Learning in a Social Environment for 20 Years
We all grew up learning in a social environment in a traditional teacher centric classroom. The learning was normally information centric and intentionally not contextualized. Then we went on to college to sit in a live lecture hall with a large group generally followed by a small group practical or lab experience. As a result, following sixteen to twenty years of learning in a social environment, it is not natural to arrive at a corporation and learn using an online asynchronous elearning models. However, corporations, for the past 15 – 20 years have pushed self-paced elearning to their employees, while learners and trainers continually fight back asking for live classroom and lecture style experiences.
A Decade of Poor Online Programmed Learning
Despite the availability of nearly 50 years of research in instructional technology, much of corporate self-paced online learning is boring and in-effective. Very few online learning modules actually apply research in learning theory other then the fundamental programming instruction principles developed by Skinner in the 1960s. Money is frequently wasted both in the development of poor online instruction together with the lost opportunity time consumed when workers are forced to sit through ineffective online learning.
Three Generations Working and Learning Together
There are currently three generations in the workplace all with varying experiences learning from technology. The generation currently entering college have never known a time when there was no internet or online gaming. They have never known a time when they couldn’t communicate instantly to anyone with an internet connection in the world. How do we merge the learning styles of the Atari© Generation of the 80s with Playstation© Generation of the 90s and coming soon the virtual online generation of the new millennium. Games are now played live online with players from all over the world.
New live collaborative learning technologies promise to offer functionality to support social, action and situated learning theories, specifically multi-user 3D virtual environments. (Dieterle & Clarke, in press) The investment in these environments can be quite high and acceptance by older generations can be quite a challenge. Situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991) suggests that learning occurs in a collaborative contextualized setting however it is difficult and costly to implement situated learning theory in traditional corporate learning programs. Online virtual 3D environments provide an opportunity to explore the application of social learning principles like Action Learning Theory and Situated Learning Theory in ways that were not previously possible.
References:
Dieterle, E., & Clarke, J. (in press). Multi-user virtual environments for teaching and learning. In M. Pagani (Ed.),Encyclopedia of multimedia technology and networking (2nd ed). Hershey, PA: Idea Group, Inc.
Lave, J. , & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press