The August/September issue of Innovate, is now available, an open access, refereed, e-journal, focusing on using information technology tools to enhance education. It is published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University. Chris.
Reschooling Society and the Promise of ee-Learning: An Interview with Steve Eskow
by Chad Trevitte and Steve Eskow
Chad Trevitte interviews Innovate guest editor Steve Eskow about the concept of ee-learning and the promise it holds for revitalizing higher education. Eskow defines ee-learning as a combination of the electronic technologies employed in online learning (“e-learning 1”) and a pedagogy of experiential learning rooted in real-life settings in the world outside the university classroom (“e-learning 2”). As he discusses ee-learning in the context of previous philosophies of educational reform, Eskow argues that this mode of pedagogical practice seeks to bridge the gap between theory-based instruction on the one hand and practical application on the other. Eskow also addresses the ways in which ee-learning offers an alternative to the traditional view of the university as a self-enclosed space of learning, while still supporting the development of conceptual and propositional knowledge that educators typically value in the setting of the campus classroom. By allowing students to pursue their work in specific, authentic, contextualized settings while consulting with instructors and peers online, ee-learning offers a pedagogical approach that aligns knowledge and experience in a reciprocal, mutually enhancing fashion.
Some Historical Thoughts on the ee-Learning Renaissance
by Jack M. Nilles
Jack Nilles surveys the evolution of ee-learning at the University of Southern California, together with the first formal telecommuting demonstration program, from its beginnings in the early 1970s to the relevant trends in 2006. Although the basic technologies of telecommuting and ee-learning were in evidence in the 1970s, subsequent technological changes have expanded the scope of opportunities for both. Nilles argues that societal trends in this century will increase the future importance of ee-learning, making it imperative for higher education institutions both to become involved and to adapt their curricula to this new learning environment.
Continuous, Interactive, and Online: A Framework for Experiential Learning with Working Adults
by Eric Riedel, Leilani Endicott, Anna Wasescha, and Brandy Goldston
Eric Riedel, Leilani Endicott, Anna Wasescha, and Brandy Goldston describe the scholar-practitioner model that frames ee-learning at Walden University. Traditional approaches to experiential learning emphasize experiences concurrent with or following classroom instruction as a way to make knowledge more meaningful. By contrast, the vast majority of students at Walden University are adults with significant experience in their chosen field already but have chosen an online format to pursue graduate education. The scholar-practitioner model practiced at Walden fits within John Dewey’s theories of education and experience by seeking to refine work experience such that current and future professional experience is understood within a wider framework of the public good. Curricular examples are provided on this approach and a content analysis of social change activities self-reported by alumni are examined for evidence of its subsequent impact.
Adventure Learning: Situating Learning in an Authentic Context
by Aaron Doering
Aaron Doering describes an adventure learning project that connected students to explorers and researchers participating in a trans-Arctic dogsled expedition. Adventure learning (AL) uses a hybrid online educational environment to provide students with opportunities to explore real-world issues through authentic learning experiences. From the Arctic to Africa, AL is changing how students learn and teachers teach in their classroom as they utilize the latest communication technologies in computer-supported collaborative learning environments to experience places and cultures throughout the world. The AT2004 project described in this paper also included analysis of teachers’ uses of and opinions about their adventure learning experience. Drawing on the responses of 228 teachers who used the program in 300 separate courses, Doering shares three affordances the AL approach provides in K-12 classrooms: 1) Online dialogue and collaboration opportunities, 2) inquiry-based curriculum with authentic real-time content, and 3) motivation for inquiry through multiple modes of media.
Leveraging Identity to Make Learning Fun: Possible Selves and Experiential Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs)
by Joey J. Lee and Christopher M. Hoadley
Not enough attention has been given to video games’ role in identity development and exploration, important corequisites for learning. This oversight has resulted in the failure of many attempts at edutainment, in spite of the acknowledged potential of video games to engage students in meaningful learning. After discussing the potential role virtual worlds can play in adolescent identity formation and the link between identity and engagement, Lee and Hoadley offer a case study of a five-week course in which 14 middle-school-age students participated in two massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) to explore issues of diversity and technology design. Students assumed alternate identities, changing their gender, age, or ethnicity, and used those virtual experiences as a springboard for class discussions, project work, and assignments. At the end of the course, the students, most of whom had originally described a lack of diversity in their home neighborhoods, demonstrated a new sense of empowerment and a greater sophistication in understanding other cultures and technology after their experiences with MMOGs. Students expressed a high degree of engagement and motivation while learning about technology and user-centered design in the process. In light of this case study and based on other games and activities that many willingly undertake based on their own perceptions of identity, Lee and Hoadley suggest that identity may be the key to transcending the engagement/learning tradeoff in educational gaming.
Transforming Professional Healthcare Narratives into Structured Game-Informed-Learning Activities
by Michael Begg, Rachel Ellaway, David Dewhurst, and Hamish Macleod
Noting the dependency of healthcare education on practice-based learning, Michael Begg, Rachel Ellaway, David Dewhurst, and Hamish Macleod suggest that creating a virtual clinical setting for students to interact with virtual patients can begin to address educational demands for clinical experience. They argue that virtual patient simulations that make use of the motivational power of professional narrative can best reproduce practice settings online. In so doing, the authors showcase an online virtual simulation called Labyrinth. Designed to incorporate key principles of game-informed learning, this virtual patient simulation requires students to analyze case situations, synthesize knowledge from various learning experiences, and evaluate courses of action. For educators who author cases for Labyrinth, their own clinical experiences become transferable knowledge available to students. Though a virtual patient simulation such as Labyrinth cannot reproduce fully the clinical experience that informs practice-based learning, it can offer a way to experience and assess practice at a time when student access to real patients has become increasingly limited.
ee-Learning: The Best Road to Adulthood?
by Linda Chisholm
Linda Chisholm discusses the potential of ee-learning to address some of the endemic problems of college campuses. In an era of large campuses and large classes, students are removed from the positive examples once provided by faculty who lived in the campus community. The result is as evident in the woeful skills of some college graduates as in the pervasive stories about binge drinking. By putting students in contact with positive adult role models in professional settings, Chisholm argues that ee-learning can counteract these detrimental developments, giving students the flexibility to continue their studies as they pursue the professional, social, and ethical development the college experience should provide.
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