Tamika A. Madison

I&L 2749

Homework 1

24. January 2006

In the article "Growing Up Digital", John Seely Brown discusses two types of knowledge: explicit and tacit.  Explicit knowledge and learning occurs in classrooms most of the time.  This is simply the ability to recall or apply topics within a subject area.  Having the ability to write down trends in the periodic table, solve a stoichiometry problem, or use a mass spectrometer would be examples of explicit knowledge in chemistry.  Tacit knowledge is more practical in nature.  It involves knowledge of how to work within a discipline.  For example, in chemistry and most sciences, tacit knowledge would involve being able to carry out an investigation.  This would include how to ask the right questions, how to collect and store data, how to find any additional information for the experiment, drawing conclusions and how to troubleshoot when a problem is encountered.  It would also involve being able to communicate the results of the experiment to the scientific community and the general public.  According to Brown, tacit knowledge is very important in navigating our very technology dependent world.  In addition, he mentions that using technology may enhance tacit learning and knowledge.  However, as little as five years ago, technology in science classrooms was not used regularly.  How did this affect the learning of students who attended high school science classes at that time, such as myself? 

My high school science experience was "traditional", in a way.  My teachers worked more so on instilling explicit knowledge into us than teaching us the tacit aspects of their subjects.  Our work in science classes was often individualized.  In most classes, we took notes on a topic and worked independently on "seat work".  We were often encouraged to refrain from talking to classmates at this time, even if we wanted to ask them a question related to the assignment.  Instead we were encouraged to ask the teacher if we needed help.  The only time we did collaborative work was when did labs.  Even then, the work was individualized.  We were each responsible for our own work and, again, we were very dependent on our teacher if we needed help.  Working on homework collaboratively was discouraged as well.  Many of our teachers considered it "cheating" because they felt that many times collaborative work hardly occurred collaboratively. 

The use of technology in my high school science classes was very restricted, despite its availability in my school (I attended a computer science magnet high school).  The only time we used the computer for any assignment was in biology class.  We went to the computer labs at least twice a week during a unit on anatomy to use a computer program that aided us in learning about the human body.  The computer program was set up so that wee would learn about different organs and organ systems through a tutorial.  We would then answer a series of questions about the information that we learned.  If we missed any questions, the computer would take us back to the parts of the tutorial that we had trouble with for a review before we had a chance to answer the missed questions again.  At the end of all of the tutorial sections, there would be a quiz and this would be what our grade for the day would be based on.  We always worked individually on these assignments.  In my chemistry and physics classes, we did not use the computer at all, although we did watch filmstrips and videos. 

I suppose the one thing that sticks out in my high school science experiences was the isolation.  I feel that using more technology would have encouraged us to communicate with one another more.  The Internet was available in our school and we did use it in other classes quite often, but never in science.  I feel that perhaps we should have done some online research on some topics in our science classes.  One thing that I noticed when I had my students work in the computer lab is that it did encourage social learning.  If a student could not find a web page or make a table in Microsoft Word, they usually asked their neighbor before they called me over.  Often times, the students were researching the same topic so if one student found an excellent web site, they shared it with the rest of the class.  The computer lab was one place were the students felt that they were experts and that they could be reliant on their classmates and their selves instead of me all of the time.  This filtered into the classroom as well. 

I feel that the use of technology in science education serves two very important purposes.  It allows students to become more reliant on themselves rather than on the teacher.  It also promotes the social learning.  Both of these things are very important in science.  Science is a very social and collaborative area in nature and involves the solving of problems.  Presently, it is even easier to promote community in science using technology.  Brown's prediction of online communities is a reality today.  Their are many online forums that deal with a variety of topics, including science, that we can not only get information from, but we can contribute information to.  Therefore, technology has become even more of an asset to science education in recent years.