The Recursive Knowledge Development Model for Virtual Environments - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 23

much as it is controlled by class meetings in the
physical environment. It is suggested that much
as students are provided the entire textbook in a
face to face environment, virtual environments
should be presented in their entirety (as a whole
learning experience rather than disjointed parts)
with the gradual release of knowledge authority
from teacher to student demonstrated by the course
organization. This provides a whole rather than
partial view of the virtual reality construction of
the knowledge to be explored. This also allows
students to continually view the entire construction
of the knowledge as they set about exploring the
dimensions that make up this full construction.

and learning practice. In this environment you
will find word intensive pages that are intended
for students to read and be expected to 'know' for
a later demonstration. While these learning sites
may be easy to construct, they are hardly virtual
environments that create a variety of learning
opportunities to foster knowledge development.
Their focus is Knowledge Acquisition and they
imply that knowledge authority is possessed by
the teacher or site creator and are not particularly
open to student manipulation.
As a virtual learning environment is developed
the teacher or developer of the environment must
consider the overall goals for student learning
and within each of these goals determine the
knowledge acquisition concerns, the knowledge
application activities and determine how to foster
knowledge generation through the discovery pro-
cess. Using the Knowledge Development Model
for Virtual Learning Environments, the following
strategies are suggested for each of the proposed
knowledge approaches:

Teaching Approach

Teaching approaches range from the most behav-
ioral strategy of drill and practice, through pro-
grammed instruction to constructivist strategies
that include discovery learning and scaffolded
learning activities. This model suggests that all
of these techniques are useful in the virtual learn-
ing environment. A natural use of these strategies
might begin with more behavioral strategies to
convey basic terminology and other supporting
skills and progress to constructivist teaching ap-
proaches to foster the Knowledge Application
and Knowledge Generation goals of this model.
Scaffolding of learning activities to continually
expand the student Zone of Proximal Development
(Vygotsky, 1978) should be a central focus for
continued knowledge transfer and generation. For
when new knowledge is being generated, student
ownership of knowledge is central to this new
construction of knowledge to solve new problems.

(1) Knowledge Acquisition: If the goal for a
certain learning activity is to foster knowl-
edge acquisition, drill and practice and
programmed instruction (PI) segments that
provide supporting terminology and initial
concepts to be used as building blocks for
more sophisticated learning activities should
be considered. Discovery learning may also
be employed as the context and various PI
modules may be supplied to inform this
discovery process. Tutorials, informational
web pages and databases to support student
knowledge acquisition are useful tools for
this phase of student learning.
(2) Knowledge Application: Discovery learn-
ing may also serve as the context for knowl-
edge application. Traditionally, knowledge
application tasks include laboratory work,
writing, preparing presentations and other
activities that require the student to con-
struct acquired knowledge to solve existing

VIRTUAL eNVIRONmeNTS
DeSIgNeD FOR LeARNINg:
CONSIDeRATIONS FOR PRACTICe

Most electronic learning environments seek to
replicate existing traditional classroom teaching