There are a number of fundamental questions that tax anyone trying to formulate the ideal learning space whether that be physical or virtual. The question takes us right back to fundamental issues around teaching and learning.
If we assume learning takes place all of the time and is as a result of learners of any age interacting with something, i.e. a book, a person, a web site etc then where does teaching come into play and where not? It is pretty evident that unmediated learning can be a risky thing e.g. do a search on Google for endangered Octopus (as you might doing research into endangered species) and you end up with a spoof site all about the North American Tree Octopus!
Put a large enough group of learners online and allow them to collaborate, challenge and correct each others understanding and you have a community dynamic where, for some learners, the interaction with more knowledgeable peers is actually more effective than the encounter with a teacher.
No doubt teachers are critical to the mediation role within the learning process and we often turn to teachers for specific training or the acquisition of knowledge but in the case of the standard classroom in schools the extent to which these hard pressed people can provide a personalised curriculum for all their students is a tall order.
What we would appear to need then is a mix of opportunities for learning. the teacher and the class, the collaborative community, the learning resources and the vision by leaders to recognise this mix and explore how best to establish the new ways of working that are required.
With the advent of learning platforms there is a risk that we will simply replicate the traditional classroom online without harnessing the potential of the collaborative extended community to best effect. We may concentrate on using such systems as they were originally designed to be used i.e as course delivery systems and yet we know that there is the potential for so much more. Comments from a researcher at Lancaster university suggested that schools may actually need more than one online learning environment as the key requirements for teaching and learning may actually be different.
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