To me Visual Knowledge Building is a form of active learning by using different types of Visual Communication. Visual Communication is described as “the communication of ideas through the visual display of information”. Primarily Visual Communication is associated with two dimensional images. It includes: art signs, photography, typography, drawing fundamentals, color and electronic resources. It’s about combining words and visuals for creating effective message meanings, that the receiver can decode.

One of these forms of active learning is e-learning. E-Learning is defined as the use of multimedia technologies and the internet to improve the quality of learning. It can improve the quality of learning but there’s a lack of physical human interaction. I think that it’s necessary to have a form of physical interaction to create structure and e-learning alone can’t provide that.

As Prensky stresses, there are digital immigrants and digital natives. To the digital immigrants technology is a foe. The digital natives see technology as a friend. Teachers can be seen as digital immigrants, students as digital natives. Teachers are used to see there pupils in person, while students prefer to be online. The learning systems should adapt to this. That’s why I think that blended learning is going to be popular in the future because this is a combination of virtual and physical resources.

Blended learning is the combination of multiple approaches to learning, combining technology-based materials (as e-learning) and face-to-face sessions. In this way the teachers are still able to see their class in person. And the students can learn online in their own time like they prefer. Through this online learning it’s possible for the students to share their knowledge with an old network or they can expand their network by sharing. This is called connectivism.

Connectivism means that we are able to learn more and more than our current state of knowing through connections. Learning and knowing are constant, ongoing processes that never end. The digital natives are more into connectivism and they share and find their knowledge online, through forums and other multimedia technologies. This is how they expand their network. Digital immigrants on the other hand are limited and they’re sticking to their own safe network. The digital natives are therefore constructivists.

Constructivism stresses the dynamic learning process of discovering and coproducing or designing your own learning. This works through production of own ‘material’ and encourages by interactions with others (forums, weblogs). All of these activities are supported and made possible by ICT and blended learning. This is also a form of active learning. It is learning from other peoples’ experiences and visions, like we did in the Visual Knowledge Building minor. This was a social constructivist approach.

In the social constructivist approach the instructors step into the role of facilitators who “ask” and they’re not the teachers who “tell”. In this approach we as students should actively construct knowledge ourselves with the help of such a facilitator. We need to ‘discover’ principles, concepts and facts through interaction with other students and through our environment. This was a new way of learning for me and throughout this minor I found out what my place in this digital age is.

My place is in between digital natives and digital immigrants. I’m part digital native because I don’t like the conventional speed, that’s too slow for me. I’m also more into graphics than into text. I can remember things better when I watch or practice theory in stead of reading it from a book or manual. I also use a lot of new technological developments and I see their benefits. In this way technology is my friend.

I’m part digital immigrant because I’m not into sharing experiences and knowledge online. I count on my own opinion and experiences. I don’t really care about a strangers experience on a forum, I’ll find out for myself. I’ll stick to my own safe network or I’ll ask people who are specialized. So I’m not a connectivist. I also realized that I prefer to create knowledge by theory that is given. Designing my “own” learning online isn’t my style. I need structure and face-to-face learning can give me that. That’s why I’m not constructivistic.