Virtual Learning Spaces
By way of Jenny Millea’s blog at edna.edu.au I just discovered a publication titled “Learning Spaces Framework: Learning in an Online World“. The document was prepared by Curriculum Corporation as the legal entity for the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) and outlines a holistic, strategic framework for planning and designing the production of learning spaces.
While it is geared more generally towards physical spaces, there are many areas in which it could be adapted and applied to the development of virtual ones as well. The latter in particular is where my interests lay, especially since I was recently asked to co-lead a working party that investigates the educational efficacy of virtual worlds – with a particular focus on SecondLife.
The document indicates:
“Maximising student learning is at the heart of decisions about the design or re-design of learning spaces. The skills students acquire are influenced by the design of learning spaces, the effective use of ICT and the ways in which leaders change the nature and culture of schooling to reflect the needs of learners in the 21st century.”
In a context of virtual worlds this statement has interesting implications. By their nature, virtual environments like SecondLife remove many of the exploratory and design barriers that exist in the physical realm. The creative opportunities are so vast, in fact, that one might be overwhelmed by the possibilities in the early stages of planning. This makes frameworks such as the one outlined in the aforementioned document particularly useful.
Even more though-provoking are the implications of the paper’s statement regarding the changing “nature and culture of schooling”. The document points out, as have many others before and since, that the reality of what learning is and where it’s taking place is far different now than it was 5 or 10 years ago. Learning continues to take place within formal institutions, certainly; but it’s also increasingly taking place informally outside the realm of the classroom.
Much of the transformation can be attributed to what is being called “ubiquitous computing,” in which the combination of hand-held devices, high-speed Internet access, and widespread adoption of the world wide web as a connecting mechanism has drastically reduced barriers to contribute and share information, communicate, collaborate and collectively (or connectively) synthesize and reflect.
You might say that the entire concept of learning, and the place of educators and institutions, is undergoing a transformation. While papers such as Kennedy et al’s “The net generation are not big users of Web 2.0 technologies: Preliminary findings” (which I discussed yesterday) refute the notion that Generation Y students are all “Digital Natives”, there can be little doubt that recent innovations have increased the opportunities for learners.
The question for formal education then, is how to capitalise on them, when to do so, and in what way.
In a realm of rapid innovation though, it can be difficult to avoid being swept away, so frameworks like this can provide an invaluable reference point to help maintain a holistic perspective.
