The Stairway of Learning
There was one rather detailed learning environment situated on Koru Island near to the AUT learning space. This was know as 'Rapungakore,' or the Stairway of Learning. The amount of detail that the creators had gone into (including a paua shell fascia) led me to believe that this would be a very useful space for learning.
Haere mai! Nau mai e
hoa!
Enter! Welcome
friend!
The Skill Mastery Hyperdome is a step into the future, an
environment in which students can learn, develop and practise skills that will
help them progress on their career pathways and achieve their life goals.
The Hyperdome was built for Foundation Studies (Bridging
Education) as part of the Second Life Education New Zealand Project
[http://slenz.wordpress.com/].
Foundation students who will use this build are preparing to enter
academic and/or training courses as diverse as nursing, teaching, business,
police, travel and tourism, IT, engineering, and social work. Foundation Studies provides the basic
building blocks and the scaffolding to enable students to enter and succeed in
their selected career pathway.
Acitivites provided in this build are designed to enhance
communication skills, specifically the skills needed in an interview
situation. Rapungakore ("...you
have come to the right place"), our clothing store, is part of the
Hyperdome. Here students will select
appropriate clothing for an interview.
Irrespective of their ultimate career goal all students will
need to develop interview skills and strategies. This environment allows students to
experience virtual interviews, to take on the roles of both interviewer and
interviewee, and to develop confidence in answering and asking questions in a
professional manner. The opportunity to
rehearse variations of the interview scenario will lead to further
enlightenment through reflective evaluation and deliberation on their own
behaviour in action.
So, welcome to our virtual space. Please feel free to explore at your leisure.
The Skill Mastery Hyperdome...
kia pūpuri koe i ngā aho mātauranga hei rāranga raupapa
whaihua
where you can grasp the threads of knowledge and weave a
pattern of progress and achievement
Unfortunately, the images and content inside this learning space left a lot to be desired. This picture shows what language teachers call "realia." As the name suggests, they should be real world examples that students can relate to. As you can see from the picture, most of the examples are made up, or they represent examples that nobody would wear. Who is going to dress like a pirate in real life, and why would students need to learn language for that?
Again, these hairstyles come out of left field. Instead of using common hairstyles that students could use, the images show bespoke hairstyles with made-up names.
The female styles section piqued my interest for a different reason. It looks like a Muslim student has attempted to make the head scarf look more fashionable for a modern woman. The head scarves are presented in a number of different styles and colours. They conform to the rules of conservative dress, but they still allow a bit of fashion and uniqueness for woman to express themselves.
What I can take away from this environment is an example of what could be done with the tools, Rather than seeing a useful and completed environment, I am left to imagine what I could do better and what I could contribute to the space.
The Stairway of Learning
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