I’m finding this discussion apt in this present time whereby upon finishing a ‘Teaching Systems Review’ project at DMU last year (seems just yesterday!) which involved mapping both teaching staff and students’ lifecycle in their engagement with core teaching systems like the VLE. This review unearthed that which most of us are experiencing, a VLE system (‘beast’) which we very critically rely upon purely because we have bolted or integrated technologies to meet with changes to and introduction of new policies internally as well as external influences over time impacting teaching and learning in some key areas of assessment, learning content and collaboration. All this with a view to enable a seamless experience and be less obtrusive in an already busy staff teaching workload.
Our blended environment model is still very naturally based on face to face teaching, facilitated by technology where appropriate, I guess the question I would like to ask is how far in how we use and design such spaces based on the required course structure e.g. modular or program structure allows for further independent learning and extended collaboration online. That said we may not always see online social learning at the forefront being used in our technologies but students may be using these to support collaborative discussions out of their own making. Such spaces may allow for more free flow discussions than an instituted created one. My question is to what extent do we need to bridge physical and virtual learning environments? I think maybe here the design and ‘use of’ of the online space very much influences engagement in such a space as well as the need and desire to provide opportunities for further ‘social learning’.