[quoting Hannafin, 27 May 96] I have not resolved, in my own mind, how much distilling is possible or useful in open learning design. I am reasonably sure that a highly customized model for designing a particular instance of an open learning system is likely to be better at reflecting the specific emphases and nuances of that approach than a broad, generic model.
Can you please clarify what you mean by a "particular instance" of an open learning system? Would it be an OELE based on the particular needs of the learners and other contextual influences of the learning environment, or is it an instance in the pedagogical sense? If it is the former then I agree with you that a customized model would serve the purpose of insuring the effectiveness of the specific strategies of an open learning system, but if it is the latter (and I define that as customizing or distilling the pedagogical strategies of all new methodologies that lead to an open learning system such as problem-based learning, situated learning, microworlds, simulations, cognitive flexibility hypertexts, etc.), then I am not sure how effective that will be since each of those pedagogues has specific strategies that one can follow to implement them when designing the "particular instance" of the learning environment.
I doubt that all aspects of all open learning models are mutually exclusive of one another. Quite the contrary, I suspect that there is some conceptual and even procedural overlap among many approaches...
Do you think that the conceptual overlap among these approaches might fall under the general heading of contructivism? Or perhaps this is too broad of a paradigm and we need to distill the concepts further in order to achieve the economy of scale that you refer to in your message?
[quoting Dalgarno, 28 May 96] It seems that the term OELE covers quite a broad range of approaches. I think it would be useful to list some of the "host of other more open learning approaches." I can think of a few, but I'd like to hear Michael's views.
In the light of this message, do you consider PBL (problem-based learning), situated learning, Cognitive Flexibility Hypertexts, and Microworlds as OELE environments?