Learning in the first-person

An initial investigation

Abstract

In Australia, as in most other developed countries, the days of the didactic teaching practices of yesteryear are disappearing, being replaced by immersive and engaging pedagogies. Underpinning these pedagogies is a shift towards the acceptance that learning in an authentic manner results in a positive learning experience resulting in deeper learning. Together with the ever-changing digital technologies is the interplay they have with pedagogy.

This paper reports on a work-in-progress study investigating the hypothesis that learning in the first-person, in an experiential learning context, results in deep learning. The first stage of the study investigates the development of learning content presented in a first-person view on mobile phone. Nurse educators participated in the development of a prototype learning object of an intricate task that is best learnt if the learner sees what the nurse sees, and is available when they need it. Preliminary findings show that content choice, situation and environment for the creation of the task are critical to the using a first-person view in the development of content to be viewed in the first-person.