基于WEB的虚拟实验室的建设

虚拟实验室在远程教育中有着非常重要的作用,基于Internet多媒体技术以及WEB实验软件构建虚拟实验室已成为可能,探讨了虚拟实验室的内涵、类型、构建原则和关键技术,介绍了虚拟实验室的构建过程和后台管理。     

The paradoxical future of digital learning

What constitutes learning in the 21st century will be contested terrain as our society strives toward post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and production without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age. Educational reformers suggest that the advent of new technologies will radically transform what people learn, how they learn, and where they learn, yet studies of diverse learners’ use of new media cast doubt on the speed and extent of change. Drawing on recent empirical and theoretical work, this essay critically examines beliefs about the nature of digital learning and points to the role of social, culture, and economic factors in shaping and constraining educational transformation in the digital era. An erratum to this article can be found at     

The influence of advice in a virtual learning environment

The influence of asynchronous discussion in a virtual learning environment, Blackboard, on subsequent coursework grades was examined with 166 psychology students to determine whether asking questions of the tutor online, and/or reading the questions and the given advice, influenced the grades on the report they were writing. A repeated‐measures quasiexperimental design was used, with and without Blackboard available, to control for confounding variables. The grades on the assignment with Blackboard available were significantly higher than those on the previous assignment (when Blackboard was unavailable). Students who never used Blackboard had significantly lower grades on the assignment than the students who had used it. There was a positive relationship between the number of messages read and the grade achieved on the assignment. Students who read the most discussion board posts wrote significantly better reports (up by 4%) than they had previously. No improvement in grades occurred for the people who read no posts at all. Both the students who asked questions and those who just read the questions and answers (‘lurkers’) ended up with significantly better grades than they had done before Blackboard was introduced.     

未来外语学习的模式——混合式学习

传统的课堂教学和网络在线学习对外语学习各有利弊。混合式学习结合了传统的课堂教学和网络在线学习各自的优势,符合外语学习的特点,使外语学习更方便、更灵活,从而达到最佳的学习效果,是未来外语学习模式发展的方向。     

The Dudley Challenges: virtual balloon journeys and real learning

The Dudley Challenges were developed to celebrate the millennium and the first year of the Dudley Grid for Learning. Three Challenges, Challenge 2000 the original resource, Challenge Europa and Junior Trek, are based on virtual balloon journeys, visiting a series of interesting cultural centres. Access to each centre visited is by solving a series of difficult, cross‐curricula problems that deliver a range of higher order learning experiences. Creativity, imagination, initiative, perseverance as well a range of ICT skills are promoted, developed and celebrated as key elements of the challenge.

Die Dudley Herausforderungen: Virtuelle Ballonreisen und wirkliches Lernen

Die Dudley Herausforderungen wurden zur Milleniumsfeier und zum ersten Jahrestag des “Dudley Grid of Learning” entwickelt. Die drei Herausforderungen, Challenge 2000 die Original Ressource; Herausforderung Europa und Junior Treck beruhen auf einer virtuellen Ballonreise, in deren Verlauf eine Serie interessanter kultureller Zentren besucht werden. Der Zugang zu jedem besuchten Zentrum ist nur nach Lösen einer Reihe schwieriger Allgemeinbildungsfragen, die einen hohen Lernzuwachs liefern, möglich. Kreativität, Einbildungskraft, Initiative, Durchhaltevermögen ebenso wie Computerkompetenz werden gefördert, entwickelt und gefeiert als Schlüsselelemente der Herausforderung.

Les Challenges Dudley :les voyages virtuels en ballon et l’apprentissage réel

Les Challenges Dudley ont été crées pour célébrer le millénaire et la première année de la Grille d’Apprentissage Dudley.Trois de ces Challenges, le Challenge 2000 la resource –mère,le Challenge Europa et Junior Trek sont fondés sur des voyages en ballon virtuels qui permettent la visite de centres culturels pleins d’intérêt.Pour accéder à chaque centre et le visiter , il faut résoudre une série de problèmes difficiles, interdisciplinaires qui offrent une gamme d’aventures apprenantes de premier ordre. On stimule,on développe et on célèbre ainsi la créativité, l’imagination,l’initiative la persévérance ainsi qu’un éventail de compétences en TIC qui sont les éléments‐clés du Challenge.     

Student activity and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the course material in discussion groups focusing on the lectures, quizzes and students’ own notes. Each student’s data recording of activities and individual participation in discussion in the online course was analysed in order to assess which activities predicted learning outcome. Higher course grades were associated with studying the course material frequently and also with regular participation in reading postings and replying to them. There were no connections between learning outcome and the students’ original contributions to the discussion forums. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in how they utilised the various components of the learning material.     

The future for (second) life and learning

This paper highlights the potential of three-dimensional multi-user environments such as Second Life (SL) from the perspective of future developments in the service of learning. It notes trends within the SL innovation to date, including the provision of realistic settings, the exploitation of pleasant simulated environments for groups and the links with other learning technologies. It also considers the creativity sparked by SL's potential to offer the illusion of 3-D 'spaces' and buildings, and points to infinite imaginative educational possibilities. It explores aspects of the construction of virtual representations of learners and teachers as avatars, and reveals a wide range of intriguing issues yet to be researched.     

基于网络的协作式虚拟学习环境设计

本文探讨了设计网络协作学习时虚拟学习环境的重要性，具体阐述了如何创设网络协作学习的虚拟学习环境．并且从三个方面提出了虚拟学习环境创设的原则。     

Distance learning and interaction: Toward a virtual learning institution

This paper considers distance learning at all levels, learning that can occur anywhere. Most education today in schools, universities, and companies is dependent on students being at a particular location, such as a university. The major distance learning institutions today are in Europe, but the potential for this type of learning is great as we reach out to serve greater numbers of students. The following factors are critical in forming a distance learning institute today: the quality of learning provided to each student; whether courses work for very large numbers of students; and the cost per student hour, for both development and delivery. Many delivery technologies are possible today. We examine them from the standpoint of these factors. The conclusion is that highly interactive multimedia learning units, either CD ROMs or (in the near future) broadband networks, provide the best delivery system today for distance learning. The paper concludes with a brief review of strategies for developing the curriculum units needed to support distance learning.     

虚拟大学英语学习社区的语言生态和结构探讨

虚拟大学英语学习社区与英语网络自主学习不同,其更加注重社会交际教学,这种社区将网络作为媒介,然后共同汇集专家、教育者及学习者,使他们在一个自主积极互动的场所进行学习交流,进而提升英语水平。虚拟大学英语学习社区也存在一定的语言生态及结构特点,其对英语学习也会提供一些帮助与支持,本文将重点探讨下虚拟大学英语学习社区的语言生态及结构。     

The impact of membership of a virtual learning community on individual learning careers and professional identity

This study takes a relatively new direction in researching virtual learning communities (VLCs) as it explores the ways in which VLC membership can support lifelong learning and impact on individual learning careers and professional identities beyond the life of the community. The case study spans 4 years. The findings suggest that through the process of engaging in a VLC, individuals may change their ‘horizons of action’ leading to new learning and career trajectories. In particular, the study demonstrates how membership of a VLC supported and enabled some individuals to transform their learning careers and to make significant life changes. Other members developed their learning careers in an incremental manner that led to increased innovation and professional expertise. The findings suggest that VLCs are successful in supporting individual change and career development when they provide the ‘comfort zone’ of a secure and supportive virtual environment.     

The teaching voice on the learning platform: seeking classroom climates within a virtual learning environment

University staff are now encouraged to supplement their classroom activity with computer‐based tools and resources accessible through virtual learning environments (VLEs). Meanwhile, university students increasingly make recreational use of computer networks in the form of various social software applications. This paper explores tensions of presentation and communication between these two contexts. Through analysing a large number of course websites, the teaching voice in VLEs is shown to be in a very different register than the voice of communication in social networking environments. Yet isolated examples demonstrate that learning platforms can support materials conveying a similar kind of conviviality. It is suggested that the educational practice of university teachers could move closer to this communicative style and reasons are considered as to why this has not yet happened.     

论虚拟学习社区中的知识建构

本文着眼于建构主义的知识观,从个人知识建构和社会知识建构这两个维度,阐明知识建构过程及其特点,并详述了虚拟学习社区对知识建构的支持功能,提出虚拟学习社区的知识建构的评价标准。本文认为,从知识的“浅层建构”走向“深层建构”,应采用协作知识建构,把概念性的知识和丰富的问题情境联系起来。正是在虚拟学习社区这种丰富的情境中,不同的知识得到频繁的使用和反复的建构,学习者的知识的质量逐渐从底层向高层螺旋上升,学习者逐步成为专家型的学习者。     

Feedback mechanisms in learning virtual community settings

This paper introduces a set of services for the creation of on-line surveys, questionnaires, exams and self-assessment tests within a virtual community system used in e-learning settings. The system, called ＂Online Communities＂, is a dynamic web application used as platform for blended learning activities by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Trento. The functionalities added to the platform are contextualized into virtual communities, where activities take place. This allows us to create, submit and analyze questionnaires within and/or outside the boundaries of a community. Furthermore, the system allows to manage libraries of queries organized by the teacher/administrator of the community according to topics and levels of difficulty, in order to produce tests and generate self-assessment sessions on behalf of students. The addition of a questionnaire/ poll/self-assessment tool to a virtual community system can add a lot of interesting features, mainly using the inheritance mechanism implemented among different hierarchically-connected communities. This paper will present these functionalities and highlight one of these services, precisely the one dedicated to self-assessment. In the system, self-assessment tests have indeed a double nature： （1） They are useful to students for checking their own level of preparation; and （2） They are useful to lecturers as an indicator of the level of preparation reached by the students. In order to encourage the use of the system within the whole educational process, and not to limit the real use of the service to the period of the final exams only, the possibility has been foreseen for each participant to share his/her own test results, comparing them with the other members of the community, and even offering real ＂challenges＂, thus transforming passive and ＂solitary＂ learning into something much more stimulating and ＂social＂.     

WebIntera-classroom: an interaction-aware virtual learning environment for augmenting learning interactions

Interaction is critical for successful teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment (VLE). This paper presents a web-based interaction-aware VLE – WebIntera-classroom – which aims to augment learning interactions by increasing the learner-to-content and learner-to-instructor interactions. We design a ubiquitous interactive interface that integrates a pen-and-paper interface with a web-based whiteboard to promote effective learner-to-content interactions. We develop a learning analytics tool that instantly shows learners’ learning interactions, with which instructors can supervise learner-to-instructor interactions. We implement a high-granularity Learning Analytics Engine (hgLAE) to broadcast, record and play a lecture recording. The hgLAE identifies hotspots in a lecture recording and raises students’ awareness of the hotspots when they watch the recording. WebIntera-classroom has been deployed in 11 universities in China. The system obtained high satisfaction in the questionnaires (N?=?464) and face-to-face interviews (N?=?60) conducted with the users from China Jiliang University. We compared the students’ performance, respectively, achieved in traditional classroom and in WebIntera-classroom at China Jiliang University during 2012–2013. The result demonstrates that the students could gain performance improvement by using WebIntera-classroom.     

Reflections on working with virtual action learning

This paper brings together the reflections of the authors on their shared and individual experiences of virtual action learning. Whilst many conclusions are shared, there are also some points of difference in practices.