Technology Enabled Learning Worlds

We live in a dramatically evolving knowledge society that is founded on the assumption of equal access to relevant skills and technology-dispensed knowledge. If so, then effective inclusion in society requires powerful new learning resources. In this newer social context, organisations may increasingly become learning organisations and employees may increasingly become knowledge workers. At the same time, new levels of accessibility are equally important to motivate the identification and removal of new barriers to inclusion created inadvertently by new technologies. On this basis, our purpose here is to identify and evaluate some of the key issues that are essential to the new types of learning that will be needed by knowledge workers in learning organisations. To do so, we combine expertise in cognitive science and computing science. First, we present and evaluate three different approaches to human learning supported by technology: learning resources, (technology-enhanced) learning environments and learning worlds. Second, we present and evaluate some key issues that include: the changing role of digital libraries to meet the increasing thirst for knowledge ; how can learning environments be designed and evaluated for accessibility, usability and ambient smartness ; what new assessment methods must be developed to guide the design and development of such systems ; how can new technologies such as virtual reality applications and brain computer interfaces be applied to effective human learning. We show how a simple but innovative synthesis of key disciplines such as computing science and cognitive science, can be deployed in combination with such topics as ergonomics, e-learning, pedagogy, cognitive psychology, interactive system design, neuropsychology etc to create new learning worlds that boost human learning to meet the demands of the 21st century.