research on ‘virtual reality’ studies. Although drawing on this older and broader educational research work is important, it is also important to recognise that these new environments also challenge existing concepts and theories and indeed these might need to be altered when applied to virtual worlds. As Carr (2009) notes it is already possible to point to gaps in the literature and suggest the following as areas for future research in this field: i) exploration of new approaches to pedagogy and curricular design, ii) better understanding of the factors involved in supporting social learning in these spaces, iii) identification of viable alternatives to Second Life, iv) addressing quality and access issues in relation to disability or broadband, for example, and v) identification of what institutional policy will need to be put in place.
Summing up
The contextual examples described in the previous section illustrate the ways in which Web 2.0 tools are being used in specific contexts. These reinforce the general consensus that these technologies provide new and exciting opportunities for education, providing students with new ways to interact with materials and with others. In particular there appears to be a good match between what is considered to be ‘good pedagogy’ and the general properties of these various tools. Table 2 demonstrates how some of the examples discussed here map to different types of learning and teaching approaches. The table shows how there is also a match in terms of mechanism for supporting teacher practice, in terms of facilitating a scholarly, reflective approach and mechanisms for sharing and critiquing practice Table 2: Examples of the use of Web 2.0 tools in different contexts
Types of learning and teaching practices
Web 2.0 tool and approaches
Examples
Personal learning
The ability to adapt, customise and personalise, use of RSS feeds, mash ups and APIs.
The Digital Learning Communities project
Situated learning, experiential learning, problem‐based learning, scenario‐ based learning, role play
Use of location aware functionality, The iCamp project, Use of immersive 3D‐worlds. Use of search Second Life to support different engines and other online resources as disciplines (Kirriemuir). sources of evidence, connection with Cyberone law role‐play. peers and experts via social networking tools. Scenario‐based and authentic tasks in virtual worlds, application of gaming technologies for educational purposes
Inquiry learning, Resource‐based learning
Tools to support user‐generated content The Open Educational Resource and facilitating easily sharing and movement and associated tools discussing these. These include media and repositories. repositories (Flckr, YouTube, SlideShare), Wikiversity and Wikieducator. social bookmarking sites (Delicious), digital repositories and tools for content creation. Use of search engines, participation in distributed, virtual communities, Use of folksonomices and
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