As I was reading the article, I was picturing primarily the online learning environment that we are using in this master’s program. I was wondering, does learning need to be all of: community-centred, knowledge-centred, learner-centred, and assessment-centred for effective learning to occur. In other words are each of these characteristics weighted equally in their impact on effective learning? What about if we vary the context (face-to-face versus online), the learner (child versus adult), or the content (math versus how to fly a hang glider)?”
I began questioning why I hadn’t been thinking about the learning in relation to my own classroom of elementary students. The quick answer is, the delivery of our course is completely online, whereby my classroom instruction is a blended environment of both face-to-face and online. I am interested to explore how these learning theories apply also to the blended classroom. If learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and community-centered environments are essential elements in both face-to-face and online, would they be even more effective with a combination of both?
I particularly liked Prensky’s list of best practices for the various learning outcomes. He says, “ask not how students learn, but more specifically how do they learn what?” (Prensky, 2001). Anderson continues to state the belief that all of these activities can be achieved through online community activities or independent study activities (Anderson, 2008). I’d be interested to explore at a more detailed level, which activities would be best supported by face-to-face and which through e-learning. Schools have the option to harness the best of both worlds, if in fact we learn which option demonstrates best practice.
In my personal experience, I have used the D2L platform, similar to Blackboard. Even with young Elementary students, many of the features of the platform connect with the 4 types of learning environments mentioned in the article. Teaching students how to share through threaded discussions, author blogs, collaborate through document sharing such as Google Docs and student & teacher generated surveys and quizzes are some of the ways I tried to increase meaningful interactions. I would like to move into students having greater input into online content. Students could post videos (self-created or found) to demonstrate learning, create their own post topics and request feedback on work samples they have chosen i.e. piece of art, testing procedure for a science experiment, etc.
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 2 (pp. 45-74).
Retrieved from: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120146
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.