Introduction
With new and hybrid places the whole concept of the learning system will change. New opportunities and new values will arise. More and more are people using different environments to get information, communicate and learn. Now it is important to give them exactly what they want, but it is still important to remember that less is more.
Basically there is no difference whether you are looking for the information in your personal interest or in coordinated learning activity. That is why I think my thoughts written in this essay can pretty much describe the whole knowledge discovery in the web.
In e-learning „leaner“ is in focus. New environments, designs and facilities should support learning act and be leaner-centred. There is no one and only fixed and bulletproof solution for learning. It is important to think which kind of result and learning activities would be best to consolidate new knowledge.
Key points
According to Hargadon, the key points for education in a Web 2.0 environment are:
From consuming to producing
From authority to transparency
From the expert to the facilitator
From the lecture to the hallway
From the „access to information“ to „access to people“
From „learning about“ to „learning to be“
From passive to passionate learning
From presentation to participation
From publication to conversation
From formal schooling to lifelong learning
From supply-push to demand-bull
Problems
Of course some problems and questions arise. Like when there is no teacher-student relationship and „closed“ and one-way addressed knowledge any more, is not it a bit insecure according to data used? The same questions refer to another problem, what about fair competition between people? When you have no „shelf“ to put your ideas on and everything is out to see for everyone all the time, does not it change the whole idea of competition?
The most important themes and problems to be solved that Nordgren’s is pointing out in educational institutions in order to provide the future learning environment are:
• Students owning their learning
• Standards and curricula that guide rather than dictate
• Constructivist teaching strategies that empower students
• Trust and adult supervision
• Democracy and empowerment
• Global Workforce Competence: Making schooling relevant to the workplace
Definitely new facilities affect the collective brain, on the one hand more varied information is available but on the other hand some aspects may come out more than they would do in not so facilitated environment.
New aspects in learning
These upper points made me think. E-learning as a process gives a lot of freedom but at the same time more duties and responsibilities. What happens if these criteria are not suitable for some leaner and there is no force coming inside? Is e-learning not suitable then at all? Or is there something to do, to make it work?
Answers to these questions would be a personal learning contract. This would lead the whole learning process to the whole new level. Students would not learn for grades or parents but for themselves. And like that it is suitable for everyone and supports different types of learning activities.
As I already mentioned, I think that e-learning needs more responsibility. Everything you say or do is out to see for everyone (usually) and you have to be more careful and stable in words and actions that are being taken.
But at the same time, this opportunity to see others working process gives ideas and knowledge not only according to the product (team work outcome for an example) but also how to achieve the best results in process.
Importance of the communication and the environment
E-learning needs even more communication than the regular learning process. One reason is the distance and information holes are more easy to come and because there is no face to face relationship (that much) it is not so easy to make yourself fully understandable, understand others the way they want to, explain and reexpalin yourself.
Also it is important to find suitable environment. There should be just enough facilities, but not too many. Also it would be good, if the environment is already familiar to all who have to work with it. The web page should be easy enough to not make the user think too much. Thus, the best solution is to use the system, which generates the associations, and people can recognize elements and so the page would seem logical.
I've often faced the problem, where the page tries to provide as much information as possible, but it is confusing and actually people get less information than they would get from the less informative page. Guess the Pareto principle meets us everywhere. The same principle works with search and filter systems, if there is too many opportunities and categories given to find information, it may actually complicate the search, or it just takes too much time.
There should be enough „air“ in the given information to make it more understandable. People do not read, they scan. Excessive words should be avoided, to make the page and the text clear and understandable.
Usually people don’t look for the best solution or the best answer to their question, they are looking for a satisfying solution and accept it. We just scan the pages, look for the information which is needed in the case and do not go deep into the page to understand everything. That is why all the information should be easily founded. The most important things should be founded most easily.
New aspect - geotaging
Nowadays e-learning is abandoning the geographical borders and distances. There is no problem to work or communicate in real time where ever you are. One new aspect that helps the global communication and learning activity is geotaging. For an example it helps you find the local-specific information and also identify where (geographically) the content came from. Geotaging saves time and provides more information than user would get without it. It helps to find partners and carries the information about virtual contacts geographical locations.
Summary
New facilitated hybrid places offers solutions for many unsolved questions but because it is still quite new and developing field there would be many changes in e-learning process that will make the process even more valuable.
References:
- Steve Hargadon blog: http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/03/web-20-is-future-of-education.html
- Steve Krug „Don't Make Me Think”
review available: http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000175.php
With new and hybrid places the whole concept of the learning system will change. New opportunities and new values will arise. More and more are people using different environments to get information, communicate and learn. Now it is important to give them exactly what they want, but it is still important to remember that less is more.
Basically there is no difference whether you are looking for the information in your personal interest or in coordinated learning activity. That is why I think my thoughts written in this essay can pretty much describe the whole knowledge discovery in the web.
In e-learning „leaner“ is in focus. New environments, designs and facilities should support learning act and be leaner-centred. There is no one and only fixed and bulletproof solution for learning. It is important to think which kind of result and learning activities would be best to consolidate new knowledge.
Key points
According to Hargadon, the key points for education in a Web 2.0 environment are:
From consuming to producing
From authority to transparency
From the expert to the facilitator
From the lecture to the hallway
From the „access to information“ to „access to people“
From „learning about“ to „learning to be“
From passive to passionate learning
From presentation to participation
From publication to conversation
From formal schooling to lifelong learning
From supply-push to demand-bull
Problems
Of course some problems and questions arise. Like when there is no teacher-student relationship and „closed“ and one-way addressed knowledge any more, is not it a bit insecure according to data used? The same questions refer to another problem, what about fair competition between people? When you have no „shelf“ to put your ideas on and everything is out to see for everyone all the time, does not it change the whole idea of competition?
The most important themes and problems to be solved that Nordgren’s is pointing out in educational institutions in order to provide the future learning environment are:
• Students owning their learning
• Standards and curricula that guide rather than dictate
• Constructivist teaching strategies that empower students
• Trust and adult supervision
• Democracy and empowerment
• Global Workforce Competence: Making schooling relevant to the workplace
Definitely new facilities affect the collective brain, on the one hand more varied information is available but on the other hand some aspects may come out more than they would do in not so facilitated environment.
New aspects in learning
These upper points made me think. E-learning as a process gives a lot of freedom but at the same time more duties and responsibilities. What happens if these criteria are not suitable for some leaner and there is no force coming inside? Is e-learning not suitable then at all? Or is there something to do, to make it work?
Answers to these questions would be a personal learning contract. This would lead the whole learning process to the whole new level. Students would not learn for grades or parents but for themselves. And like that it is suitable for everyone and supports different types of learning activities.
As I already mentioned, I think that e-learning needs more responsibility. Everything you say or do is out to see for everyone (usually) and you have to be more careful and stable in words and actions that are being taken.
But at the same time, this opportunity to see others working process gives ideas and knowledge not only according to the product (team work outcome for an example) but also how to achieve the best results in process.
Importance of the communication and the environment
E-learning needs even more communication than the regular learning process. One reason is the distance and information holes are more easy to come and because there is no face to face relationship (that much) it is not so easy to make yourself fully understandable, understand others the way they want to, explain and reexpalin yourself.
Also it is important to find suitable environment. There should be just enough facilities, but not too many. Also it would be good, if the environment is already familiar to all who have to work with it. The web page should be easy enough to not make the user think too much. Thus, the best solution is to use the system, which generates the associations, and people can recognize elements and so the page would seem logical.
I've often faced the problem, where the page tries to provide as much information as possible, but it is confusing and actually people get less information than they would get from the less informative page. Guess the Pareto principle meets us everywhere. The same principle works with search and filter systems, if there is too many opportunities and categories given to find information, it may actually complicate the search, or it just takes too much time.
There should be enough „air“ in the given information to make it more understandable. People do not read, they scan. Excessive words should be avoided, to make the page and the text clear and understandable.
Usually people don’t look for the best solution or the best answer to their question, they are looking for a satisfying solution and accept it. We just scan the pages, look for the information which is needed in the case and do not go deep into the page to understand everything. That is why all the information should be easily founded. The most important things should be founded most easily.
New aspect - geotaging
Nowadays e-learning is abandoning the geographical borders and distances. There is no problem to work or communicate in real time where ever you are. One new aspect that helps the global communication and learning activity is geotaging. For an example it helps you find the local-specific information and also identify where (geographically) the content came from. Geotaging saves time and provides more information than user would get without it. It helps to find partners and carries the information about virtual contacts geographical locations.
Summary
New facilitated hybrid places offers solutions for many unsolved questions but because it is still quite new and developing field there would be many changes in e-learning process that will make the process even more valuable.
References:
- Steve Hargadon blog: http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/03/web-20-is-future-of-education.html
- Steve Krug „Don't Make Me Think”
review available: http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000175.php
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