Robin Davidson Smith
PhD Portfolio
Conceptual
Framework Graphic
Human
thought has always been confined by what we can learn, experience,
or imagine. I remember using a slide rule like those invented in the
17th century in my high school calculus and trigonometry classes; we
didn’t have calculators—much less computers. I also remember
taking educational theory courses in college at a time when our knowledge
of the human mind hadn’t moved much beyond the philosophical
speculation of the neo-Platonists. I’m so fortunate to have lived
in and witnessed the transitional period that has moved us beyond the
limitations of our own physical selves and concomitantly allowed us
to study the workings of our own brains. This graphic represents
the joy and wonder with which I—as both a teacher and a learner—see
this new world, which offers such rich opportunities for learning and
knowing.
The central image is human perception (the eye) bounded on the left by the world of imagination (a painting) and on the right by the natural world (a photograph of mountains and sky). Technology (the wireless mouse and the old book) is a critical peripheral to knowing as are the other communication constructs of listening (the ear) and speaking (the Cheshire cat). The brain is both within the cube and looking beyond it because the brain is both the knower and the knowing, inseparable but separate. The brain—like this cube—is both a physical entity bound by physical laws and an interpreter, a learner, a connector that moves beyond itself to the viewer and world outside, represented by the open sixth side. One side of the box has been left blank: Who knows what new discoveries brain research will uncover in the next few decades or what new technologies will transform our ways of knowing? My primary concern as a “scholar/practitioner” is exploring ways to optimize knowing by examining the relationship between the knower and the knowing, particularly in an online learning environment.
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