learning experience
What is a Learning Experience? posted Jan 5, 2011, 4:37 AM by Shane Gallagher
When I think about “Learning Experiences,” I think of every situation someone finds themselves in as a learning experience. People have not traditionally used that phrase in relating to more formal learning interventions – i.e. classroom, but from a learner’s perspective, both formally and informally, that’s exactly what is happening: learners are experiencing something that, hopefully, results in a change in thinking, understanding, or behavior afterwards.
Learning experiences are a way to think about what a learning intervention might be (i.e. – its design) in the context of desired end goals and outcomes. This can then inform our choices about how communication channels and modes, learning activities, and resources come together to best support the end goals and outcomes, and also how these channels and activities may evolve over time. Certainly in this context, a learning intervention is something that is much more than what has traditionally been thought of as “content.”
In thinking about what is currently thought of as learning content, I think of something akin to a page from a textbook (that has its doppelganger in web-based training) with which one “reads” and then “interacts” with in some way. That definition of learning content and learner interaction represents a very narrow and limited view of what a learning experience can be and usually limits the type of learning to that of recognizing or memorizing specific facts, procedures, and concepts exemplified in the deployment of web-based, self-directed individual learning experiences commonly called e-learning.
Learning content can be thought of much more broadly and inclusively. This could mean that learning content could actually include not only the “whats” but the “hows” of learning. For example, learning content in the context of learning experiences could contain a collection of specific content resources,
When I think about “Learning Experiences,” I think of every situation someone finds themselves in as a learning experience. People have not traditionally used that phrase in relating to more formal learning interventions – i.e. classroom, but from a learner’s perspective, both formally and informally, that’s exactly what is happening: learners are experiencing something that, hopefully, results in a change in thinking, understanding, or behavior afterwards.
Learning experiences are a way to think about what a learning intervention might be (i.e. – its design) in the context of desired end goals and outcomes. This can then inform our choices about how communication channels and modes, learning activities, and resources come together to best support the end goals and outcomes, and also how these channels and activities may evolve over time. Certainly in this context, a learning intervention is something that is much more than what has traditionally been thought of as “content.”
In thinking about what is currently thought of as learning content, I think of something akin to a page from a textbook (that has its doppelganger in web-based training) with which one “reads” and then “interacts” with in some way. That definition of learning content and learner interaction represents a very narrow and limited view of what a learning experience can be and usually limits the type of learning to that of recognizing or memorizing specific facts, procedures, and concepts exemplified in the deployment of web-based, self-directed individual learning experiences commonly called e-learning.
Learning content can be thought of much more broadly and inclusively. This could mean that learning content could actually include not only the “whats” but the “hows” of learning. For example, learning content in the context of learning experiences could contain a collection of specific content resources,