Graphics Programs Reference
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How is the social process during task per-
forming and problem solving affected by
the community members?
An example of this is using the complexities of
a virtual world like Second Life to build an ob-
ject that, when touched, poses a multiple option
type of question to a student avatar. In this very
common example, students are indeed learning,
however, it is like killing an ant with a canon ball.
It is natural and valid that when a new technology
comes along we tend to use it according to our old
beliefs and needs; nevertheless, we must make an
effort to think outside the box and find new ways
to understand the technology itself in terms of its
affordances and how to employ it. In this sense, I
believe that using the situated learning paradigm
as the theoretical base for developing educational
MUVEs is the right path to become creative.
For that reason, through the present manu-
script, two relevant issues were addressed; on the
one hand, the application of the situated learning
paradigm for teaching and learning practices was
discussed, and, on the other, the combination of
these educational ideas with the production of a
MUVE. Both are complex fields, thus the main
interest of the present paper was to clarify the area
somehow for instructional designers and teach-
ers. The path that was chosen was first to review
some of the main theoretical roots that the situated
learning paradigm has, as the ideas of the brilliant
Russian psychologist Vygotsky, which give a solid
base to much of what the discussion of human
learning as a context situated concept involves.
Also, relevant bodies of theory were reviewed
that have been very successful in the grounding
of Vygotsky's ideas like the works done around
the concept of community of practice and cogni-
tive apprenticeship. With those elements in hand
a series of instructional strategies were proposed
and some research questions were also abstracted
that can be used to validate them.
For the not so distant future, the production of
MUVEs using the situated learning paradigm still
yields very promising results. In fact, it is already
an active field of development for instructional
designers and teachers. Evidence of this is that
there are already many interesting examples of
How do the different social roles that mem-
bers take vary during the learning process?
Over time, how is the process of legiti-
mate peripheral participation created for
newcomers?
How is the students' motivation during the
learning experience?
For the Cognitive Approach
How do students acquire information,
values and behaviors of the culture of the
professional community of practice being
simulated?
How do students solve the problems pre-
sented to them in the virtual environment?
How do the resources available in the vir-
tual learning environment scaffold the stu-
dents' building of the new community of
practice?
How do students use the resources avail-
able in the virtual learning environment?
How do the teachers/assistants supervision
and feedback increase learning?
How do the reflection-in-action activities
affect learning?
How do students move from apprentices to
experts?
How do evaluation activities affect
learning?
How is the students' motivation during the
learning experience?
CONCLUSION
The present paper stems from the premise that,
in education, sometimes a new technology is
used to solve the wrong problem, that is, it is
employed to teach objectives that could be more
efficiently and effectively taught by other means.
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