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Auto-didactic? | 9 comments

[new] All my fingers (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#5)
by Michael Lis (mondiale@ecole.ca) on Fri Mar 19th, 2004 at 06:23:27 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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Aileen wrote : "I *recognize* the commands, I know what they do, and I know how to find the relevant explanations for them on the infrequent occasions when I need to use them, but I am feeling very insecure about my lack of the kind of knowledge that can only be acquired through practice. . ."

And Peter wrote "In the academic world anything besides business studies and IT seem to have become the same kind of luxury. I think it would be a shame not to be able to offer to the internet generation the "old", luxurious way of learning besides the "fast" and independent way."

I have to say that I occasionally look at my hands and thank my lucky stars for still having all ten fingers. When I started in this business I played pretty fast and loose with safety around the machines. There have been a number of close calls over the years and at those moments, while the adrenaline was subsiding, I thought to myself if only I had had someone to teach me. I am not young enough to be considered a bona fide member of the internet generation, but I grew up in the transition. I have to admit that I can be a fairly adamant proponent of the `old ways' but cannot attest to actually having really experienced them in the full sense of the term - and I sometimes feel that growing up in the transition between the relatively `old' and the relatively `new' that I have been short-changed on both accounts. On the other hand I recognize the tremendous benefits in terms of being able to call my own shots, develop my carreer and creativity independently, and live in a semi-rural area without feeling totally cut-off from the things I cherish in the city. To cite another pragmatic example, for myself, using the internet has led me to the slow-food movement and I keep up to date as this nominally slow movement develops rapidly .

But to return to the question of knowledge: I would have to agree with both Aileen and Peter that practice informs an all important aspect of the process of developing knowledge. Indeed in the skills we use both online and off, familiarizing the body with procedures seems to have a kind of sedimenting effect and at some point we say that we know things by heart, or "its all in the wrists," and we perform actions without the hiccups associate with learning. If we think, we make mistakes. Anyone who has memorized a song on the piano will know what I am talking about. It's all very Zen. Now, by teaching oneself certain things we inevitably swerve in directions that under the tutelage of an instructor would be `corrected.' Certain associations would not be made or if they were they would be `disassembled'. My question: What are some of the ways we can imagine a world where the `old' and `new', the `slow' and `fast' work symbiotically to create a context in which "knowledge" of the highest order is produced? A call for philosophers perhaps?

Thanks all for the engaging comments,
Michael

gathering bits and pieces by Aileen, 03/19/2004 09:34:31 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)

Auto-didactic? | 9 comments

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