A learning ecology perspective for the internet

Abstract

The Internet is a powerful phenomenon that is radically transforming much of our economy, politics, culture, education, business and social processes, and almost everything else. In order to make sense of such a phenomenon, researchers have applied the ecology metaphor to information production and consumption on the Internet. In the education and training arena, some authors and researchers have also applied the ecology metaphor to viewing learning on the Internet (Brown, 1999). The Internet is seen as a powerful medium for creating and supporting a learning ecology. In th1s art1cle, we explore the notion of a learning ecology on the Internet by looking at the dimensions of diverse participation, information production and consumption, representations, and experiences. We hope that such a discussion will be useful in framing some of the educational technology problems and solutions on the Internet as well as deriving implications for designing tools and learning activity structures for online learning.