Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Book Reading #43 - Things That Make Us Smart

Chapter 1: A Human-Centered Technology
Summary:
Technology has not aided our ability to learn, but rather has been an obstacle to learning. Norman obviously does not like technology that hampers our ability to learn. He mentions all the good inventions of our time, such as writing, reading, and art, but doesn't praise engineering.
Chapter 2: Experiencing the World
Summary:
Norman states that there are two kinds of cognition, and three kinds of learning. The two types of cognition are experiential and reflective. Experiential is when one is so adept at a task, that it is done instantaneously, while reflective is one must contemplate before making an action. The three types of learning are accretion (accumulation of facts), tuning (from practicing/repetition), and restructuring (developing new conceptual models).
Discussion:
I really don't understand Norman. How can technology be a bad thing? Why should everything teach, rather than entertain? I thought the second chapter was much better, and that it was a good description of learning and cognition. There was so much information that it was hard to not write a very long blog entry. I think I still missed several key points, but didn't want to write a novel. I still don't really agree with Norman's point of view, however.

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