A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Academic practices of virtual learning by interaction




AuthorsFuller Ted, Söderlund Sari

PublisherElsevier

Publication year2002

JournalFutures

Journal name in sourceFUTURES

Article numberPII S0016-3287(02)00018-6

Volume34

Issue8

First page 745

Last page760

Number of pages16

ISSN0016-3287

eISSN1873-6378

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-3287(02)00018-6

Web address http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-3287(02)00018-6


Abstract
The way that the academic practice in higher education universities responds to the influence of computer networks and technology will be central to the definition of their future role, The traditional metaphor of university as self-contained village is challenged as knowledge becomes widely available on the Internet and teacher-student and student-student dialogues are not bound by spatial boundaries. The paper presents four metaphoric spaces that virtual dialogues can take place in. Each of these appears to fail the criteria of creating space where knowledge that a particular individual has can be shared, recreated, and amplified through interactions with others in academic contexts. We consider the effect of three driving forces that could create alternative teacher and student roles and dialogues between them. A technology-driven shaping of virtual learning may result in auto-responsive 'robosapiens'. a relativist societal-driven shaping of virtual learning may result in socially isolated 'nerds'. An environment in which technology is shaped by ethical evaluation with respect to higher level (e.g. meta-conceptual) learning is desired to raise the standards of intellectual and technological talents. Such an environment is considerably different from the norms of present-day universities and the every-day roles of teachers and students. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 22:57