Fully Extending the Learning Ecosystem Analogy

Abstract

The biological ecosystem is a common conceptual model used to describe the organization and interplay of elements in many systems, including learning systems. However, the analogy is rarely fully extended to all components of the original biological model. This chapter fully extends the ecosystem analogy for use in describing a modern learning ecosystem, including those parallels most often left absent. It also provides examples as to how extending these analogies can aid learning engineers and scholars to better understand, diagnose, and design effective learning models. Throughout, this modern learning ecosystem analogy will be applied to an online public school learning model.