Pattern Recognition: A Critical Reading of the e-Learning Research

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ilana Snyder: Pattern Recognition: A Critical Reading of the e-Learning Research, Education.au November 23, 2005

There's a lot to disagree with in this paper (for example, the selection of literature to be studied in order to find patterns, assertions about the impact of rural digital access) but I am more interested in the positive thesis: "Our challenge is to find ways to use what new media have to offer in productive ways but, at the same time, to become, together with our students, critical and capable users: to engage in pattern recognition." Pattern perception is basic to cognition (and more), and I've been thinking about that recently: how would we alter the cognitive landscape of children if we taught them at an early age how their brain works, not only in the sense of teaching them how to recognize patterns, but also in the sense that the brain naturally completes partial patterns based on pre-existing 'templates' in the brain - to teach them, in other words, how prior conceptions inform current perceptions. More...