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Practicing What We Teach:
how learning theory can guide development of online educational activities
David T. Schaller
and Steven Allison-Bunnell,
eduweb
2003
http://www.eduweb.com
Abstract
Since the World Wide Web became in 1994 the first new mass medium since
television, online learning design has evolved at Internet speed, taking
in less than a decade what it took exhibit design over a century to develop
in sophistication. Although virtual exhibits consisting of pictures and
text are still common, educational Web designers increasingly employ techniques
borrowed from interactive exhibits developers, video game producers, and
museum educators to create compelling activities that fully exploit the
strengths of the new medium. Constructivist learning theory often informs
these new approaches. However, transplanting learning theory from the
classroom or museum environment to the Web poses unique challenges. In
this paper, we review several theories of learning and explore ways that
we have tried to incorporate them into our development and design process
for interactive Web sites.
Constructivism underlies much educational practice in museums and is
the basis for all of the learning theories we survey in this paper. Each
of these, however, clarifies, expands upon, or revises the notion of constructivism
in ways that can help Web designers better conceptualize and execute their
projects. For example, Kolb's model of learning styles highlights the
structure of the learning process. This model offers insight in how to
make Web media go beyond the convergent/logical learning that comes easiest
to computer-based learning, and to teach divergent, practical, and social
learners. Similarly, Gardner's checklist of multiple entry points offers
a valuable perspective on diversity in learning, prompting us to look
for ways to engage various intelligences in one package. Most dramatically,
Egan's notion of developmental "kinds of understanding" frees
us from the strict constructivist demand to account for the concrete prior
knowledge of our mostly anonymous online audiences. Instead of attempting
that impossible feat, or ignoring the issue entirely, we can engage children's
and adults' imaginative capacities with stories about profound abstractions,
the limits of reality and experience, and our place in the world.
Keywords: Learning Theory, Constructivism, Multimedia
Web Development, Online Learning, Evaluation and Research
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