Hi there

This is my first blog for the Future Learn course! Enjoying the first week of the course and looking forward to Week 2!!

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  1. Jason23 August 2018 at 05:57

    Thoughts on learning spaces

    There's no doubt that technology is 'dislocating' the idea of learning, particularly with the use of the internet, portable devices, blended learning etc. I think when Augmented Reality becomes more and more widespread within society, education is is going to change even further - even going into the realms of science fiction (Just look at the advances with 'Graphene - a super conductive substance will revolutionize everything from computers, transport and medicine to name a few: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/what-is-graphene-and-how-will-it-shape-the-future-of-tech/). Indeed, the whole world could become an 'augmented classroom' where the learner literally goes on a journey, accompanied by a 'virtual lecturer' whereby the world is turned into some form of a 'neo-diaroma' (Copyright 2018: I've just made that word up :D) and the learner is 're-introduced' into the world and rediscovers our relationship to it.
    That said, I think there will still be a place for the traditional model of teaching where groups of people, sat in a class with a teacher disseminating information and encourage learning together, transferring skills. That will not change.
    I'm all for students taking learning into their own hands - even working from home, although they still need guidance. Students working in groups is a very good thing and it provides flexibility too, including support and differentiated learning. That said, we still can't get away from the lecturer as central to this experience. In my 8 year career of teaching, learners yearn for this - they want to be taught. They want to hear encouragement from someone with experience. Ultimately, the aim is for the lecturer to enable the learner to become self actualized and productive in their endeavors.

    I would love to take my classroom out of the building and into the world. The technology is there, but of course, this is dependent on budget. For example, I'd love to take the class out to say, a museum or a derelict building or forest even, and get my students to photograph, draw, model and texture assets for video games. Now of course, the students could still do a lot of that with the modelling side of things, but I still think it would be a wonderful experience for a session to begin and end at a location.



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