TOWARDS A NEW LEARNING ETHICS

1. TOWARDS A NEW LEARNING ETHICS Jan Visser Learning Development Institute jvisser@learndev.org http://www.learndev.org Learning Without Frontiers UNESCO j.visser@unesco.org http://www.unesco.org/ education/lwf/

2. Learning and diversity (Previous talk-19/5/99) diversity as necessary condition in the environment for growth to be possible. learning is dialogical process that mediates among diverse learning entities. Learning and values (Today’s talk-21/5/99) value of learning (including the value of learning to learn and live together. learning of values (including learning of the value of learning and learning of the value of diversity). Previous session:Two related perspectives • Professional ethics of the distance educator

3. What is it that ultimately drives us to do what we do? Why would people climb mountains and risk their lives? What makes us want to transcend ourselves, to be like God? What makes us decide that some things are right and others are wrong, some are beautiful and others ugly? Abraham Pais on top of the Matterhorn in 1962.

4. Key words • Value • Ethics • Aesthetics

5. Value (according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary) ¹val.uen [ME, fr. MF, fr. (assumed) VL valuta, fr. fem. of valutus, pp. of L valere to be worth, be strong--more at wield] (14c) 1: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged 2: the monetary worth of something: marketable price 3: relative worth, utility, or importance <a good ~ at the price> <the ~ of base stealing in baseball> <had nothing of ~ to say> 4 a: a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement <let x take on positive ~s> <a ~ for the age of the earth> b: precise signification <~ of a word> 5: the relative duration of a musical note 6 a: relative lightness or darkness of a color: luminosityb: the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness 7: something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable <sought material ~s instead of human ~s --W. H. Jones> 8: denomination 2 -- val.ue.lessadj -- val.ue.less.nessn²valuevtval.ued ; val.u.ing (15c) 1 a: to estimate or assign the monetary worth of: appraise <~ a necklace> b: to rate or scale in usefulness, importance, or general worth: evaluate2: to consider or rate highly: prize, esteem <~s your opinion> syn see estimate, appreciate -- val.u.ern

6. Ethics (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica) How should we live? Shall we aim at happiness or at knowledge, virtue, or the creation of beautiful objects? If we choose happiness, will it be our own or the happiness of all? [The] subject [of ethics] consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision making, and its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong. (see also Index: right and wrong) Although ethics has always been viewed as a branch of philosophy, its all-embracing practical nature links it with many other areas of study, including anthropology, biology, economics, history, politics, sociology, and theology. Yet, ethics remains distinct from such disciplines because it is not a matter of factual knowledge in the way that the sciences and other branches of inquiry are. Rather, it has to do with determining the nature of normative theories and applying these sets of principles to practical moral problems.

7. Aesthetics (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica) Aesthetics is broader in scope than the philosophy of art, which comprises one of its branches. It deals not only with the nature and value of the arts but also with those responses to natural objects that find expression in the language of the beautiful and the ugly. A problem is encountered at the outset, however, for terms such as beautiful and ugly seem too vague in their application and too subjective in their meaning to divide the world successfully into those things that do, and those that do not, exemplify them. Almost anything might be seen as beautiful by someone or from some point of view; and different people apply the word to quite disparate objects for reasons that often seem to have little or nothing in common. It may be that there is some single underlying belief that motivates all of their judgments. It may also be, however, that the term beautiful has no sense except as the expression of an attitude, which is in turn attached by different people to quite different states of affairs. (see also Index: beauty)

8. Values and the reconceptualization of learning - the link with LWF and LDI • Something wrong with ‘learning’ (LWF). • ‘Learning’ an underdeveloped concept (LDI). • Need to rethink ‘learning’ as well as the different social purposes (such as ‘development’) with which it interacts. • ‘Without frontiers’: utopian vision • More modestly and realistically: Let’s challenge the barriers. • The value issue has gradually disappeared from the learning agenda.

9. Do we have answers? • No, sorry, this is about the search for answers. It’s about asking questions.

10. My background in this area • Probably the same as yours. • I haven’t studied this. • But I have frequently thought about such questions and I continue to be fascinated by them. • I have had the privilege to spend my life in interesting, challenging and always different circumstances. It has led me to think that one never finds definite answers to questions of ethics and aesthetics, but that it is always relevant, and often imperative, to keep asking them.

11. The value of asking questions Arno Penzias: • Knowledge, now becoming obsolete various times in a lifetime, questioning one’s own assumptions has become crucial. • Children, as soon as they go to school, cease to ask questions. This is frightening. • ‘Learning to learn’ is a necessity. • (Symposium Un Siècle de Prix Nobel: Science et Humanisme, held at UNESCO, 8-10 April 1999. Penzias is co-discoverer, together with Wilson, of cosmic microwave background radiation, for which they shared a divided Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.

12. What does it mean to be learning in the 21st century?

13. The institutional context Institutions that used to attend to the value issue: • Religious institutions (influence dwindling) • The family (if still there, influence dwindling) • The community (redefined itself along utilitarian lines) • The school (no longer sees it so much as its role and played it badly in the past) • The media (still deal with it, but often in opposition to common sense interests) So what do we do?

14. Is there a role for distance education and open learning? • Can distance education contribute to developing a learning ethic? • If so, how can it best do so? • Can values be learned in a distance education context? • If so, what implications should it have for the way in which we design distance education systems? • What values are being shared through the professional ethics of distance educators and their institutions? • What are our ultimate purposes? Why are we in the business of distance education and open learning?

15. The overall picture: what it mostly looks like CULTURE OF SCHOOLING

16. The overall picture and how it could change CULTURE OF LEARNING CULTURE OF SCHOOLING How can distance education contribute to bringing about a change in culture?

17. The meaning of culture • Environmental attribute • Conditions of growth. • Individual disposition • Appreciative mind, emotions, manners, taste, etc. • Societal attribute • Complex of patterns, beliefs, institutions, instruments, art, skills, values, etc. Supporting information and examples.

18. The societal meaning of a culture of learning • There is an innate assumption in society that learning is a fundamental quality. • Individuals are mentally, emotionally, and aesthetically inclined to engage in learning. • Belief and value systems in society, as well as its institutions and instruments, all support learning.

19. Distance education and the evolution of a culture of learning • DE is not alone in this. But it helps if distance educators are aware of the larger learning context and if designers are ‘environmentally responsible.’ • Creating learning experiences that are generative of other learning. • Emphasizing learning as a social process (design implications and implications for tutor involvement). • Attention to thinking about learning, thinking about thinking, being critical (not taking things for granted). • Attention to learning to learn. • Attention to motivational factors in the social environment.

20. Learning of values • Unrelated to the typical instructional context (teaching/preaching ineffective). • Long timeframes. • Social context (learning communities; learning as dialogue, social negotiation of values). • Role models. • Probably important not to look for role of DE in isolation, but rather as component of learning environment at large. Examples: Acción Cultural Popular. Fe y Alegria. Some of the Net-based experiences. Some radio soap operas and radio listening group experiences.

21. Our own professional ethics • What are our ultimate goals? • What values do they represent? • How is that reflected in our practice? • What do we do to serve as a role model in the conscientization of values in the world community of learning? Are we a good example?

22. References Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1999). Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 99: Knowledge for the information age (Multimedia edition), [CD-ROM]. Encyclopaedia Britannica [1999, May 20]. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, as included is Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1999). Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 99: Knowledge for the information age (Multimedia edition), [CD-ROM]. Encyclopaedia Britannica [1999, January 7]. Pais A. (1997). A Tale of Two Continents. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

23. Use of these slides In the interest of dialogue and the growth of understanding, use of these slides is permitted, provided that clear attribution be made to authorship (Jan Visser) and the Learning Development Institute (LDI) <http://www.learndev.org>.