In the discussions concerned with learning in computer networks, technical aspects often predominate over the educational aspects of the network-based learning environments. In this regard, many of the learning environments available on the Internet scarcely display a sound learning structure.
Learning via Internet has plenty of advantages in contrast to traditional learning environments. On the other hand, there are problems like missing face to face communication and information overload. Thus it is an important question, how to design an Internet-based learning environment.
For this paper, we have chosen to make an introduction
into constructivist features and show different recommendations
for designing learning environments by examples of existing ones.
Constructivism is an epistemology, a philosophical explanation about the nature of knowledge. It is a theory about how learners get their knowledge (Airasian and Walsh, 1997).
Constructivism is founded on the premise that we all construct our own reality, through reflection on our experiences.
There are different views of constructivism: Radical constructivists believe there is no real world, no objective reality that is independent of human mental activity. The real world is a product of the mind that constructs that world, therefore there is no single reality or any objective entity that can be described in any objective way. A less radical form of constructivism (moderate constructivists) holds that the mind is instrumental and essential in interpreting events, objects and perspectives on the real world, and that those interpretations comprise a knowledge base that is personal and individualistic (Jonassen, 1991). In other words, people create knowledge from the interaction between their existing knowledge or beliefs and the new ideas or situations they encounter (Airasian and Walsh, 1997).
Constructivists believe that thinking is grounded on perception of physical and social experiences, which can only be comprehended by the mind. What the mind produces are mental models that explain to the knowing what he or she has perceived (Jonassen, 1991).
According to constructivists, meaning is a function
of how individual create meaning from their experiences. Based
on our unique set of experiences we all conceive the world somewhat
differently (Jonassen, 1991).
In the constructivist view, knowledge is no mirror of reality. It has to be constructed by the learners. As a consequence, learning is an active, constructive and self-regulated process, in which the learners autonomously create new knowledge structures and link them with the available ones. Constructing knowledge is bound to multiple, authentic contexts and has to happen from multiple perspectives. Learning happens in a social context represented - macroscopically - by the cultural background and - microscopically - by cooperation.
Constructing knowledge can only happen successfully, if the learner is active himself. Perkins (1991) states that a human being is not just taking in and storing given information but it is making tentative interpretations of experiences which are elaborated and tested: the learner constructs knowledge.
An important aspect of activity is motivation. There are two kinds of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For the learning process, intrinsic motivation has major importance (Deci & Ryan, 1993), so if we use in this paper "motivation", intrinsic motivation is meant.
An action is intrinsic motivated, if a person acts for itself, when the motivation comes from within and not because of any consequences (rewards or punishments). Belonging to Deci & Ryan (1993), motivation grounds on basic psychical requirements of self-determination and competence.
Thus motivation can be promoted by setting the learner into an optimised learning environment. This should provide a level of requirements appropriate to the learner's possibilities (cf. flow-theory, Czikzentmihalyi, 1993) as well as positive and informative feedback. The possibility for an exchange with experts can also be supportive for motivation.
There is a problem at Internet-based learning environments by measuring activity or feeling the motivation of the learners. One can only see composed and exchanged contents, subjects the learners read and search from foreign sites remain hidden. In order to foster learning activity and to motivate the learners, it is important to give them the opportunity and encourage them to exchange messages about interesting items having found and to reply messages, the other learners wrote. Another suggestion for promoting exchange is adding the learning environment a shared workspace.
Another basic prerequisite for learning and understanding is a minimum of self-regulation (Weinert, 1982). The learner has to direct his own learning process. He acts according to his own competence and is able to control his learning success.
It cannot be presumed that self-regulated learning is happening by itself; it has to be coached. Therefore a minimum of outside control is necessary for the learner to become fluent in directing his own learning. Simons (1992) recommends process-oriented teaching: the teacher shows the learner, how to take responsibility for his own learning-regulating activities, then he fades his guiding activities and activates the self-regulation of the learner.
Since the learner must construct an understanding or viewpoint, the learned content cannot be completely prespecified. Of course, it is important to define the core body of information but not -in advance- what may be relevant for the learner. It is the process of constructing knowledge and understanding that is important for learning. No meaningful construction is possible if all relevant information is prespecified (Bednar et al. 1991). Therefore the student needs encouragement to search for other knowledge domains that may be relevant to the issue and to search for alternative data-sources. On the Internet, learners can find lots of information. The students have to learn how to search and how to select the information they need. This process has to be supported, otherwise they get lost and unmotivated.
Learning should occur in realistic settings. If knowledge and skills are acquired in contexts related to real problems, learning can be seen as a situated process. A learning environment can be transformed in such a way, that learners can expire the construction of knowledge and build different realities. So authenticity of the learning environment is important for a good construction. Only authentic environments feature possibilities to notice objects under multiple perspectives. Knowledge comes to light in applications, so it is important to feature learning environments with authentic, not too simplified contexts for using knowledge.
The great chance for an Internet learning environment is authenticity of data. Via Internet, one can retrieve data from all over the world about many different subjects. These data sources are mostly up to date and not restricted to a curriculum. Thus the raw material is full of authenticity. On the other hand, one can retrieve data according to the same topic from different sites in different countries with almost different culturally background. Intercultural communication as well as cooperation provide multiple perspectives.
One cannot divide learning from physical, social and cultural contexts. Learning is not only getting specific facts in mind; learning macroscopically implicates enculturation in a community of practice and acquiring social habits, attitudes, communication and conventions of different styles. Learning is social practice in which personal interpretations are negotiated (Heeren, 1996). Microscopically, there is more attention in the social process and cooperation. Cooperation provides multiple perspectives, unhindered exchange of concepts and the possibility to explore together new ideas, to prove existing suggestions and avoid the development of misinterpretations. Learning by cooperative problem solving promotes motivation and can extend learning resources. But not only problem solving can be an assignment, also collaborative reflection and discussion. Students can reflect on different models, articles, etc. and discuss the strength and weakness of these. This provides multiple perspectives in two ways, the students get to know the different models or articles with their different perspectives and the different perspectives of the peer-students on these models or articles.
Collaborative learning should be carefully prepared by the designer. The students have to know, what the assignments are, the requirements, the schedule and the way of communicating with each other, technical and social. There are different ways to organise the communication technically. Students can have a shared workspace, discuss in newsgroups, use email. In a learning environment there could be a place where all the contributions (e.g. messages to each other, a group assignment) of the students are shown (as links). Socially, it is also good to give the students guidance in how to communicate with each other, especially when students are from other countries. It is important that students communicate very often with each other and as well if they work on a group assignment, that they plan and divide the work.
The students must have the chance to get to know
each other, they should get a strong group cohesiveness. This
can be done to let the students introduce themselves in the learning
environment by creating their own homepage, for example.
CoVis is the abbreviation for Learning Through Collaborative Visualisation Project. This project is an attempt to change the way that science is taught and learned in high schools by using high-performance computing and communications technologies. The goal of building CoVis' distributed learning environment is to make the teaching and learning practices of high-school more similar to those of the research work.
Students can make recordings of texts and annotated images such as charts, graphs, satellite photos and other scientific visualisations. The organising structure of the Collaboratory Notebook's database is built upon a library metaphor, with a bookshelf, notebooks, and pages being the primary interface elements. When a student, teacher or scientist logs on, his bookshelf displays all of the notebooks which he is permitted to read and write into.
The CoVis Project is a good example of learning as an active, constructive process. Work in CoVis is highly interactive. Student(s) conduct an investigation to gain new knowledge about some natural phenomenon (e.g. tornadoes). Scientific investigations include measurements (qualitative or quantitative) of natural phenomena and analysis of the data supplied by these measurements to reach some conclusions about the nature of the phenomenon being studied. Students can construct knowledge by investigation. They can verify constructed knowledge by communicating with the other students or experts (cf. social process). Replication studies, in which students test the theories or hypotheses of researchers also fall into this category.
In the CoVis project, the research sources display high of authenticity. Students investigate Internet and so they can access many different organisations for actual data. For example satellite pictures from the meteorological institute are really up to date. Students can find actual weather maps, so they can try a forecast for the next days.
The CoVis project is also a good example of learning as a social process. Students work in collaboration with remote students, teachers, and scientists on challenging projects. There are different kind of projects, for example 'Scientific investigation (basic science)'. Using state of the art scientific visualisation software, specially designed for a learning environment, students have access to the same research tools and data sets used by leading-edge scientists in the field.
In their Collaboratory Notebooks the students work together on the projects. The Collaboratory Notebook is a structured hypermedia database in which students and other CoVis community members (e. g. experts) can record and elaborate upon project ideas and efforts. Scientists (volunteers) are like mentors. They can help students:
This mentoring system helps the students to get to know the 'world of science and research' better. They get a better idea about the scientist, the work of the scientist and the way they work. And because students, teachers and scientists are working together multiple perspectives are used in the projects.
An example of a learning environment with high
self-regulation
is the International Writing Exchange course (IWE) of the Helsinki
University of Technology. In this course, students learn English
by writing together with other students from Asia, Europe, the
Middle East and North America. They can find ways to make their
English writing more effective in an international context.
The students have to write an article about a topic which they can choose from a list (e.g. an alternative educational system or drinking at an early age). There is much information available in the IWE course about writing English articles. For example, one can read about rhetorical categories, grammar, academic writing, business writing. The students send their article via email to their peer-students who have the same topic. Students having the same topic are in the same group. Each student reads the articles of the group and write one or more comments to a peer-student. In real-time computer conferences, the students discuss and criticise each others' articles. This cycle is done three times. After this, the students have a better idea about what is making their writing effective.
The students are responsible for their own learning
and the learning of the other students in the same group. They
can use the available information in the course and together they
discover how they can write articles in a better English.
These examples demonstrate, that net-based learning
environments at least partially fulfill the constructivist
requirements.
The discussed principles can be used as a basis for developing
new learning environments and/or as evaluation criteria for the
existing ones. It is not always necessary to set up a learning
environment fulfilling all of the constructivist features. It
depends on the goals of the course, the content and the target
group, which constructivist features suggestively can be used.
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Bernhard Ertl Ludwigs-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany Andriani G. Kraan University of Twente, Netherlands