Education as Punishment

Wow! I got an email from a professor at GSE with a link to this presentation:
http://www.weisserman.com/assets/2008/2/12/cyberactivism.pdf

The slides at the very beginning struck a chord for me. Here is the fascinating series of definitions they give (emphasis added).

1. A voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles, in which the outcome is uncertain at the outset, is a game. (Note that this definition includes art as a kind of a game.)

2. A voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles, for which an algorithm maximizing the likelihood of a positive outcome exists (regardless of whether its existence is known), is a puzzle.

3. A voluntary attempt to overcome necessary obstacles is either activism or entrepreneurship. Either attempt represents what we will call “projects with a purpose.”

4. An involuntary attempt to overcome necessary obstacles is a duty or an obligation.

5. An involuntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles is a punishment.

Isn't participation in classroom instruction an involuntary activity for young learners, as discussed at length in class? In my domain of interest, the adult workforce, training and education are often equally involuntary; they are either employer-mandated or required to maintain professional competence. So in many contexts within our society, learning is basically a form of punishment.

I'd argue that every media has some "friction" for all learners. But different media create more friction for different learners at various times. Overcoming this friction - these obstacles - is the key to learning.

In UDL-speak, I think I'd call an unnecessary obstacle a "construct irrelevant characteristic of the media for which a learner has low ability." So UDLifying content works to eliminate unnecessary obstacles, thereby transforming a punishment into an obligation. An improvement, for sure, but still not good.

In order to make the next step, and move from involuntary activities to voluntary ones, we need to look at learner motivation and find ways to make learning enjoyable. That opens the door for learning to be viewed as purposeful, and perhaps even fun!