Communal constructivism and networked learning: implications for pedagogy and practice

Communal constructivism attempts to move beyond social constructivism and capture specific elements of the additional value that ICT applications bring to the learning and teaching environment. Case studies of e-learning implementations at Sheffield Hallam University are used to examine whether the advent of new educational technologies such as virtual learning environments warrants a new kind of educational theory, or whether they perhaps lure teachers into affordance (Tolmie and Boyle 2000). Properties of one VLE, Blackboard, which allow certain actions to be performed and which encourage specific types of behaviour, are examined and the attributes of effective models of online communities of learners are considered.