LEARNING THEORIES

After researching about the three broad learning theories behaviorism, cognitive and constructivism which were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. I started looking at constructivist theory which states that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In other words, students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the teacher as a guide to help along the way.

I paid particular attention on Vygotsky theory which is one of the foundations of constuctivism. According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

www.learning-therioes.com

Pedagogy before Technology

Far from creating pedagogy, we should be in a business of locating the new technologies within the proven practices and models of teaching. There is nothing new about technologies for learning. The second life for example is just the latest outcomes of human ingenuity that we have at our disposal. Like previous innovations, it can be assimilated to pedagogical practice without altering the fundamental truths about how people learn.

Pedagogy needs to be rethought again?

This is a particularly urgent question in relationship to the new digital technologies, because teachers who are excited about these technologies are often accused of using them regardless of whether or not they are pedagogically effective.

References:

www.oaklandcc.edu/assement/terminology assessed on 19 December.

Marc Prensky, "Digital Game-Based learning" 2001, paragon house , USA.

Low carbon restaurant Otarian arrives in London

A restaurant is claiming to be the first in the world to carbon footprint everything it serves. Otarian is a concepts based around vegetarianism and it says that swapping a meat based lunch for an Otarian carbon saving cambo meal, could save 2.3kg of carbon, which is equivalent to the carbon emission of 4 central London black journeys.

Carbon reduction company sustain measured the carbon footprint of each menu item for the restaurant, which then appears alongside the footprint of a comparable meat dish. The aim is to encourage customers to think about the impact of their food choices on the planet and understand the environmental benefits of reducing meat consumption. Items that represent the biggest carbon savings are actively promoted to customers. Thought about the Prince of Wales Pub because it serves food..... then again it's a big project.

Object design change

I have decided to change the design of my interactive object so that the button can be viewed at different angle and also someone can easily spot them. Instead of creating the buttons at the front I have decide to creat the buttons on the sides with a hoover text distinguishing the buttons.

References

http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetTexture

www.hefce.ac.uk

www.interloc.org.uk

www.rlo.cetl.ac.uk

www.twsos.com/energy rating.html

www.earthwhile.co.uk/home insulation

Carbondioxide Emission

In 1960’s “Richard Backminster Fuller” used to ask his audience of engineers “How much does your building weigh” His interest was in efficient designs that used less natural resources no nobody could ever answer his question. In the 1980’s in the wake of the 1981 OPEC oil embargo, another famous American engineer, Fed Dublin asked his audience of architects and engineers “How will your building perform if it has to run on half as much energy as you expect it to need. There is an established link between man made emission from burning fossil fuels and climate change. The 21 century question is how much carbon dioxide does your building emits.