EXPLORING THE “NEW" LEARNING LANDSCAPE: WHICH ADDED
VALUES FOR THE “NEW” LEARNERS?
Michela Ott, Francesca Pozzi
Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Genova /Italy
[email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract
The paper sketches a picture of the new learning landscape where, the “new learner” who is at the
centre of the learning process, is surrounded by a number of new or even “augmented” learning
opportunities that he can grasp if and when needed. These new opportunities are available for him
thanks to the possible interactions with and among the other elements populating the emerging
learning landscape: the “new tools”, the “new pedagogical paradigms” and the “new teachers”.
Accordingly, the new role that teachers assume in this panorama, is briefly outlined, in the conviction
that the pedagogical choices made by teachers and the overall pedagogical approach they adopt may
represent a true, concrete value to widen the learning opportunities and improve learning. At the core
of the paper the potential of ICT tools to enhance learning opportunities and boost learning
achievement is discussed, by drawing on different concrete educational experiences.
Keywords - Learning, Innovation, Pedagogy, Inclusion, Creativity.
1
INTRODUCTION
A "new learning generation" is around. The “new” students, who actually are “digital native”, make
large use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their everyday life for both leisure
and communication/social interaction purposes. This emerging situation has major potential
implications also in the field of education: on the one hand it affects the learners’ choices and attitudes
as well as their expectations and needs, on the other it also has an effect on teachers function and
role and involves significant changes in the traditional learning paradigms [1].
As a consequence, an entirely new learning landscape is emerging, where the instructional use of
digital devices, applications and services is becoming more and more widespread and where new
educational approaches are envisaged.
Starting from an all-round view of this “new” learning landscape, the present paper aims at discussing
the potential of ICT applications to concretely improve learning opportunities and boost learning
achievement. In particular it aims at answering the research question of whether they concretely offer
any added value to concretely foster and enhance learning.
In doing so, we refer to a number of experiences conducted in different educational fields which
similarly lead to think that, thanks to the extensive and well focused use of ICT, the learning process
can be significantly improved.
The experience based reflections and ideas that will be briefly discussed in the following primarily go
in the direction of supporting/improving pedagogy, by helping teachers and educators to design and
enact effective educational interventions. If, on the one hand, it is undeniable that the new learning
landscape includes wide areas where learning is the outcome of personal, spontaneous investigations
and, basically, of self-driven study activities, on the other hand, there is clear evidence that the
relevance of teacher – driven pedagogy cannot be questioned [2].
The pedagogical choices made by teachers and the overall pedagogical approach adopted represent
a concrete value to broaden the learning opportunities and foster learning; in this perspective, the
main actors in the learning panorama are both the “new learners” and the “new teachers”.
2
SKETCHING A PICTURE OF THE NEW LEARNING LANDSCAPE
The above sketched panorama entails a situation, briefly summarized in Fig.1, where the “new
learner”, at the centre of the learning process, is surrounded by a number of new learning
opportunities he can “grasp” if and when needed. Such new opportunities are available for him thanks
to the possible interactions among the “new teachers”, the “new tools” and the “new pedagogies”
(actually the new pedagogical paradigms/choices made by the new teachers by taking into account
the augmented functionalities of the new tools).
Fig.1. the “new” learning panorama
In the following, on the basis of concrete field experiences, we briefly refer to four basic new (or even
enhanced) learning opportunities that emerge as a consequence of the teachers’ openness to design
and enact new pedagogical approaches, by fully exploiting the potential of the new ICT tools.
In particular the paper focuses on four key learning improvements possibly linked to a well focused
and directed extensive use of the new ICT tools, namely the possibility of:
2.1

Achieving the learning objectives more easily and more effectively (more effective learning)

Getting a more in-depth view/knowledge of learning contents (more in-depth learning)

Using knowledge acquired, lessons learnt and available information to build up new
knowledge and produce innovation (more creative learning)

Broadening the number/categories of learners that can fully access educational contents
(more inclusive learning)
Effective learning
One of the key points to favor learning (i.e. to speed up and make the learning process more easy and
effective) is to set up educational activities so to avoid student’s cognitive overload. Indeed it is widely
recognized that cognitive overload has the effect of diminishing students’ “immersion” in learning tasks
(concentration, attention, motivation…), thus also often having the undesirable side-effect of
contrasting the achievement of the learning objectives [3, 4].
ICT tools, if well chosen and conveniently employed, can be considered suitable tools to allow the
graduation of the cognitive effort required by learning. ICT tools indeed, provide significant
opportunities to adopt a “step by step” approach to the reaching of the envisaged learning objectives.
They mostly allow different degrees of personalization and customization of the learning contents and
consequently they may also offer the possibility of “decomposing” the learning process and setting up
intermediate goals, coherent with each learner’s capability.
As an example, during a research project carried out by the authors dealing with the educational use
of mainstream mind games to support children’s reasoning abilities it emerged that increased
educational effectiveness can be achieved if the program supports the learner to gradually develop
those problem solving and logical abilities at the core of the playing activity [5].
In particular, during the field experience it was shown that the digital version of games, if compared
with the traditional paper and pencil ones (think as an example, to well known games such as Sudoku
or Mastermind or even Battleship…), offer a significant added value. They may concretely provide the
possibility of differentiating/graduating the required cognitive effort, provided that some interface
parameters are conveniently set up. Different digital version of the same game may differently serve
this scope; that’s why during the above mentioned field experience conducted by the authors, some
Open Source versions of the adopted games were improved by intervening on the code and modifying
some key functions.
As an example Fig. 2 shows the screenshot of an Open Source version of the traditional game
Mastermind (GnomerMind) which was conveniently customized by the research team so to amplify the
possibility of graduating the cognitive effort required to reach the solution.
Fig.2. Screenshot from GnomerMind
The goal of GnomerMind/Mastermind is to guess a sequence of colored squares that the computer
has selected at random. The players make “guesses” by filling the holes starting from the bottom row
of the right-hand column (see Fig. 2) with colored squares chosen from the “palette”. Each time a row
is completed, the program gives feedback on the attempt in the left-hand column: a black small square
means that the player has correctly positioned a peg of the right color, while a white one means that a
square of the right color has been chosen but is not in the right place. The feedback provided by the
very majority of the digital versions of this program do not reveal which individual square
colors/positions are correct within each attempt, the players have to figure this out for themselves. The
above shown version of the game, instead, by going in the direction of better supporting users’
cognitive activity, provides users with the option of having the program automatically display, after
each attempt, exactly which of the individual choices made are correct. Correct squares are also
automatically placed in the next row before the player makes another attempt, a feature which
definitely sustains working memory. During the experience it was noted that this particular digital
version of the game, which, actually, offers the possibility of determining the type of feedback
available, represents a major opportunity to enact a finer control of the cognitive effort required, thus
also better supporting the acquisition of the required abilities.
In addition, during the experience, it was also noted that digital tools frequently have further features
potentially going in the direction of supporting/reducing the cognitive effort. Most digital games,
indeed, offer the opportunity of setting up parameters so to avoid, if needed, elements potentially
interfering with the main cognitive tasks (such as stressing time–lines or distracting fast moving
elements…); it also happens that some digital version of standard games provide students with the
possibility of getting appropriate/customized hints expressly conceived to support cognitive effort.
Data resulting from the comparison of students’ performance [6] showed that well structured and longterm activities based on the use of carefully selected digital games can have a positive impact on
students’ reasoning abilities (which in the mentioned experience was exactly the educational objective
to be met).
Thus, on the basis of the experience, we can tentatively affirm that a carefully planned and well
focused use of selected digital tools (digital games in this case) may result in a significant
improvement in the effectiveness of the entailed learning process.
2.2
In-depth learning
In order to address the second new or augmented “opportunity” (namely that of carrying out more indepth learning experiences) we refer to the authors’ experience in the field of Cultural Heritage
Education [7]. If we refer, for example, to the field of arts and architecture we see that ICT offers an
easier access and the possibility of acquiring a multi-perspective, in-depth view/knowledge of each
Cultural Heritage artifact.
Digital technologies offer the opportunity to look at cultural heritage artifacts as a whole and also to
observe their minor aspects in detail; images are no more exclusively bi-dimensional: the study of
single elements and a wide variety of zoom possibilities are allowed.
Fig.3. Different viewpoints and details of St. Peter’s dome
The above picture (Fig. 3) shows that ICT allows an in-depth vision/study of St Peter’s dome both from
different perspectives and at different levels of detail; this possibility appears to be far more important
for learning/study purposes if we also consider that some of these details, such as the cross at the top
of the dome, are hardly visible to the naked eye.
The key role of ICT to support detailed and thus in-depth study of cultural heritage emerges even
more clearly if we consider that the artifacts representation becomes dynamic and interactive: it is the
user herself who can directly choose the dimension, the level of detail and also the viewpoint to
access each single artifact. The three view St. Peter’s dome reported as an example in Fig.3, for
instance, are not a pre-determined representation of the dome (as the ones you may find by looking at
a book), but rather they are the result of a search on the web, carried out by a reader who wanted to
focus on the different perspectives/details of the dome.
But what exactly do we mean with “in-depth” learning? Certainly this concept should not be considered
as limited to the possibility of carrying out the “study of details” but also involves other significant
aspects such as, for instance, the possibility of:

Studying each artifact within the wider context where it lives or has been created / inserted;
the study of the physical context where an artifact is located appears to be vital to understand
both its nature and historical function. Any architectural object can be viewed both in its
current and in its original context which was virtually reconstructed thanks to ICT –based
special techniques, on the basis of objective data [8].
This double edged view amplifies the possibility of gaining a thorough insight in the object
(whatever it may be) and of studying its features peculiarities in a larger dimension, offers the
chance of shifting from looking at each object as a single, isolated element, to viewing it as
part of a wider, more global context.

making easy, conceptual correlations among different artifacts, historical periods, different
regions
Fig. 4 Four Roman amphitheatres Coliseum -Rome, El-Jem-Tunisia, Pula- Croatia, ArenaVerona
As an example, figure 4 shows four different ancient amphitheatres of the roman period: the
Coliseum in Rome, El-Jem-Tunisia, the amphitheatre in Pula - Croatia, the Arena-Verona. The
availability of these artifacts in digital form allows both a more in-depth study of the historical
period at hand and the comparison among the main features characteristics of this kind of
building.
This new opportunity of looking at each artifact within a broader network of historical, sociocultural, economical and geographical links, on the one hand, allows a better understanding
and interpretation of Cultural Heritage and, on the other, favors an inter/ cross/multidisciplinary
approach to the study of heritage artifacts by leaving aside the subject oriented approach,
adopted by the very majority of European educational systems. In this perspective we can say
that ICT also offers to Cultural Heritage education a new, interdisciplinary dimension.
As we have it was exemplified by referring to the field of Cultural Heritage education, we can say that
basically ICT may help to acquire a more in depth knowledge even in other areas. It offers the
possibility of studying object and topics at a level of detail and completeness that would have been
even hard to imagine before its advent; in addition, links and connections among different study
objects are also fostered at a greater extent, and this has the effect of both allowing a more panoramic
view of arguments and of stimulating genuinely interdisciplinary learning.
2.3
Creative learning
Creativity is one of the core values of the modern society, in that it can be considered as the
“passport” for innovation, the key to produce those changes that, hopefully, will significantly enhance
future life and welfare. The year 2009 has been declared “European Year of Creativity and
Innovation”. The decision taken by the European Parliament and the Council is based on the
conviction that “Europe needs innovation, and learning systems which inspire innovation” and that
creativity should be looked at “as a driver for innovation and as a key factor for the development of
personal, occupational, entrepreneurial and social competences”.
Thinking in terms of education, creativity should be regarded as one of the fundamental objectives to
be met [9]. Since evidence has been provided that there are techniques helpful to teach and/or
enhance creativity [10, 11] today there is a wide consensus among researchers that the new learning
generations should be encouraged to exploit their creative potential, and, if possible, they should be
trained to be creative.
In this framework, the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools as potential
catalyst for creativity and innovation is recognized by the very majority of researchers who, from
different viewpoints, agree that ICT may play a significant role in developing or fostering students’
creativity [12, 13, 14]; in this perspective, research on creativity, after being exclusive patrimony of the
field of Psychology and Educational Psychology, is now becoming a key issue also in the field of
Educational Technology.
A number of different ICT tools are presently used by teachers with the aim of supporting creativity:
the wide range of different tools used actually basically depends on the underpinning idea of creativity.
Most teachers basically think in terms of “creative products” (that is they believe that students’
creativity only emerges from concrete, tangible products/actions), they mainly aim at enhancing this
“product-centered creativity” as the main form of creative expression they see. In this direction their
prevailing educational method is that of letting creativity emerge and stimulating free, personal
expression. These teachers provide students with those digital tools they may use to “create” or “build
up artifacts” of different kinds; the activities they propose are usually based on editing software, by
means of which students may create and edit texts, images, music, pictures, etc. (Fig. 5). A new term
“Digital Creativity” has also been created to express the idea that digital tools can be used to augment
our existing creative capabilities. In this view, digital tools such as video-editing, sound production and
image manipulation, desktop and web publishing tools are not simply a ‘better set of pencils’ but are
powerful new technologies that may enable us to express our creativity by doing completely different
things with respect to those of previous generations.
Figure 5. Screenshots from two software products aimed at supporting painting and music editing.
But creativity is not only related to products: recent research defines creativity mainly as a process
[15] which is considered as independent from the observable outcomes; in this perspective, creativity
may well be regarded as resulting from the “refinement and application of existing paradigms” or from
the “unusual juxtaposition of current but previously unrelated facts and ideas” [16]. In this view,
students should be encouraged to carry out a number of “process-centered” educational activities
aimed at elaborating previous knowledge, identifying associations, discovering correlations,
recognizing and evaluating opportunities; it is important to promote their access to different sources of
information, to support the comparison and evaluation of multiple elements (even through
collaboration among pairs) as well as to orient them to use non-traditional working methods and/or
adopt problem solving approaches. ICT and network based tools are key means at these ends and, in
this direction, a number of different activities can be proposed such as: net-based cooperative learning
activities, activities based on the use of educational software, or even, for instance, inquiry learning,
internet–centered information problem solving, games based learning...
In these days we also assist to significant attempts to design and build up ICT enhanced educational
systems expressly devoted to supporting creativity in learning contexts: as an example, innovative
“context awareness” techniques are used for supporting creativity development in the framework of
specific learning experiences [17]
As a matter of fact, the proactive role of ICT with respect to creativity development is currently
recognized by the very majority of researchers in the field, despite the specific idea and the concept
one may have about the actual definition of creativity and in this direction, also a few specific
experiences conducted by the authors [18] showed that creativity was significantly enhanced thanks to
learning activities carried out in TEL environments, although it also emerged that teachers’ different
pedagogical approaches may differently support the development of creativity.
2.4
Inclusive learning
E-inclusion is becoming one of the target objectives to be achieved by today’s society. The concept of
e-inclusion is linked to the idea that full access to ICT may contribute to overcome social and
economic disadvantages and exclusion, thus also enabling and facilitating the full integration of “all
people” in today’s society [19].
In this panorama e-inclusion is rapidly becoming a keyword also in the field of education, where
significant research studies are carried out with the aim of exploiting the potential that Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) offers to avoid any kind of discrimination among students.
There are grounds for affirming that ICT helps most students overcome barriers to learning, increasing
both achievement and self esteem [20]. Indeed, educational research provides strong evidence that
“ICT is both a medium and a powerful tool in supporting inclusive practice. It provides wide-ranging
support for communication assisting many learners to engage with learning, including those who are
hard to reach; it also helps to break down some of the barriers that lead to under-achievement and
educational exclusion” [21].
First of all, ICT offers a wide range of assistive technologies that may help students while affording
educational tasks.
Taking the viewpoint of learners with low vision as an example, we see, for instance, that a dedicated
assistive technology such as the “magnifier” may significantly help them to use an educational
platform like the one represented in Fig.6.
Figure 6. Two screenshots from an educational platform showing both standard and customized
configuration
The left hand figure shows a menu in its standard configuration which actually poses a number of
different problems to visually impaired students (e.g. students with low “visus” may have problems in
reading the small characters, while students with reduced visual field or with tunnel vision may
encounter difficulties in locating iconic menus). Actually, the possibility of using the platform in
connection with a “magnifier”, as shown in the right hand of the figure, together with the availability of
appropriate customizing options (in this case objects can be moved around the screen) can be of
significant help to avoid such problems.
Besides the provision of suitable AT (Assistive Technologies), ICT also provides students with
disabilities with standard tools that per se may enhance learning possibilities.
For instance, coming back to students with low vision, we find that hand writing, for most of them is an
issue: it could be difficult for them both to read and to produce handwritten texts. The hand writing of
visually impaired people is often uncertain and confused and they tend to make a bad use of the
space available in the page; the use of a word processing software solves a lot of editing problems
(related to the formal aspect of the output page) consequently it allows the user to concentrate both on
orthography correctness and on contents suitability. As to reading, it is evident that texts shown on the
video can be read more easily by partial sighted students (even if sometimes the reading process can
be slowed down, for instance, by the lack of binocular vision…); in this way, indeed, characters can be
easily enlarged and easily positioned in different parts of the page.
In this case, ICT and word processing software, in particular, can be considered as key functional aids
that offer to visually impaired students an important “added value” with respect to other traditional
means: the use of such tools allows them to perform a lot of activities, which otherwise could be
precluded [22] and even gives them the possibility to interact with the others, thus also going in the
direction of fostering their full integration in the classroom.
3
CONCLUSIONS
We have discussed, by means of examples, the new/augmented learning possibilities that the “new”
learners may have at their own disposal in the “new” learning landscape. Keeping in mind that
educational change is an on-going, long-lasting process that needs to be pursued with determination,
despite the significant challenges it poses, we see that the “new” technological tools play a major role
at these ends and are widely recognized as having high potential for fostering and increasing the
learning possibilities. The adoption of the “new” tools, in turn, calls for radical changes and
modifications in educational contents, approaches, structures and strategies: in one word it also
requires the enactment of “new pedagogies”.
As a consequence, in this new panorama, specific attention should be given to educational methods:
in almost all formal educational contexts ICT tools do not make the difference per se, simply by being
used: rather, what is likely to produce effective and significant changes on the whole educational
process is the pedagogical idea underpinning the learning activities to be enacted [23]:.
Teachers, actually the “new” teachers, play a key role at these ends. Innovation cannot cross the
school’s threshold without their deep and convinced involvement and the educational effectiveness of
any technological means mainly depends on the choices they make: ICT tools needs to be carefully
chosen and their use needs to be appropriately planned and conceptually well integrated in
mainstream activities.
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