READING, Pa. -- The Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Center at Penn State Berks will host a special presentation titled “Information Management Versus Knowledge Building: Implications for Text-Based Learning in On-Line and Off-Line Contexts” by Patricia Alexander, professor of educational psychology at the University of Maryland, at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in Room 244 of the Gaige Technology and Business Innovation Building. This event is open to the campus community, and light refreshments will be served.
Today’s students live and learn in a world that could not have been imagined a generation or even a decade ago — a world where the deluge of information continues unabated. Today, virtual friends can number in the hundreds; students tweet, blog and text with abandon; they read e-books; they watch what media they want, when they want, and where they want; they have smartphones that easily outperform the sophisticated computers of only a few years ago; and, the boundaries between private lives and public personas have become obscured.
But what are the consequences of such dramatic changes in information volume, access and use on the nature of text-based learning? That is the fundamental question to be explored in this presentation.
Specifically, Alexander will distinguish between information management and knowledge building as manifestations of learners’ intentionality. She will also reconsider the empirical and theoretical literature on text-based learning, whether on-line or off-line, based on individuals’ intentions either to manage information or to build knowledge. She will conclude by considering the implications of this reconsideration for models of text-based learning, as well as future research and instructional practice.
Alexander earned her reading specialist degree from James Madison University and her doctorate in reading from the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on literacy and reading comprehension, learning and academic development, critical and relational reasoning, epistemic beliefs and expertise. After completing her doctorate, she joined the faculty at Texas A&M University before returning to the University of Maryland as a professor in 1995.
Since earning her doctorate, Alexander has published more than 270 articles, books or chapters in the area of learning and instruction. She has also presented over 400 invited addresses or papers at national and international conferences. She currently serves as the senior editor of Contemporary Educational Psychology, was past editor of Instructional Science and associate editor of American Educational Research Journal – Teaching, Learning and Human Development, and presently serves on more than 10 editorial boards including those for Learning and Instruction, Educational Psychologist, and the Journal of Educational Psychology.
For more information, contact Sadan Kulturel, professor of management information systems, coordinator of entrepreneurship and innovation minor, and director of the Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Center, at 610-396-6137.