- Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Task Force on Cyberlearning
Imagine a high school student in the year 2015. She has grown up in a world where learning is as accessible through technologies at home as it is in the classroom, and digital content is as real to her as paper, lab equipment, or textbooks. At school, she and her classmates engage in creative problem-solving activities by manipulating simulations in a virtual laboratory or by downloading and analyzing visualizations of real-time data from remote sensors. Away from the classroom, she has seamless access to school materials and homework assignments using inexpensive mobile technologies. She continues to collaborate with her classmates in virtual environments that allow not only social interaction with each other but also rich connections with a wealth of supplementary content.
- Virtual Learning Environments
by Pierre Dillenbourg
Does a virtual learning environment refer to any educational web site? No. However,
as many fashionable words, some authors use it in a very broad way, including for instance
Web sites that simply include static Web pages. Is a virtual learning environment
restricted to systems including some 3D / virtual reality technology? No. Some
environments include less sophisticated interfaces, namely text-based. Between these overgeneral
and over-specific definitions, there is a range of environments, which vary along
the criteria listed below. Our goal is not to decide which environments deserve the virtual
learning environment label, but to provide an understanding of their specificity.
- History of Virtual Learning Environments
Wikipedia
A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and software, which involves distance learning. In North America, a virtual learning environment is often referred to as a "learning management system" (LMS).
- Higher Education as Virtual Conversation
by Sarah Robbins-Bell ("Intellagirl Tully")
Whether or not it is an accurate portrayal, the old stereotype of higher education is the lecture hall, where students sit passively and take notes from a wise professor whose experience and knowledge can be shared only in the classroom. The professor’s role is to dispense information, and the students’ role is to receive it. We all know the old adage: “Tell me, and I'll forget; show me, and I may remember; involve me, and I'll understand.” However idealistic our conceptions of education may be, those involved in higher education know how difficult it is to truly achieve student involvement. Even the most inventive instructor has the occasional disaffected student who simply refuses to engage. But outside the classroom, that same student who refuses to engage in classroom discussion may well be deeply involved in social conversations, politics, or other communities. Although the barrier between inside and outside the classroom has been difficult to overcome, new social media forms today are starting to break down that barrier and enable dialogue. The participatory culture offers exciting new opportunities to pull learners into conversations and turn passive, knowledge-receiving students into active, knowledge-making student.
- Virtual Learning Environments
by Wayne Galloway, Sarah Boland & Adela Benesova
With the vast amounts of money being provided by governments to train educators and supply students with new technology, it does not take a leap of faith to consider a future where virtual learning environments will have the potential to dominate or perhaps replace the traditional classroom, as we know it. There are currently thousands of schools and colleges operating on the internet and it is now possible to get a degree without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home. Virtual learning environments are hugely diverse in size, capabilities and services offered, and can cater for individuals ranging in attainment levels, ages and special needs. With our own personal experiences of virtual learning environments being little more than a text only Web page, we wished to examine the current uses of these new virtual environments and how they utilize technology to create a more interactive learning curriculum. To do this we examined the current debate surrounding the longevity and relevance of the traditional classroom in a digital society.
- Learning Theory in Cyberspace
by June Kaminski, RN MSN PhD
The discipline of education rests on a myriad of learning theories and concepts. Dozens of learning
theories and principles can be considered, but a select few are appropriate for distance learning
done in an online environment. In particular, the learning theories of didactic instruction,
reflection, metacognition, cognitivist learning, critical thinking, conversation theory, and Socratic
dialogue seem to have the closest fit to the design and implementation process used to deliver
this learning experiences in cyberspace.
- Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
Becta
Virtual Learning Environments in education: a review of the literature; What the Research Says about Virtual Learning Environments in teaching and learning; Virtual Learning Environments Bibliography
- Effective Learning and the Virtual Learning Environment
by M J Stiles
Using Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) poses important educational issues for Universities. Without addressing the issues of effective learning, their use can compound the mistakes of the past and leave the learner with a passive, unengaging experience leading to surface learning. Educators need to recognise that learning is a social process and that providing an effective learning environment which facilitates the active acquisition of subject-specific and general expertise, and addresses the need to adopt a specific subject or professional culture, requires more than electronically delivered course notes and email discussion. Quality of course design, use of appropriate tools and the context in which learning takes place are prime factors affecting success in the era of mass higher education and lifelong learning.
- Creating dialogue in a Virtual Learning Environment
by Kathryn Hermansen and Ninian Millar
In A Virtual Learning Environment we look at the way the VLE is constructed and what it can contribute to teaching languages or other subjects. In Tools for Creating Dialogue we look in detail, with authentic examples, at the dialogue genres that can be created online. Forums and interactive writing have the main focus and we also look at chat and emails. In Using the Internet in Teaching, we discuss how to bring the Internet into teaching and some of the advantages and problems involved.
- Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment
by Theodore Wright, Programmer/Analyst
Second Life ( secondlife.com ) may be referred by some as a game, howbeit, of itself, Second Life actually is not a game. It is a virtual world without theme, a virtual canvas for creativity, not inherently based in mock war such as video games.
With this current advent of virtual world technology, there now exist enhanced and expanded learning opportunities with an environment to relate to. Even up to present, much of distance learning has been made time convenient but impersonal. Avatar-based virtual world education is highly interactive, providing the same convenience of not having to travel while providing a richer, more effective and more enjoyable experience. For such, many students would most gladly make the scheduled time for the virtual classroom.
- The MOO: A Virtual Reality Learning Environment
by Hazel Jobe
If you think a MOO is just a soft sound emanating from a barnyard, then you haven't visited the exciting virtual learning environment of an educational MOO -- where teachers and students hold conferences, collaborate on projects, attend sessions hosted by experts, and build virtual learning environments. Isn't it time you dropped in?
- A Framework for Pedagogical Evaluation of Virtual Learning Environments
By Sandy Britain and Oleg Liber
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are learning management software systems that synthesise the functionality of computer-mediated communications software (e-mail, bulletin boards, newsgroups etc) and on-line methods of delivering course materials (e.g. the WWW). To date, several different packages have appeared from both leading commercial vendors and university-based projects. Other systems are currently under development. Most of these systems are intended not simply to reproduce the classroom environment -'on-line', but to use the technology to provide learners with new tools to facilitate their learning. They aim to accommodate a wider range of learning styles and goals, to encourage collaborative and resource-based learning and to allow greater sharing and re-use of resources.
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