A Digital Classroom

Learning styles do matter

If I am devising a resource-based learning to go on second life so thousands of learners can access the information. It may be reasonable to produce different versions for all learning styles. But this is a real world, and real time. Learning styles theory is an academic luxury, students not only have rights but also reponsibilities. You can't tune in to all of them, so they have to tune in to you. Paying attention to learning styles may be doing the students a disservice. They will benefit more from adapting and becoming versatile and be able to respond to different learning styles.

http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/emerging-technologies

http://doceo.co.uk/heterodoxy/styles

Second life is it an educational tool

Wagner and Rachael (2009) report on a pilot study testing the usefulness of Second life as an Active learning environment. These authors say it appears to be particularly amenable to Active learning, where learners are not simply observing, but plan, implement, observe and draw conclusions from their actions. Within the 3D environments, learners can complete real-world tasks where failure costs little but success can be rewarding. In this example the students were avid users of social software but few had ventured into SL for social interaction. So the authors warn that is takes considerable effort to develop meaningful structures and activities in a virtual world and there are factors that limit the experience, such as student frustration with platform stability. However, overall, the authors conclude that virtual worlds like SL provide rich environment for learning and exploration that engages students' imagination and draws their interest and leads to positive learning experiences.

http://www.informaworld.com/

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/postgrade/ryan

http://pedagogyofthecompressed.blogspot.com

Second life is it a game

Technically speaking, by most modern defination of the word game, it is not. It has no overall objectives, does not have a begining or ending and it is not designed to foster competition . Yet it looks like a game and is often assumed to be one, especially by those who have never been inworld.

Connectivism Theory

Connectivism theory presents a model of learning that acknowledges the rapid change of Technology where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism theory provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.

Connectivism theory fit nicely together with the thesis of virtual 3-D learning environments being supportive of communication, community and sharing. Communication is an aspect of effective teamwork, while another important aspect of teamwork that is essential in education is "how" members interact with each other or develop connections that form a community of practice.

http://www.elearnspace.org/Article/connectivism.

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.