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

A Pedagogical Model for Using Virtual Learning Spaces
the screen, but we imagine these actions in their spatial dimensions, although their clarity
can vary.
In order to demonstrate some of the typical pedagogical activities enabled by digitised
learning environments one might point to the difference between learning activities in
real learning spaces and the way in which students
� exchange information with fellow students via e-mail or multimedia,
� compile folders and collections of text, sound and photo documents for a subject in
a learning project,
� search for information required to solve a problem from a sea of data,
� solve a difficult problem in a virtual seminar with several other students and in this
way arrive at new knowledge,
� navigate around an extensive hypertext to find the individual access and path tailored
to their learning requirements and aspirations,
� develop and publish their learning results in the form of graphically demanding
presentations,
� study learning contents using professionally multimedia presentations, including
animation, simulation an experimental phases,
� use video programmes stored on CD-ROMs to visit an arrondissement in Paris, for
example, or to be inspired by the collections of the Prado in Madrid,
� use the creation of a virtual reality like architecture students who experience the
effects of the rooms in the plans for a house, or like medical students who take a
trip through the human body.
The ten new learning spaces characterised here confront us with the necessity of
educational innovation. They offer us a previously unknown plethora of new teaching
and learning possibilities. We are faced with the challenge of familiarising ourselves
with them, developing them further and using them – with imagination, a willingness to
experiment and the courage to walk down new roads. However, this will only be
successful if we are aware of the special features of the new learning spaces, and know
their educational and pedagogical advantages and deficits exactly. We must be aware of
the "jump" from real to virtual learning spaces as an abrupt change to another world.
We must dare to take this step, above all because of our educational responsibility. All
those working in higher and continuing education are faced with the task of preparing
their students for learning in the knowledge society. And this will take place mainly in
the new virtual learning spaces.
The Ten Virtual Learning Spaces Considered
Some of the particularly impressive educational chances of the new learning spaces will
be sketched below in more detail. In doing this, the starting point will be the relevant
pedagogical activities, and the technology they are based on will merely be referred to
or neglected. The motivation for explicating the virtual learning spaces in this way is to
demonstrate their innovative power. They help to reform and „modernise“ learning.
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