Four spaces of network learning models

The development of information and communication technology changes how, what, who, when, where and why we learn. Unfortunately, little is known of the exact impact that these changes will bring to education. However, we are certain that many new learning and teaching styles which are called learning models in the paper will emerge to cope with the changes in the near future. The present paper describes four spaces of learning models, namely, the future-classroom, the community-based, the structural-knowledge, and the complex-problem learning models, which are specifically designed to integrate the Internet into education.¹The concepts and ideas underlying this paper are the results of numerous and prolonged discussions of a group of researchers in Taiwan under the support of a grant from the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the Republic of China. With the four spaces of learning models, the present paper may serve two functions. First, it offers a way to integrate an array of different communication technologies (e.g. handheld computer, wireless communication and the Internet) and learning theories into an integrated schema. Secondly, the paper offers a direction concerning how and what to look for in education with the Internet integrated in.