When we get peer feedback, how do we select feedback useful to our learning?

That is an excellent question: how do we select the feedback that is useful to our learning?

The key idea to the solution is that we learn to listen to those who give us useful information.

If we feel rewarded by getting positive feedback, we tend to look back and value more highly those people who gave us helpful information.

The learning theory Connectivism will help you to understand how this works: read the Wiki article and skim George Siemen’s article.   I will also give you a link to the Wiki article about neural networks, and the underlying mechanism LTP, or Long-Term Potentiation.

In the modern world where we have so much feedback from so many sources, this theory of learning may supersede the social constructivist theory in importance.

Brant

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism

A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, by George Siemens: http://www.ingedewaard.net/papers/connectivism/2005_siemens_ALearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf

Neural Networks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network

Long-Term Potentiation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_potentiation