An approach to learning by construction

Abstract

This paper proposes an innovative idea for providing affordable, sustainable, and meaningful education for students in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The authors show how a Digital Learning Environment (DLE) can play a central role in community development. The authors develop and validate an approach for introduction of an ICT education program for Higher Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS) improvement, building capacity and infrastructure in a LDC using the DLE tool. The proposed “Learning by construction” approach, as a mechanism for the effective integration of ICT in the educational process following Bloom’s Taxonomy as a general framework for learning using the DLE is described. It combines sound educational approaches such as cognitive apprenticeship and situated learning with industrial design models to create an interdisciplinary solution that potentially results in job creators, not job seekers. Since there are many infrastructure-deprived educational institutions, financially struggling students, especially in LDCs, the proposed approach is a viable way to provide systematic training in HOCS and Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for these students. The authors discuss how education itself also plays a role in the introduction of DLE. The overall learning system has not yet been extensively validated by data since there is no learning environment working accordingly. The validity of this approach and its soundness is discussed by describing an introduction plan.