Saturn has rings from the "teacher's book" is not the same as illustrating Saturn based on your own experience of Saturn. The "teacher's book" is sold as an experience, but it is not an experience. It is a mediated endeavor. The tapestry of life will not be comprised of content from the "teacher's book", but rather reflections, illustrations, interpretations, and dangerous ideas from our own experiences. I have at least seen this in Aiden, because i asked him to pick his favorite image of Saturn. Aiden chose Figure 1, this was the image that he saw. The one that he had experienced. The one from Aiden's book. Not "teacher's book".

'a'apo (To Learn Quickly) instead of a'o pupu (To Learn Slowly)
Whether people learn differently now than in the past is a matter of contest. Jared Diamond contends that early neanderthals of 40,000 years ago more than likely had the intelligence to fly an airplane. Whether this is true or not, it is difficult to "test", but interesting to think about. Going back 400 years ago to Galileo, we can see that experience and observing the natural world was paramount to his learning. Certainly our access to information is much different today than in recent past. Yet, regardless of your stance towards learning, what matters a lot today is that we learn quickly and effectively. I think this has always mattered. In fact, some cultures have specific phrases and words for //"learn quickly"//. In Hawaiian, //To learn quickly is ... 'a'apo.// Conversely, //to learn slowly is ... a'o pupu//. I do not claim to be an expert on Hawaiian culture, however the fact that their language has these terms indicates that these are important beliefs towards learning. We should strive to learn quickly and effectively. The instruction we design should also consider how best to learn quickly and effectively.

Above and Beyond the "Teacher's book"
I then argue that the methods which will most likely result in quick and effective learning are those that engage experience. Like Galileo and his telescope. This means going above and beyond the "teacher's book", and exploring ways that the learner can experience for themselves the cognitive transactions we are hoping they will encounter. Effective educational environments and training environments of today and of tomorrow will be faced with this challenge. How do we learn well and quickly? This is not a simple question, but rather complex. Its solutions will be multifaceted; multidimensional. Whatever the solutions, I argue they will resemble situations that look more like what happened when Aiden experienced Saturn through the telescope, and less like situations where the experience is from the "teacher's book".

This wikispace is dedicated to the pursuit of finding ways to 'a'apo "to learn quickly" rather than a'o pupu "to learn slowly".