Towards a biological framework for learning and teaching: implications for the use of technology

The question of the use of technology and its effectiveness in teaching is an important question for the modern teacher. There is little in the way of effective frameworks that allow the modern teacher to compare educational approaches and their effectiveness in teaching practice, and much less in the way of frameworks that can, in turn be applied to assessing the use of technology. Recent insights from modern integrative biology have increased the understanding of learning and memory and human cultural accumulation, or knowledge, on a number of levels, from the coarse-grained phenomenological level to a more fine-grained chemical level. Combination of insights from fields such as psychology and sociology with those from integrative biology may offer potentially valuable contributions to the development of a biololgical framework for comparing educational philosophies and for assessing instructional design, including any instructional design that incorporates technology.