Creating cultures for learning, towards a new paradigm for education

grantor: University of TorontoThe challenge of educating for a knowledge society is the focus of this thesis in the context of technology and learning and how elements from both can support cultures for learning on the World Wide Web. Postman's three-staged cultural framework serves as a backdrop against which institutionalized educational practice and the learning theories that have impacted on it are charted. Similarly, instructional technology is reviewed as it has progressed to the currently popular constructivist model. The electronic learning environments that have evolved from this progression and their flexibility in integrating a diversity of learning principles is seen as a powerful tool for helping to develop the creative thinkers that will be required in the new millennium. Based on this premise a first iteration design that was implemented for a school-community project, the Health Promotion Learning Environment, is presented as one design experiment for attempting to create a culture for learning.M.A