Appendix 1: Building an effective learning environment
A.1 Integrating design principles within a rich learning environment
Chapters 1 to 12 provide a set of guidelines for teaching in a digital age. These guidelines though will not operate in a vacuum. Both teachers and learners are faced with a rapidly changing world, with new technology, new teaching approaches and external pressures from government, employers, parents, and the media. It is easy to be tossed around in such a stormy environment.
This appendix then attempts to place these guidelines within a pragmatic set of conditions, what I term an effective learning environment, to provide a stable but flexible context within which the guidelines outlined in this book can be applied. I have chosen to put this in as an appendix, as it essentially draws on content set out in the rest of the book, but for the guidelines to be effective, they need to be applied within a rich and coherent learning environment.