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Editor's Notes

• #4: The Ecology of Resources model maps out the different types of element that might offer interactive possibilities for a particular learner and it considers the interactions that can exist between these element types. The model has the learner at its centre. One of the categories of element that the learner needs to interact with is the concepts that make up the knowledge and skills that are the subject of the learning. This is represented by the ‘Knowledge’ label, but it is important to stress that this label encompasses skills, as well as knowledge of scientific concepts,. A second category is that represented by the ‘Resources’ label. These are all the various resources that might help the learner to learn and include books, pens and paper, technology and other people, some of whom know more about the Knowledge or skill to be learnt than the learner. The last category of context element is that represented by the ‘Environment’ label. This is the location and surrounding environment with which the learner interacts. This might be a school classroom, a park or a place of work. In many instances a relationship already exists between these three types of contextual element: Knowledge (and skills), Resources (human and artefact) and Environment. Hence the categories of element surrounding the learner and with which they interact are joined together. In order to support learning the relationships between the different type of element with which the learner interacts need to be understood and can be used to build coherence into the interactions experienced by the learner. However, a learner’s interactions with the elements of that make up her context are often filtered by the actions of others rather than experienced directly by the learner. For example, the Knowledge or skills that are to be learnt are usually filtered through some kind of organisation or Curriculum, for example, that has been the subject of a process of validation by other members of the learner’s society. This filter is stronger for subjects such as maths and other formal educational disciplines than for more grounded skills such as motor mechanics. However, even with skills based subjects there is still, to some extent at least, formalisation of what is recognised as the accepted view about the nature and components of the skill that need to be mastered. The Resources that may be available to the learner are also administered in some way. This resource administration forms a filter in terms of a learners’ access to at least some of the resources that might be available to help her learn. Finally, a learner’s access to the Environment is mediated by that Environment’s organisation. As in the case of Knowledge, this organisation filter is more obvious in formal settings such as schools where timetables and regulations have a strong influence on the ways in which learners interact with their environment. In the same way that there may already exist relationships between the different context elements, there may also exist a relationship between these filter elements. For example, the organization of the numeracy curriculum in the Homework project example influenced the teacher’s choice of resource for her lesson plan and the nature of the technology that was to be used by learners: the interactive whiteboard or the tablet PC. The layout of the classroom was also influenced by the nature of the resources being used, a floor space near the interactive whiteboard large enough to seat the whole class. These relationships are illustrated through the connections between the Filters. Once again, the coherence of the learner’s experience can be enhanced through careful consideration of the existing relationships between the Filters and between the individual Context Elements and their associated Filters. Relationships in the Ecology of ResourcesThe Ecology of Resources model represents the learner holistically with respect to the interactions that make up their context. The model draws attention to different categories of element and identifies the existence of filter elements to highlight where there may be perturbations, which can be both negative or positive, in the learner’s interactions. However, it is the relationships and interactions between elements and between learner and elements that are of real interest. It is therefore to these that we pay particular attention here. These relationships are complex. Each category of element and therefore each element in that category is related to each of the other elements as well as to the learner. As indicated in the early discussions of the Ecolab software context illustrated earlier the nature of the relationship represented by the arrows in the Ecology of Resources model is one of influence. One element influences a second and that second element is influenced by the first. There are also relationships and interactions between the elements that are part of the same category of element. These relationships are of four types:influences relationships as already discussedcomponent relationships in which one element is part of anothertypology relationships in which one element is a type of anothersocial relationships such as that between family members, friends or communities.
• #5: NB WIKI
• #7: NB WIKI
• #8: NB WIKI
• #9: NB WIKI