CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
We
know that internet and internet are appreciated by students. Internet and field
study are also important learning tools in geography. Internet are based on the
idea that the web page for learning is made in the particular web page where
the object for learning takes place and is placed, geography thus embodies the
practice of in situ learning. (Kent et al., 1997). Boyle, (et al., 2007)
concludes for instance that internet in geography are effective in learning since
they are affective. Fuller (et al., 2006) and Scott (et al., 2006) also argues
that there is a need for rigorous research into this issue. Common arguments
used in describing the concern and the effectiveness of learning in field, in
terms of understanding of the subject is: providing first-hand experience of
the real world, whichever part of the world the students are in; skills
development (transferable and technical); and social benefits. Apart from the
social aspects, there are other experiences from geography field work that
emphasize the dynamics of groups in learning (Brown, 1999). Bringing students
into field may serve as a bridge between the popular and the academic (Smith,
2001). It is also argued here, that it may be fruitful to give some attention
to performative and non-representational aspects of internet s, as Basset (2004) does when he tries to
relate social theory and excurssion practice, especially through the practice
of walking, as a form of movement through the city with aesthetic and critical
potential. Walking is a practice that allows questions being asked in between
practical work and theory, and allow for the transferring and putting theory
into practice (Thrift, 2008, p.22). Clark (1997) sees how this integration of
diverse theoretical approaches and the simultaneous consideration by students
of both local (often personal) details and national (or even global) aspects
plays an important role in the field trail. Savin-Badin & Van Niekerk (2007)
use narrative inquiry in field work as a reflective learning process. Marvell
(2008) reports that the in site presentations made by students helps to widen
the experience and develop a range of transferable skills, encouraging a
greater sense of place and facilitating reflective learning. Internet s, as an in situ learning and teaching
practice thus involve precognitive conditions that make up what is human, and
what is human is, at the same time, made in the making of teaching in field.
Learning in internet is in one way characterized by what Kolb (1984) defines as
assimilation; however in this case, precognitions are mixed with theoretical
understandings of a city. The result of this is that the internet is
used as means for producing accommodation of knowledge. As such, internet in
geography involve the active engagement in real world perspectives through the
presentation in role playing (Livingstone, 1999). Internet involves more than
just presentations of settings and pointing to interesting spots in a
landscape. Performing internet also involve acoustic, semantic, group dynamic,
aesthetic, political, symbolic, emotional, and verbal and gesture aspects.
There is a reason for not making any clear distinction between the teacher, the
group of people involved in the internet
and the students, because
students are given the assignment to collect information about specific places
in the city, Copenhagen, before the internet
takes place. Students in human
geography and from the teachers’ education are taken to Copenhagen every
semester, since 2003. Every group consists of 15-25 students and they prepare a
presentation in groups of two to three related to a particular place on a route
through the city. Every presentation must be related to the literature in human
and social geography, and every student produce an internet guide as part of the examination. The
students thus perform the internet by taking the role of guiding and presenting
places along a given route, to some extent similar to Burgess and Jackson,
(1992), but with the teacher as dialogue partner. In this particular situation,
the learning experiencing and the performance of internet and internet are
all juxtaposed into the practice of performing an internet , and it is therefore difficult to separate
teacher from student, or members of the group and the group itself, and even
so, the learning web page from representations, concepts and the object of
learning. The teacher thus has the role of a group member that has the option
to qualify the dialogue through questions. Internet are thus also aimed at
merging knowledge basis with the students in one shared experience, who starts
at a different point of understanding (Ellis, 1993).