The Evolution of Learning Theories Impact on the Development of Virtual Worlds as Learning EnvironmentsBy: John CraigBoise State UniversityAbstractEducators around the world have been integrating technology into their classroom for the last century. The earliest forms of technology in the classroom were radio clips and film strips. Thesetypes of technologies were used in a more objectivist epistimologies in which teachers were the expert of content and students were present in class to absorb content from the teacher. Over the last century learning theory has changed along side the advancement of technology. With the advent of the computer and the internet students have greater access to information to help them to learn. As more information becomes available students start to construct their own knowledge from many available sources. The internet has become more interactive over time with the introduction of information sharing programs and software. Students now have the opportunity to participate and learn in a learning community instead of independent of the world around them. The idea of Situated Cognition as a learning theory, where the most authentic learning occurs when a students can interact with many different people outside of their own classroom. The growing popularity if virtual worlds provides a place for people to meet, teach, and learn in a virtual location where borders and timezones are not important.. Introduction The rapid growth of technology around the world is causing a paradigm shift in the way technology is changing the role of knowledge acquisition and use by educators and learners. Historically, knowledge was the end of a learning process, but as more and more information is digitized, knowledge will become a commodity to exchange. Eventually any knowledge not digitized will be lost and knowledge transfer will be based on supply and demand rules (Lankshear, 1999). As knowledge moves in this direction learners will learn knowledge acquisition skills that are more applicable to fulfilling real world needs. For this reason, the emergence of online virtual communities can enhance the community learning of today's students (Lankshear, 1999). Virtual learning communities can help students to build sociological relationships between large groups of people around the world, while allowing the student to build their own intellectual identity (Riel, 2001). In the past educators have used objectivist-teaching styles where the role of the teacher was the expert of content, which they then transfer to the students. As the way information is transferred changes with technology the role of the educator will shift to teaching students ways to navigate the technology and build their own knowledge (Lankshear, 1999). As classroom teaching changes, how are the teaching theories of educators going to change? How is the online teaching environment going to change over the next few years? How can virtual communities create better world citizens?Learning theories Educators have moved through many different phases of learning theories over the last century. When technology was based on videos and radio, teachers had a more objectivistteaching method, where students were empty vessels to be filled by educators. As technology started to advance there were more opportunities for social interactions creating more constructivist teaching approaches. Recently web 2.0 has started to make a large impact in schools and a new teaching theory must incorporate all of these previous theories into a community based learning environment. One major teaching philosophy that can accomplish thisis called Situated Cognition. the transition here is abrupt. You end with Situated Cognition and begin with Constructivism. You need to tie these two together somehow. Constructivist theory is based on the idea that the learner constructs knowledge, and not transmitted to them by the teacher who is the specialist in the content area. This theory has led to a major shift in the way that teaching takes place in the classroom. Students now take an active part in the learning process through complex and interactive activities (Prawat, 1994). In the past educators have looked at students as blank slates or sponges to soak up all the information that teachers have to offer, but it has been shown that this is not necessarily true of most students. All people, whether child or adult, have preconceived ideas about the way the world works around them. These ideas are not always correct, and if students are not given the opportunity to construct their own information about thetopic they may not change their own view of the world (Smith, 1993). For constructivism to really be successful educators can not look at learning content as individual events, but must lookat the greater complexity of the systems of information and how they interconnect with each other and society (Smith, 1993). The next progression of this learning theory is to look at constructivism in a social or learning community perspective. This idea is fostered by the learning theory of Situated Cognition. Situated Cognition is a learning theory that takes the ideas of behaviorism and information processing learning theories and combines them into a greater learning theory. The other major component to the Situated Cognition Theory is an emphasis on community-based interactions (Wilson, 2000). The best way for a student to construct knowledge is to place it in the context of a greater community and its goals and values (Wilson, 2000). A good example of how this works is to look at languages and how we use them to communicate. An individual may learn the definition to one or even ten separate words, but if the rest of the sentence, or context, is not known there can not be any substantial communication. So in a learning community if you are not familiar with the greater context of that community there cannot be relevant learning taking place (Brown, 1989). Individuals will conscientiously or unconscientiously pick up the inherent characteristics of a new community and act accordingly to become part of the new surroundings (Brown, 1989). As learning theories have evolved over the past century, so has the way technology has been used to implement these theories.Implementation of Technology into learning theories Radio and filmstrips were first introduced into educational classrooms in the first half of the century. These types of