Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

Pedagogical Consequences of the Transformation of Information and Knowledge
In this way, their individual preconditions (motivation, interests, needs, intelligence,
prior knowledge, attitudes, social background) can take effect and impact without
restriction. Whereas in expository teaching in front of groups the heterogeneous
preconditions of learners can only be taken into account in rudiments and in a generalised
manner, if, in fact, they are not ignored completely, an extreme and therefore optimum
learner orientation can be achieved in the digital learning environment. The orientation
to teachers that may be observed in many places is correspondingly extremely restricted.
The task of teachers consists of enabling learners to orientate towards their own
requirements and possibilities and to design the learning environment accordingly. This
is a new and very efficient form of learner orientation.
Problem Orientation
The independence, automatism and activity of learners can prove itself in particular in
the acquisition of knowledge in a digital learning environment when they detect,
describe, define and, with the help of cognitive tools as well, solve problems during the
analysis of the contents that have to be worked through. They can become involved to a
greater extent in the process than is in general usual and possible with the mere
reception of orally presented texts. The orientation towards problems forces them to
become involved with the material to a deeper extent and from the point of view of even
more aspects and to think up and try out possibilities for solutions. In this way, the
process of acquisition obtains a cognitive and pedagogical structure: ideally it consists of
a chain of greater and smaller problems, the appropriate attempts at solutions and the
results achieved.
Relation to Reality
In traditional teaching knowledge is mainly imparted by speech or the printed word.
However, this mono-medial coding makes imparting relatively abstract and remote from
reality. In contrast, in the digital learning environment there are new opportunities for
relating the acquisition of knowledge to a much greater extent to reality. These include:
� Multimedia and multimodality. Several forms of presentation address more than
one of the senses. Reality is therefore perceived more clearly.
� Authenticity. Because learners have access globally to information through the
Internet, the virtual world does not present itself as in a textbook, but directly.
� Simulation. Real processes and situation can be illustrated in such a complex manner
that "subjectively significant action under real conditions" is made possible.
� Virtual reality. Learners can "immerse" themselves in this three-dimensional
computer-generated data world and gather their own experiences that then have an
effect on their acquisition of knowledge. "Information landscapes" and "knowledge
spaces" may be developed in the future (Alsdorf & Bannwart, 1997, p. 442).
� Situated learning. In self-regulated learning in a digital learning environment the
acquisition of knowledge will become a complex process. Knowledge will "always
be acquired here in a very definite cognitive, affective, social and cultural context"
(Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl, 1998, p. 490). Problems will be selected that are
real and not just constructed for the purposes of exercises. The learner is then in a
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