e-chronicle

Interaction is essential in any learning environment; it promotes active learning, enables effective facilitation, allows learner input, enables the development of higher order knowledge and abilities, and enhances quality and standards of the learning experiences. Not all interactions are meaningful, and contribute to effective learning; meaningful interaction must stimulate the learners’ intellectual curiosity, engage them in productive instructional activities, and directly influence their learning. In social constructivism, learning occurs through the process of intersubjectivity in the enculturised Zone of Proximal Development, i.e. learning occurs through communication with peers and experts (i.e. other highly-skilled learners, instructors, and experts in the field outside the learning community) in context related to real life tasks. When learners collaborate in the learning process using authentic tasks, not only do they learn the concepts under discussion, but also how these concepts are used in the workplace and in life. Opportunities for and quality of interaction in support of learning can be improved by technology. Internet communication tools allow learners to exchange information, contribute to discussions, and provide opportunities for learners to acquire and examine alternative perspectives.Woo, Y and Reeves, TC 2007, ‘Meaningful interaction in web-based learning: a social constructivist interpretation’, The Internet and Higher Education, vol. 10, pp. 15–25. 

Outré Finkel - that’s the name of my alter ego.

My next assignment (group project) in EMT1 involves designing a learning community in Second Life (or SL to those in the know!). Psst…it’s actually my idea to use SL…for selfish reason…simply because I have no knowledge of SL, and my workplace is looking into having a presence in SL, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to immerse myself in SL, and learn from my group members.

I signed up for SL last night, and had a hard time coming up with a name as I didn’t want to be stuck with some crappy name for the rest of my SL! Thought I’d turn to the good, old Macquarie for inspiration…and bang, the very first word that I came across was “outré”. Loved it. Settled on “Finkel” as my last name simply because (1) I could pronounce it (!) as the rest (of about 20) had my tongue in knots when I attempted to, (2) it’s two syllables, as is my ‘first name’, and (3) it sounds a bit rude (well, at least to me anyway!).

I went into SL last night without the slightest idea of what I would be getting into. And guess what, I had to learn how to walk, with the arrow keys; to hop in and out of vehicles, and drive them; and apparently, I could fly, but since I hadn’t mastered how to walk, I wasn’t game enough to attempt flying. And all the SL and VW lingo! After 10 or 15 minutes of frustration, I gave up and went to bed.

I’m not exactly a computer whiz, but I am quite comfortable with it, and have been using it for the last 20 years. SL is really something else altogether. This is going to be a very steep learning curve. But I shall persist!

So is SL (and VW) for the young and young-at-heart, who are as comfortable in the real world as well as the virtual world? Is it totally beyond people like me, who have had virtually no experience in VW? And if SL is to be used in teaching and learning, the time factor is certainly a very crucial factor (as in getting inexperienced VW learners to be familiar and comfortable in be in SL) as there are only that many weeks in a semester.

Beginning to wonder if I am too old a dog to learn all these new tricks! Time will tell. Watch this space…

A few weeks ago, I did a write-up on a learning community that I selected for an EMT1 assignment. Since then, I have learned more about the learning community, and have attempted to do an analysis on the learning community - the learning activities, my participation in the learning community, the learning community as a vehicle of learning, and an interpretation of my experiences. Click here for the full analysis.

Click here for details of the learning community that I have selected for my assignment in EMT1, including my view on a learning community, how I recognise the e-community as a learning community, why it might be of value to my experiences as a learning community, and my expectations as a participant in the community.

Click here (for EMT1) and here (for EMT2) to follow the weekly readings and activities in my e-learning journey…

The two pages will (hopefully) be updated on a weekly basis. So keep a look out for new, exciting stuff every week!