Modern Learning Environments

Much has been said and written about the MLEs or Modern Learning Environments. Sometimes I think when we talk about MLEs we just consider the physical space of the classroom as the environment to learn in.  There is the beanbag brigade that just thinks about the furniture, I have been to a few schools to see their MLEs and that is all they have shown me. I could have got just as much out of reading the school supplies catalogue.  Some schools were good and talked about the teachers having to change their pedagogy as well as looking at the physical environment. Here is where I want to draw the attention of teachers when they are considering their MLEs. For me there are 5 different environments that teachers need to consider when they are planning for their learners.

At the center we have our learners and surrounding them are the environments that they are learning in.  As teachers we need to identify the factors that contribute to the learners learning within these environments and then use these to enhance the learning. Within these environments the schools is the only one that has a ‘time for learning’ all the others environments can be fairly well accessed anytime anywhere.

The School Environment.

I call it the school rather than the classroom because we need to see the whole school as a learning environment and not just our classroom. We need to identify all factors that can assist our learners within the school. That is the learning spaces, the teaching resources, the teachers and the students.

The Online Environment.

Google, WWW, YouTube, Virtual Reality etc.  What are the children already doing here that we can utilise in our teaching and learning? What is the most effective way we can use this environment to enhance learning?

The Virtual Environment.

Virtual classrooms where learners are being taught by teachers in other locations (off site) and learning is done both synchronously and asynchronously.

The Home Environment.  What are the students already doing at home? How can we have parental involvement?  etc

Community.

Using community , local, national and global connections.

The explanations for each of the above are very brief, but for me the discussion should be around how we utilise these environments to enhance learning! What do we need to do as teachers to have effective teaching practices that will use all or most of these environments?