1.3 Strange New Worlds

The new landscapes for learning are ready to be explored and exploited by teachers. But are teachers ready or prepared for this new landscape or learning environment? Is it simply a matter of transposing one's knowledge, beliefs about and approaches to learning? Is the online learning environment different from the classroom only in the fact that it is virtual - in bytes instead of in atoms? This study is premised on the argument that online learning environments represent, metaphorically speaking, a strange land or foreign phenomenon with which teachers are largely unfamiliar. The newly created, unorganized and decentralized world of the Internet is a strange land particularly for educators: strange not only because of its nature but because of how it contrasts with traditional learning environments. This section looks at OLEs in order to appreciate and understand the ways in which they differ from the traditional classroom environment.

De Kerckhove's (1997) reflections on the Internet provide us with a perspective that highlights its uniqueness and newness. The author argues that the Internet constitutes the most comprehensive, innovative and complex communication medium in existence representing the mega-convergence of hypertext, multi-media, virtual reality, neural networks, digital agents and even artificial life. It is a "quasi-organic environment of millions of human intelligences" (p. xxiii). The ecology of such a network can be characterized by three essential elements: interactivity, hypertextuality and connectedness. In contrast to the information technologies of the past which were aids to memory, the Internet serves as an aid to intelligence. It is the "ultimate decentralizing force" that suppresses all distances and all delays. The lack of "horizon" on the Internet leaves its users with a "loss of a clear sense of boundaries". The notion of personhood is challenged by extending the body's reach and range and through use of hypertext which "turns everybody's memory into everybody else's".

An additional distinguishing feature of the Internet relates to the notion of time. De Kerckhove explains the new conception of time created through Internet use:

To conduct e-mail and related Internet activities, one needs a different sense of time. The difference is that the time in use is not linear. It is not real time because inputs or messages are not guaranteed an immediate response. However, the exchanges are not really out of time like the content of books, for instance, because they are almost as contextualized as a conversation is. They are like a telephone conversation in slow motion (and, of course, in text). This is the secondary "real-timeliness" of the web. One might call it "expanded" or "non-linear real time." The time of the net is expanded to include and accommodate the same level of context as an oral exchange, but over multiple entry points. (p. 82)

Internet communication is most often asynchronous which results in the element of time playing a less important role than in non-Internet communication. As Newhagen and Rafaeli (1996) observed in relation to time: "The Net stretches the edges of the synchronicity continuum. Communication on the Net travels at unprecedented speed. It can also be consumed at unprecedented delays" (p.2). The Internet can also be characterized as unorganized, uncensored, decentralized and unordered. It provides for non-linear presentation and communication as well as sensory vastness (Ibid. ). Another important feature of the Internet is its openness. "On the Net, due to historical reasons perpetuated by the discovery of other functions, the organizing principle is to have no organization, or deliberate, orderly anarchy. The message keeps its own gate, carries its own homing device. The net treats censorship as noise and is designed to work around it" (Ibid., p.2).

One type of learning environment provided by the Internet or an approach to learning which it supports or facilitates can be described as constructivist. Mather (1996) argues that the Internet is a very natural partner for the computer technology that exists in the information age. He posits that the anarchy of the Internet, with its non-linear hypermedia, is a "natural proving ground for constructivism". Constructivist approaches to teaching and learning are based on the following assumptions:

• Knowledge is not transmitted and received, rather it is actively constructed by individuals through interaction with their physical and social environments. (Cognition Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1996)
• Teachers play the role of a "midwife in the birth of understanding" as opposed to being "mechanics of knowledge transfer". Their role is not to dispense knowledge but to provide students with opportunities and incentives to build it up. (von Glasersfeld, 1996)
• An awareness of the social construction of knowledge suggests a pedagogical emphasis on discussion, collaboration, negotiation, and shared meanings. (Ernest, 1995)
• The learning process is student-centered whereby students play an important role in setting the goals for learning. (Honebein, 1996)
• Rather than behaviours or skills as the goal of instruction, concept development and deep understanding are the foci. (Fosnot,1996)

Knowledge collaboration and construction, student-centered learning, shared meanings, life-long learning, learning communities, knowledge building and sharing, communication, high learner control, problem-solving, active learning and authentic activities: these are some of the important values of constructivist approaches and are facilitated by online learning environments. They are not, however, necessarily well supported by traditional learning environments (TLEs). The differences between the OLEs and TLEs arise, not only from the differences in approaches which they support, but from the fundamental characteristics of each environment as explained in the following section.