From telepresence to tangible experience, process and products: Some considerations
As much as things change - they stay the
same ...
In his 1993 paper
titled
Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence,
Jonathan Steuer complained
that the notion of VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) had, in a sense been hijacked
... such that VR was being defined in terms of a particular set of
hardware, rather than being seen as a human experience.
Steuer argued that the key to defining
virtual reality in terms human experience (rather than technological
hardware) was the concept of presence ... and telepresence!
Seemingly in 2007 we are again back at Steuer's
beginning point.
- what is telepresence ... product or experience?
- what has been the impact of previous technologies on learning?
- what counts as learning?
- what is more important process or content?
- beyond shallow contructivism
- what do we mean by knowledge creation?
As Jonassen (1995) argued ... "until we reform our conceptions of learning, technologies will continue to be delivery vehicles and not tools to think with”
What are the benefits that the two YouTube 'clips' highlight re the educational use of this technology?
The term 'telepresence' was coined by Marvin Minsky (1980) in reference to teleoperation systems for remote manipulation of physical objects
... a
generally accepted definition is that telepresence describes the
experience as a sense of "being there."
(Reeves,
1991)
We have begun at last to play with digital technologies as a way of meeting the demands of the digital age, but with an approach still born of the transmission model. (Laurillard, 2002)
Television, Computers and Fingerpainting ... what's the odd thing out? (Resnick, 2002)
Dr Alan Roberts
- Transmission
- Participation
- Knowledge Creation
So which metaphor of learning is most appropriate if we are to equip students for emergent knowledge-age work practice