Who’s in Charge?—Dealing with the Self-regulation Dilemma in Digital Learning Environments

Abstract

We are now facing an ever-increasing amount of knowledge, which is becoming obsolete at an ever-faster rate. This requires us to select from this virtually infinite amount of digital information and decide what to consume and when. Fast evolving technological innovations facilitate guidance and assistance during the learning processes. Sensors emerging from novel devices such as face-readers, eye-trackers and wearables are promising to help learners to show and develop appropriate learning behaviour, strategies or processes. Such technological opportunities may deliver more accurate data for decision-making than students can access through their own self-perception. These developments lead to further questions: Who makes the better decisions about the right learning process and material -the learner or an intelligent system? Does the learner benefit from free choice or is he/she distracted and overburdened by too much freedom of decision? The dilemma of how much self-regulation (control) should be left to the learner is discussed here and different approaches from formal and informal learning environments are presented.