Contextualising virtual learning environments and instrumentalising learning contexts

From Stellar Deliverable 1.1

“Where in the past schools, universities and other institutions grew around the fixed resources of libraries and laboratories – if information can be accessed anywhere, if simulations and experiments can be run anywhere, if ‘human’ interactions can be achieved virtually in any location, where does learning need to take place?” (Daanen & Facer, 2007, p 16)

All activity is performed in context. Cole (1996) makes an important distinction between context as “that which surrounds us” and context as “that which weaves together”. This mirrors the distinction made in the technical literature on pervasive computing between context as a ‘shell’ that surrounds the human user of technology and context as arising out of the constructive interaction between people and technology. The ‘context as shell’ model, exemplified by the Shannon-Weaver (1949) informational model of communication situates the learner within an environment from which the senses continually receive data that are interpreted as meaningful information which contribute to constructing understanding. Thus, a learner in a classroom may receive information from a teacher, a whiteboard and a text book, all of which must be assimilated and integrated to form the learner’s composite understanding of the topic being studied.

But learning not only occurs in a context, it also creates context through continual interaction. The context can be temporarily solidified, by deploying or modifying objects to create a supportive workspace, or forming an ad hoc social network out of people with shared interests, or arriving at a shared understanding of a problem. But context is never static. The common ground of learning is continually shifting as we move from one location to another, gain new resources, or enter new conversations (Lonsdale et al., 2004, Sharples et al., 2005).

The learning context is the set of ‘objects’ in a broad sense that can be grasped by a learner in a learning experience. This set of objects includes physical objects, digital objects such as online resources and people in the environment of the learner. These objects can serve as clues for learning, either explicitly or incidentally. In short, the context is set up by a situation designed and implemented in a certain environment with certain learning objectives. It is never fixed, but evolves together with the learning process. It is in this ‘context’ that each learner will, in interaction with others and managing the resources and constraints to which he or she is confronted to, build the milieu from which the intended learning will emerge. In this respect a learning context is continually created by people in interaction with others, with physical and digital objects, with their surroundings and with everyday tools.

Complementarily, the interplay between formal and informal learning in formal and informal contexts has to be instrumentalised through the use of physical artefacts, mobile devices and the configuration of physical and virtual space, in order to create learning opportunities beyond traditional institutional boundaries.

Technologies for learning should be designed to take into account the ways in which the settings where they will be used are mediated by the cultural context. Traditional classroom learning is founded on an illusion of context stability, by setting up a fixed location with common resources, a single teacher, and an agreed curriculum, which allows a semblance of common ground. But if these are removed, a fundamental challenge is how to form islands of temporarily stable context to enable meaning making from the flow of everyday activity.

Research questions include:

• Will there be a role for schools and colleges in the future? If students are able to access content and communicate with teachers any time and any place, what will the function of the school be?

• What do we know about contexts that seem to be effective for learning? How can this inform the way teachers set up TEL contexts?

    Novel experiences mediated by new technologies

    Supporting the mobility of the learner

    Standards for interoperability