Navigating learning worlds: Using digital tools to learn in physical and virtual spaces

Abstract

This article explores the various ways that teachers and learners can navigate different learning worlds with the support of digital tools. Increasingly, teaching and learning takes place in spaces beyond the classroom, whether physical or virtual. Place, navigation and movement have all been recognised as important concepts in approaches to understanding how we learn in and across places. With our postgraduate cohort of in-service teachers from across New Zealand, we have been exploring forms of learning that engage in the exploration of other spaces, using a range of digital tools. Google Tour Builder has allowed creative global navigation in a virtual space, Google Expeditions has given teachers an opportunity to integrate virtual reality into their classrooms, and Actionbound has exposed them to the use and design of situated outdoor learning activities with geolocated augmented content. Our article is based around participant interactions on social media that express their responses and creativity using mobility in physical spaces and the navigation of virtual spaces. Based on these interactions, we reflect on the nature of pedagogy in technology-redefined activities that involve senses of both place and navigation, structuring our analysis along two continua of physical accessibility and the extent of world knowledge.

Schoology: plataforma web capaz de mejorar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en el nivel educativo superior

“…En el siglo XXI, los docentes están utilizando la tecnología para actualizar las actividades escolares dentro y fuera del salón de clases (Parsons et al, 2019;Salas-Rueda, Salas-Rueda y Salas-Rueda, 2019;Tang y Hew, 2019). Por ejemplo, Schoology es una plataforma web gratuita que las instituciones educativas pueden emplear para mejorar las condiciones de enseñanza-aprendizaje.…”

“…Las estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje están sufriendo modificaciones en todos los niveles educativos a causa de la incorporación de la tecnología, dentro y fuera del salón de clases (Hendra-Divayana, 2019;Parsons, Inkila y Lynch, 2019). Por ejemplo, el uso de dispositivos móviles se está incrementando en los cursos presenciales y a distancia debido a que los alumnos pueden acceder a las aplicaciones y plataformas web en cualquier momento y lugar (Byrne, 2019).…”

Pre-service Teachers Perspectives of Google Expedition

“…Yet, Google Expeditions has already serviced over 2 million students (Melnick 2017 ). There is some acknowledgment that students can more directly experience places around the world, rather than just by looking at pictures and there are a few pedagogical suggestions that to embody effective pedagogy, educators and students need to create their content, in virtual spaces related to them (Parson et al 2019 ).…”

A Comprehensive Rubric for Evaluating EduVR

“…Between these two poles is mixed reality, which incorporates different levels of both physical and virtual components, and "each of these environments represents what is supposed to be a single, complete, and consistent world" (Lifton & Paradiso, 2010, p. 13). Parsons et al (2019) explain that "where some learning activities are simple to host in an augmented physical space, … others are difficult or impossible, and would require a virtual space" (p. 147). Because virtual reality is only one modality along the continuum, this dimension analyzes if the eduVR delivers content to learners in a way that is appropriate and would not be better delivered through another method.…”