This three-part paper presents Gordon Pask’s conversation theory (CT) and interaction of actors theory (IA) and outlines ways to apply these cybernetic approaches to designing technologies and scenarios for both formal and informal learning. The first part of the paper covers concepts central to CT and IA, explaining the relationship between conceptual and mechanical operators, and machines mediating informal and formal learning. The second part of the paper applies visual representations of CT and IA to understanding the use of Pask’s (...) course assembly systems (CASTE and THOUGHTSTICKER), created between the late 1960s and the 1980s, and the ThoughtShuffler search interface, created in the 2010s. The third part proposes two pathways for design based on CT and IA: firstly, the potential for designers and observers to reformulate the qualities of tools and learning scenarios to augment human thinking and collective action; and secondly, the possibility to create tools with malleable interfaces that allow users to become intermediaries rather than consumers of knowledge. (shrink)

In an era marked by rapid information flows, search engine use often precedes online exploration. Search engines like Google function through reliance on over 200 signals that fine tune consumer behavior and provide ordered results. This process "adds a little something extra" to the idea of results ordered by pure conceptual relationships between keywords and phrases, and may stifle critical reflection. The search interface we test, ThoughtShuffler, designed using principles of Gordon Pask's cybernetics, reorders Google's results based on the degree (...) to which they contain varied co-occurring keywords both inputted by the user, and suggested by the tool; giving preference to sources that may pique the curiosity of the user to explore other sources and critically analyze them. We conducted an experimental mixed methods study to analyze argumentative essays written by 39 adult participants using ThoughtShuffler and Google, about universal and privatized healthcare models. We used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool to calculate word frequencies for emotional tone, and moralization/argumentation in the essays. We analyze these dimensions owing to the strong ties between morality, emotion, and critical thinking. Through t-tests of LIWC scores, and narrative inquiry of essays with high anger and moralization frequencies, we firstly found essays using ThoughtShuffler were marked by lower levels of anger-related words and less frustration related to the limitations of universal and privatized healthcare. Secondly, we found that the essays written using ThoughtShuffler contained more morality-related words, and featured more humanistic moral rationale about why a certain model of healthcare would be more viable. We suggest that tools like ThoughtShuffler, through their capacity to spur user's critical thinking and concept development, may contribute towards creating an informationally healthy society. (shrink)

Studies suggest college students/adult learners interacting with current search tools like Google display tendency to power-browse and adhere to page-ranking order in choosing sources to supplement writing. Such limitations may limit critical reflectivity. We present a tool, ThoughtShuffler which allows users to malleably alter neighborhoods of keywords and presents results as arrays of cards and collections that can be compared and contrasted. We conducted binary qualitative coding of essays produced by 39 users divided into experimental and control conditions and computed (...) a one-tailed t-test to understand if using ThoughtShuffler produced greater likelihood for higher-order reflectivity expressed in writing about efficacy of varied healthcare models in the US, compared to the use of Google to write about the same prompt. Our results suggest that updating search engine interfaces to afford capacity for lateral reading may present potential to augment reflective information search. (shrink)

This workshop unearths the potential of applying principles of cybernetics to curriculum and educational technology design. Here, we focus on using technology-assisted learning scenarios at the confluence of education, psychology, and computer science as an asset for adults to learn the skills for critical Internet navigation; skills we argue are an integral part of life in the Information Age. The first part of the workshop begins with an introduction to what von Foerster called Gordon Pask’s first theorem (a basic framework (...) of human-tool conversations), which was used to design classes in heuristics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and involved project-based community and artefact development. It then describes how this approach was replicated to co-design educational psychology classes at The Ohio State University in 2022-2023 to help preservice teachers engage in metareflection about their future careers. A small group discussion between workshop participants follows to understand how tools and activities used in these classes (social media, block programming, co-authoring, podcasting) can be adapted for other subject classrooms. The second part of the workshop focuses on fine-tuning the build of educational technologies like search engines to spur concept development. -/- We invite volunteers to interact with our Paskian search engine, ThoughtShuffler, which uses an uncertainty regulation mechanism to organize search results for lateral reading, and present results from an experimental study showing the tool has the potential to engender higher-order reflectivity in information search. We suggest principles of cybernetics can be used to co-design sociotechnical systems and sharpen both human and machine functioning within them, presenting hopes for human adaptation to an information-saturated future. (shrink)