Situated

learning and
Technology
By:
Alejandra Alvarez O.
Jos Carlos Cifuentes H.

What is Situated
Learning?

Situated learning is an instructional

approach developed by Jean Lave and
Etienne Wenger in the early 1990s, and
follows the work of Dewey, Vygotsky, and
others who claim that students are more
inclined to learn by actively participating
in the learning experience.

Lave and Wenger assert that situated

learning "is not an educational form, much
less a pedagogical strategy.

Examples of situated
learning activities:

Field trips where students actively participate in

an unfamiliar environment.

Cooperative education and internship

experiences in which students are immersed
and physically active in an actual work
environment.

examples of situated learning

activities:

Music and sports (physical education) practice

which replicate actual setting of these events,
e.g., orchestras, studios, training facilities

Laboratories are used as classrooms in which

students are involved in activities which
replicate actual work settings These examples
illustrate that students are actively involved in
addressing real world problems.

Traditional vs Situated

Traditional learning occurs from abstract, out of

context experiences such as lectures and books.
Situated learning, on the other hand, suggests
that learning takes place through the
relationships between people and connecting
prior knowledge with authentic, informal, and
often unintended contextual learning.

Situated learning involves students in

cooperative activities where they are
challenged to use their critical
thinking and kinesthetic abilities.

These activities should be applicable

and transferable to students homes,
communities, and workplaces .

The learning Environment

will
Provide

authentic context that reflect

the way the knowledge will be used in
real-life.
Provide authentic activities.
Provide access to expert
performances and the modelling of
processes.
Provide multiple roles and perspective.
Support collaborative construction of
knowledge.

Provide coaching and scaffolding at

critical times.
Promote reflection to enable
abstractions to be formed.
Promote articulation to enable tacit
knowledge to be made explicit.
Provide for integrated assessment
of learning within the tasks.

How to include it in the

classroom

Select situations that will engage the learners in

complex, realistic, problem-centered activities.

Provide a scaffold for new learners, knowing the

type and intensity of guidance necessary to help
learners master the situations.

 Teacher

turns from transmitter to facilitator

of learning by tracking progress, assessing
products produced by learners, building
collaborative learning environments,
encouraging reflection.
Assess students through discussion,
reflection, evaluation, and validation of the
communitys perspective

Examples of Situated
Learning and Technology

The act of writing in a Weblog, or

blogging can go a long way toward
teaching skills such as research,
organizations and the synthesis of
ideas.

 Social

networks like Facebook, Twitter

allow learners, once they move beyond
the personal connections, to embrace a
community where they can learn from
each other.

 Students

are able to mimic what they

see and hear which enables them to
retain information for the long term.
Through visualizations of different
types of computer applications; the
students knowledge is defined by the
social process of interacting and doing.

 It

allows the students to learn naturally

as a result of social behavior. The
computer application acts as a guide
while the students learn naturally from
their own experience. As always,
situated learning accelerates a student
learning process and ability.

Summarizing .

Conclusion
Situated Learning approach focusses on
developing skills that will be helpful for
learners in a real context, students need
to engage and create products, all this
through collaborative work, research,
hands on activities and experience.

Thank You
Jos Carlos Cifuentes H.
Alejandra Alvarez O.