Why is lecture still the most predominant medium of instruction in so many educational environments? Is learning nothing more than the reception of knowledge from an expert "teacher?"

John Dewey argued against transmissive models of teaching over 70 years ago, citing that learners were not simply empty vessels waiting patiently and quietly to be filled up with information. He coined the phrase "learn by doing" as a direct challenge to traditional instruction, positing that students need to be able to be much more actively engaged in authentic experiences if true learning is to take place. This was not a popular idea in his time, as evidenced in a story about his trip to a furniture manufacturer to purchase some desks for his classroom, where one witty salesman quipped "I am afraid we have not what you want. You want something at which the children may work; these are all for listening."

In addition to active learning, Dewey is also most remembered for anticipating many of the principles common to modern cognitive psychology, including the notion of developmental cognition, believing that the mind was "a growing affair, and hence as essentially changing, presenting distinctive phases of capacity and interest at different periods."

Dewey's primary supposition then, was that meaningful (effective) learning occurred best somewhere between experiential discovery and rational examination. Experience without careful reflection was inadequate. It is interesting to note this convergence of behavioral, cognitive and social psychology implicit his theories; in many ways it has foreshadowed the collaborative effect that modern learning theories now posit as essential to learning environments...

This course will examine in detail the wealth of theory that attempts to explain why and how learners learn. It will replicate to some degree the content covered in most undergraduate Educational Psychology courses. One key difference, though, will be the context in which these theories are examined--for the most part we will focus on environments that utilize educational technology products or systems.

By the end of the course, you are expected to have the capacity to analyze any educational technology phenomenon through the lens of learning theory. It will then be your responsibility to decide if the great "theoretical convergence," as Jonassen puts it, has actually occurred, and then to explain why lecture prevails...