Teaching by example, learning by design

Three recent technologies in three learning contexts

Abstract

A strategy sometimes used by educators who are teaching other education professionals is to teach by example, using a tool to build an exemplar application or website, and, in so doing, lead the learners through a series of procedural steps that will achieve stated educational objectives and provide an application that can be modified by learners for their own teaching needs. The purpose of using this approach is therefore twofold; to provide an authentic context for learning, and to demonstrate use of the tool to construct an example that can be re-purposed for other educational uses, sometimes in completely different disciplines.

This poster presentation looks at three freely available technologies that can support diverse areas of study:

• Celestia version 1.5.1, a free stand-alone open-source, three-dimensional space simulator
• Google Earth release 4.3, a free web-based geographic simulator with time-based display, and
• YouTube Video, a web-based video display technology that can provide online tutorial resources with rich dynamic content.