Is Learning A Learning?

In the past, studying meant traveling to the library or having to sit up with textbooks, reading for hours. In his Nation article “Virtual Students, Digital Classroom,” Neil Postman states, “[…] children and adults will be able to dial up a program

The Second Life avatars both supports and fails the expression of conveying verbal and nonverbal communication between people. The

Most online students use course management systems such as Blackboard to master the material. Some learn by streaming audio or video lectures. But, universities are offering courses that are taking online studies to the next level. According to a recent article by the New York Times, an increasing number of online courses are holding sessions in Second Life, a virtual world that mimics real life.

I have chosen the metacognition vignette. The prompts asks me to think of what type of lesson I would plan for students that are in the beginning stages of developing metacognition. But first, it is important to understand what metacognition is and what it does. The term metacognition was coined by psychologist John Flavell. Metacognition is defined as the understanding and self awareness of one’s own thinking or thought processes.The idea of metacognition is connected with Jean Piaget’s theory of development. This all correlates to have a better idea as to how we as educators can improve a child’s understanding of a subject through direct influence on the development of metacognition.

On a practical level, the school can facilitate real-time learning by developing features and mechanisms that

This essay will compare and contrast three key theories of learning; Behaviourism, Cognitive Learning Theory and Constructivism.

Virtual worlds have garnered academic attention over the last three decades. During this time, they have matured both in nature and appearance, evolving from simple text based systems such as Multi User Dungeons (MUDS) to fully interactive 3D virtual spaces, such as Second Life (Bartle 2003). The rapid evolution of virtual worlds has promoted an explosion of creativity across a diverse range of applications; however the core attributes have remained the same through time.

Knowing and learning can be interpreted in many different ways, but my philosophy of knowing and learning is based on my understanding through the personal experience in the tutoring situation. As a Tutor for students who were 9 years old, majority of the time was spent reading to develop their English. An aspect that impacted the students’ learning progress tremendously was the tutor’s responsibility to understand the student’s capability, needs and interest to support their learning progress. When tutoring the students, there were some theories that were appropriate to aid the students’ in reading and influenced the tutor’s techniques employed to support the students’ learning. The philosophers that influenced my tutoring techniques were Etienne Wenger, Jerome Bruner, Albert Bandura, Ivan Pavlov, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Jean Lave, Wolfgang Kohler and Lev Vygotsky. Wenger’s social theory believed that adding meaning and interest into an activity encourages learning (Lave & Wenger,1991). The Gestalt Approach influenced Kohler’s idea where the student would need to know the basic elements before being able to learn and acquire more knowledge (Phillips & Soltis, 2009). To build up new ideas from the initial basic elements, Scaffolding by Bruner and Modelling by Bandura were the two learning strategies utilized to support the student’s learning (Nalliah & Idris, 2014). The student is made aware that the new acquired skill or knowledge taught by Scaffolding and Modelling

the different assets that can be integrated into the LMS. The committee must also decide if the material will be delivered to the students synchronously, asynchronously, or as a combination of the two. Synchronous learning environments support learning and teaching and offer students and teachers with multiple ways of interacting, sharing, and the ability to collaborate and ask questions in real-time through synchronous learning technologies. Examples of synchronous online technology types include videoconferencing, webcasts, interactive learning models, and telephone conferences (Er et al., 2009; eLearners.com, 2012). In an asynchronous learning environment students are able to actively participate in their own learning, giving them the opportunity to interact with their peers, provide peer feedback, and reflect on the status of their personal learning goals and outcomes (Harris et al., 2009; Simonson et al., 2012). Asynchronous technologies support learning and allow more time for student reflection, collaboration, and student-to-student interactions (Skylar, 2009; Meloni, 2010). According to Meloni (2010) asynchronous communication and learning is by far the more popular learning type because many of the learning tools are free, require minimal hardware, and are used at the student’s pace. Recent research into the usage and efficacy of synchronous tools has indicated that these

The aim of the paper was to combine the task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach with the 3D multiuser virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life into the pedagogy of teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) for Chinese language learners in a major Australian university. It also intended to discuss the challenges and benefits of such experience from the perspectives of an expert virtual world user in Australia and three novice users in Taiwan.

Other features on the online courses are the learning aides that can be used while taking the course. Certain programs can be made such as flash cards and games which can increase the learning experience of the student. These learning aides can be done on the student’s time and does not require the teacher to be there.

Learning is an important thing in life, no one can promote to the next level with out learning. Now a days learning should be improved in multi ways, since that everything in the life is based on the learning, education and experience. Learning can be found mostly at school, where the students learn from their teachers. But unfortunately sometimes schools conduct the learning or education in a way that doesn’t help the students to use their ideas and abilities. And this learning named as ‘’dependent learning’’ or “Spoon-feeding”.

Three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds, being one of the current contributions to the swift growing technology, have attracted a significant attention among teachers of language due to their role in serving as interactive learning tools as far as online education of languages is concerned around the globe. For instance, by March 2007, an estimate of over 200 universities and other academic institutions was reported to use Second Life (Cooke-Plagwitz, p. 548).On the same note, the Linden Lab vice president of Platform and Technology Development, Joe Miller, further claimed in 2009 that learning of language was the most influential education-based activity in Second Life.

There are different ways VLE’s can improve studying for distant Learners. Firstly, online discussions and forums can be used for conversations and can be useful to exchange ideas between other students. Questions can be posted in forums, and the "peers", "e-Tutor" and "facilitators" can meet them online. For example, if a student has a doubt or something that is not understood, posting it in the forums can be answered. These online tutors are pleased to provide feedback 24 hours. Secondly the learning materials can be viewed and used online. It is more cost effective and environment friendly as it reduces the consumption of papers. Thirdly the digital library can be particularly useful for researching and information gathering provided by the college. This electronic library can be accessed overseas and is an essential resource to students who are studying in a Virtual learning environment. Furthermore, tutors can track the students’ progress, Notice boards and bulletin boards can be used to get lecturers posts, administrative information, class notes or other material (resource.id5497).

Whether a student is learning from home, work, school, or a cafe, they can all still reach Second Life with an Internet connection — and join class. With Avaline, you can also phone into classes or meetings. Additionally, Second Life is an ideal learning environment for many disabled students as it provides greater accessibility than traditional campuses, as proven by the Second Life community Virtual Ability.