This document discusses viewing teaching and learning through an ecological lens. It argues that teaching and learning should be seen as an ecosystem where knowledge is transformed through complex interactions between teachers, students, and their environment. Just as living systems transform energy to survive, learning systems transform information to evolve knowledge. Thinking ecologically involves consciously shifting to see the teaching-learning process as an information-transforming ecosystem.

1. The nexus is learning – but what about technology ? Stanley Frielick Director of Learning & Teaching AUT University New Zealand

2. The underlying fabric of the university is stitched in 17th century dualistic / mechanistic thought …. The great research university is old at heart … For as it grasps us it splits us into minds and bodies. Wilshire (1990). The Moral Collapse of the University 'man sliced in half' www.flickr.com/photos/54899856@N00/40349181

3. Brew 2003

4. We must change our whole way of thinking about mental and communication process……. learn to think as Nature thinks. Gregory Bateson (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind

5. Teaching acquires its form within a complex relational web that seeks to affect the understandings and abilities of the individual members of that community…. Spider web against sky September 28 03' www.flickr.com/photos/32454422@N00/3009373

6. Just as the cognizing agent cannot be understood as a solitary component (but must be regarded as a subsystem of a larger system), teaching and learning cannot be studied as though they occur in isolated and closed systems Davis & Sumara, 1997:122 Baobab avenue' www.flickr.com/photos/51209031@N00/66753981

7. Ecosystems transform energy to maintain optimal conditions for the evolution of life. Isomorphic Strange Weed333' www.flickr.com/photos/48915783@N00/250426306 Learning systems transform information to maintain optimal conditions for the evolution of knowledge. 'peek-a-boo - _MG_6709' www.flickr.com/photos/43927576@N00/320746679

8. Thinking ecologically means consciously shifting to an ecological mode of being and thinking, in which teaching/learning is seen as an ecosystemic process of transforming information into knowledge, in which teacher-subject-student relationships are embedded or situated in a context where complex interacting influences shape the quality of learning outcomes.

9. Biggs, J. B (1999)

11. Brew 2003

12. Thinking eco-logically about learning/teaching Frielick, S. (2004)

14. Ecological sensibility manifesting in the West in the form of networked machines… McLuhan Laws of Media ; Kelly Out of Control Cable closet' www.flickr.com/photos/48889110751@N01/8271860 Internet and e-learning as ‘disruptive innovation’ Christensen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology

15. Filtering the fire-hydrant PLE as lifestream

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