Exploring Interactive WebArt:
Implications for the Design of Learner Centred Interactive Learning Environments
Lisa
Gjedde, Danish University of Education
Abstract
Interactive
art on the Internet provides educators an opportunity to study experimental
approaches to the experiential and communication potentials of the Internet.
Because interactive art is predicated upon the learner's interpretive
competences and active involvement, such studies may be of particular
interest to those researchers who assume a constructivist learning perspective.
Our experimental, laboratory case-study of three users' interactions with
three different forms of WebArt offers insight into the users' implicit
learning, their construction of meaning, and their construction of self-defined
goals. Personal goal setting in the exploration and interaction with the
material is of prime importance in self-directed learning environments.
We provide the narratives of our learners, which reflect their experiences
and the strategies they employed as they interacted with WebArt. Possible
implications for learning and for the design of interactive learning environments
are discussed.
1. Introduction
Interactive
art on the Internet or WebArt (Gjedde & Ingemann 2001a) is still in
its initial and experimental phases, just as the Internet based resources
and virtual environments for learning are still being developed. WebArt
is, by its very nature, experiential and experimental; Web artists allow
us to venture into new territories, made accessible through communication
and interaction. The interaction can be subtle or pronounced, and the
learning that occurs is often informal and unintentional, but as an educational
tool, interactive art may be important for the development of higher order
thinking skills and the furthering of multiple intelligences (Gardner
1983). Multiple intelligences include not only the logical-rational or
verbal mode of thinking measured in most formal learning settings, but
also the spatial, musical and intrapersonal intelligences.
Examining WebArt and
performing qualitative research into the user's experience may give an
expanded view of some of the otherwise unexplored learning potentials
that the new media offers through its interactivity and use of such a
wide range of expressive elements as sound, visual images, animated objects,
and hypertext.
2. Background
2.1 Pedagogy
The emerging learning paradigm focuses on different learning styles and
strategies for learning and challenges the idea that there is a uniform
way to learn or a simple transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner.
We assume that learners are actively engaged in the construction of knowledge
(Bruner 1986), that different learners have preferred learning styles
(Kolb 1984) and preferred approaches (Gardner 1993). Thus, our learning
paradigm accommodates a number of different approaches to suit individual
learners and support their preferred cognitive modes. Such differentiated
learning processes facilitate student involvement, which may, in turn,
further deep process learning (Marton and Saljö 1976, 1997), which
engages learners in an active dialogue, rather than surface process learning.
Cognitive psychologist Roger Schank (1995) has described goal setting,
question and answer dialogue, and reflexivity as fundamental to a natural
learning process. He has also pointed to the need for creating environments
for learning that are centred on the students' active participation and
on authentic tasks rather than on rote learning.
2.2 Narrative:
The Importance of Storying
Fundamental to these ideas is the concept of the personal construction
of knowledge based on the learner's previous knowledge, which includes
the stories the learner brings to the situation. A number of cognitive
psychologists (Bruner 1986, Schank 1990, Sarbin 1986) have suggested that
the learner's narratives or stories play an important part in this process
by relating new experiences and information to the context and life-world
of the learner. Through the "storying" of previous experiences,
one has a base for understanding and constructing new knowledge, thereby
making it an integral and usable part of the learner's repertoire of knowledge.
Narrative is both a way of sculpting and structuring information through expressions in different media (e.g.,sound, images and text) into readily understood forms that guide the learner's comprehension; and a cognitive mode that the learner uses to make sense out of information or experiences (Bruner 1986). By monitoring the meaning-making process through learners' narratives while observing their behaviour, we can discern some of the learning potentials, such as natural process learning and goal setting, which can occur through interaction with works of WebArt.
2.3 Setting
Goals and Learning Environments
Schank
(1995) suggests that the learner's personal goal setting is fundamental
to a natural learning process that occurs in informal situations. He also
describes the difficulties in getting learners involved in their own learning
process in formal learning situations, and emphasizes the necessity for
generating meaningful tasks to motivate learners. Together with colleagues
at the ILS (Institute for Learning Sciences), Schank has devised a range
of teaching architectures that address the need for constructing learning
environments that support qualities like implicit learning, explorative
learning, learning by reflection, and case-based learning. Although his
teaching architectures are student centred, they have, as their point
of departure, an explicit teaching perspective and are thus directed towards
instructional goals. A work of WebArt, however, with no specific instructional
goal, offers an environment for exploration that fully depends upon the
user's interpretation, goals, and experiences. This environment and its
design features are important because they can suggest what qualities
might best support a constructivist approach to learning, learning being
defined as "the process whereby knowledge is created through the
transformation of experience" (Kolb 1984, p. 38).
Included in these qualities are the following:
- Knowledge is seen as interpretative.
- Knowledge is seen as developed in a social and cultural context.
- Knowledge is brought about by active involvement and exploration.
3. The Study
3.1
Study Questions
In this
project, learners interact with three works of WebArt, each constituting
a different environment for exploration. Our study includes the following
questions.
- Does the context or design of the interactive works of art further the potential intrinsic motivation for exploration?
- Does it further a reflexive, deep-level, and interpretive approach?
- To what extent can any qualities be discerned that may have implications for the design of learning architectures and environments?
3.2 Description
The study of three users' experiences with three works of WebArt is an
experimental reception-study (Gjedde & Ingemann (2001, a & b).
We used a web page set up in a state-of-the-art usability lab, where we
video-recorded both the activity on screen and the expressions and interactivity
of the learner, using a scan-converter and video-mixer. Interviews of
learners were held during and after their WebArt sessions by two researchers
also acting as facilitators in the reflexive process of the learners as
they recounted their experiences with the artworks. These user-experiences
have been studied through the video-registrations of both their interaction
with the material and their reflections upon viewing the video of the
interaction with a facilitator after the session. The narratives told
by the participants to the facilitators, both during and after the sessions
with the interactive works of WebArt, were transcribed and analysed.
