4. NETRO - THE ELECTRONIC LEARNING SPACE

4.4.3 The Path

- the journey from getting to know one another to creative knowledge construction

POLKU, in English the Path, is the main section of the module. Whereas the Bank is net-like structured and does not necessarily have a specific order or hierarchy, the Path (as its metaphorical name suggests) is linear and can be seen as a road through which the Netro passengers travel (Figure 17). It consists of eight Phases, which include various smaller assignments that the passengers are expected to complete one after another (Table 3). From the Path the passengers are directed to the Bank and the Stop, the other sections of the learning space, but it is the Path through which the passengers are seen to progress.

Figure 17. The linear Path

Table 3. The eight Phases of the Path

As the passengers travel through the Path the assignments and interaction are planned to develop in the lines of Salmon's (2000, 2002b) five-stage model of learning on-line (ch 3.3.2). The first Phases focus more on access and motivation and support group integration. Towards the end of the Path the focus of the Phases is more on collaborative knowledge building and development along the lines of Scardamalia and Bereiter's (1994, 1999) collaborative knowledge building communities (ch 3.2.1).

Each Phase is also planned to support the individual cognitive processes of directing attention, shared reflection and building metacognitive knowledge introduced in chapter 3.2.2. The passengers attention is directed to various topics on web literacy and through a set of different awareness raising activities the passengers are asked to reflect on the web and themselves as users of the web. These awareness raising activities are those of Wenden's (1998) already presented in chapter 3.2.2.

The Path through which the Netro group travels can also be regarded as a path from available designs to the Redesigned (ch 2.2.1), for the themes of the eight Phases also support the idea of web literacy as meaning making as the Path first focuses on the web content, the available designs, then moves on to more active designing, that is from producing digital pictures to collaborative writing to the redesigned. Many of the individual Phases themselves are already constructed to contain the three-level process inside them.

In practise, the passengers meet Tuomas, the virtual guide of the learning space, on the Path. Tuomas instructs the passengers and introduces the Phases and the assignments. Smaller tasks are located on the Path. There are also small icons on the Path, which direct the passengers either to the Bank to read more extensively, or to the Stop either to make notes and reflect or to communicate with the other Netro passengers.