Abstract
Building on Chap. 2’s exploration of the natures and affordances of various information-rich environments, this chapter focuses specifically on the environment offered through online platforms. It extends the earlier discussion of interactivity to position it as the basic learning affordance of this highly sophisticated information-rich environment, and it explains how interactivity underlies the capability of ICTs (information and communication technologies) to provide both logistical and conceptual advantages. Because research on the unique learning affordances of online environments is still developing, the chapter draws primarily on earlier research as well as on a strong theoretical base to suggest the inherent possibilities for learning with information available here. The chapter argues that, while many of the affordances presented in Chap. 2 apply in this environment, several key affordances and combinations of affordances that are uniquely present in ICTs hold special promise for learning today and in the future. These affordances—distributed processing and collaboration, discourse strategies and distributed processing, and collaboration and discourse strategies—offer unique avenues for learning with information in online environments.
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Neuman, D., Tecce DeCarlo, M.J., Lee, V.J., Greenwell, S., Grant, A. (2019). Information-Rich Environments: The Online World and ICTs. In: Learning in Information-Rich Environments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29410-6_3
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