Learning Spaces

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Malcolm Brown

Summary: the need to converge qualities of Net Gen students, current learning theory and IT in the design of learning spaces.

Technological advances have given the physical classroom a new set of functions, and these have "sparked interest in new pedagogical approaches." Statements like this grate on me for some reason. I don't believe that the 'new' pedagogical approaches say anything strikingly new. Today, the learning opportunities have increased, the venues have changed but the pedagogical principles aren't that new. The move from transmission to constructivism was already well under way before the elearning revolution. It's almost 20 years ago that the UK made a fundamental change to the curriculum (from O level to GCSE) to include more practical work, more projects because we learn better by doing, not just be listening and memorizing. How old is that Chinese proverb: “Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”? And by the way, who said that??

I do agree that the digital age has increased the possibility of informal learning: "Net Gen students, using a variety of digital devices, can turn almost any space outside the classroom into an informal learning space." And that the learning space does not have to be physical. A virtual space is "any location where people can meet using networked digital devices." These meetings can be synchronous or asynchronous. Learners can inhabit more than one virtual space at a time, often multitasking.

I'm beginning to feel that we may go to far with all this. Brown recommends that we
connect the various kinds of "learning spaces (classroom, informal, virtual) as a single integrated environment." He goes on to comment that "the end of the class meeting marks a transition from one learning mode to another." So where does it end? There were recently reports from the BBC that even primary school students were too stressed, that they were constantly being put under pressure to do well academically. Can we ensure that if we provide these wide-ranging learning opportunities and spaces, that students won't feel under constant pressure to be working on something? I feel it too doing this course. The only way I don't feel stressed is to not turn my laptop on. If I say I'm just going to check my mail, or new forum posts, that never turns out to be the reality! Can the natural world not also provide learning opportunities? University of life and all those other cliches!! I'm 100% pro technology that increases learning opportunities any time anywhere, 100% pro education for all made possible by the application of technology. We just have to be wary of the consequences on the learner.