Week 7 Activity Blog

Question 1 (Chapter 5):

3-D technologies can help to create a learning environment that allows multiple participants to collaborate, communicate, interact and (hopefully) learn in instructional environments. This technology attempts to create an experience/space that mimics real-life situations. I think this would greatly enhance the learning experience, much like hands-on (or field) applications in classroom environments. This also allows for scaffolding, which is essential in learning situations. Another important factor is the collaboration that can take place. As with any collaborate experience, a collective "pot" of diverse life experiences, backgrounds, skill and knowledge areas, etc., only help to improve/enhance the learning that can take place. This, in turn, can help the cohesion of a learning community.

Pedagogies:

• Piagetian Constructivism
  
• Social Constructivism
• Sociocultural Theory
• Situated Learning
• Cognitive Apprenticeship

Question 2 (Chapter 13):

The game "Reliving the Revolution" was designed with (as I understood it) AR game editor from MIT. The PDA was used. This allowed students to participate or "interact" in this virtual world. This also provided students with the chance to interact in a collaborative learning fashion. They could also roam around and communicate with other students while they were participating in the virtual world. I also noticed that the I.D. (instructional design) process was clearly at work here, especially where the evaluation (formative) was concerned. I think this is a very important aspect of understanding and advancement of the learning process. It was interesting to see this at work in tech design as well. I think that both the sense of reality and the prospect of appropriate and quality entertainment value can work together to make the learning process actually fun and aid transference to real life applications. Education doesn't have to be boring!