XplanaZine

Analogies, when used properly, can reveal and clarify principles or their connections. In addition, they spice up a topic because they extend outside of it but without departing from it. They provide the opportunity for variation and comparison, both of which are important in learning and understanding.
Each situation may contain all the facts about it like a hologram, but the human mind learns what confronts it, that is, what is facing it directly. The direct way is the one provided by nature, other ways are the result of human conception. The direct way is what allowed people to know only their front view before human ingenuity created mirrors (or photographic cameras). People could see their faces on a reflective surface, like that of a calm lake, but of course, they could not place ..another lake (!) at a different angle to see their profiles or backs. However, human creativity made mirrors, the number and position of which can be controlled at will. Similarly, analogies serve as images of many mirrors. The more of these image ‘reflections’ we use properly, the deeper and sharper our capacity to ‘reflect’ seems to become.

We could use an analogy between the human mind and a computer and then apply it in teaching and learning. The human mind is much more than a computer but we could still accept that computers partly represent our current thinking process. This is simply because computers are designed on the basis of our own thinking and this holds both for our original conception of them and for their use. Therefore, a few selective examples taken from our computer experience may be able to illustrate a few aspects of our own minds . In particular, I would like to focus on the mental states of students and try to gain some insight about a few things that can go wrong in their learning process.
In the narrow and restrictive sense of an analogy, let’s think of the mind as a computer, the mind’s background assumptions and our prior experience as the operating system, and the new subject being taught as a new software application.

Compatibility between the operating system and the application.
The operating system is the overall environment that accepts or refuses the installation of new software. Therefore, new subjects should integrate with the students’ prior experiences and with their background assumptions in order to be successful. Otherwise, the new subject is not recognized and can’t be processed by the student’s mind. But this is already known. What the computer analogy can reveal that the incompatible elements don’t have to be pronounced incongruities, even slight ones could be crucial and equally damaging. Computer users can verify that a newer version of some software, no matter how similar it is to the older version, may be still rejected by an upgraded operating system. Usually, the system refuses the installation but if it accidentally permits it then it will be unable to run it.
Teachers are the designers of the new software application representing the topic they teach. Therefore, they are responsible for making it compatible with the average student’s operating system. However, this requires knowledge of the students’ current and past experiences as well as their background assumptions. It is not always easy to remember that, unlike computer operating systems which can be purchased, students design their own OS which is based on and limited by their own experiences.
If the application is too advanced it may require an equally advanced OS not available to the student. In contrast, an application designed by a teacher in the past that used to run smoothly may be impossible to be executed in the present. This is because today’s students have created a newer OS versions that are shaped by the times they live in. As it was already expected, the computer analogy confirms that teachers and students need to coordinate their efforts.
Luckily, teachers are main contributing factors to the students’ experience and background assumptions. Therefore, teachers have the opportunity to adjust a student’s conceptual frame by intentionally excerting the proper influence.

System overload.
Computers are capable of running a number of applications at the same time. Similarly, a student could be thinking about many topics from different areas concurrently. A computer user can run several programs simultaneously where each program performs tasks and produces results to be used by another program. In the same way, students could be thinking about different but interrelated subjects. There are times when this is recommended, or required, and other times when it is optional. However, a computer has limited resources and running too many applications can slow it down. Equivalently, students could be slowed down if their systems are overloaded. So, teachers could either allow them more time for multitasking, or help them to quit a few background applications. Given that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, it is better if the teaching method is designed to facilitate integration with areas outside the current topic or even contain them in itself.

Glitches
But any system can be overloaded for many other reasons. Occasionally, students are unable to follow or participate because they are preoccupied with something which is beyond their control. In these cases, an otherwise effective remedy is unlikely to work. This situation could be similar to a computer freeze, but determining its causes is not an easy task. The problem could be induced by flaws or bugs in the software that become apparent only under special conditions. That is, minor (or major) flaws in either the application, or the OS, or in any of the two with respect to the other, can surface unexpectedly. When it comes to a computer the best, or even the only, solution may be to restart it, but how does one restart the human mind? Perhaps one of the functions of sleep is to allow the mind to reboot by turning it off on the conscious level. But when napping is not possible, then refocusing one’s attention to something totally different may work as a ’soft reset.’ This is probably why small but timely breaks in suitable forms during a lecture allow students to refresh their systems and prevent the surfacing of unexpected ‘glitches’.

If a computer’s operating system is corrupt one can always reinstall it because even if it was possible to locate the sting of problems and fix them it would be more time consuming than it’s worth. Unfortunately, when a phenomenon similar to a corrupt system or file occurs to our own mental programming, painstaking repair is the only way permissible by our human nature. Nevertheless, with or without the help of an expert, human beings have the capability to repair and constantly improve themselves. Perhaps it is not only computers as functional physical objects, but also computer analogies that can assist us in reaching these evolving goals.