El caparazon

course network supporting and informing an ever-shifting set of course episodes. This in turn suggests a pedagogy of participation rather than retention, and even suggests distributed and locally-based forms of evaluation and assessment. Future developments will focus on realizing these concepts as software or at least software prototypes. The intent of such systems is to to facilitate the conversation and interaction around episodic learning events in a distributed environment, transforming them from elements in a linear flow-based design to free-floating objects in an environment.

Consequently, in order to place games, simulations and other episodic learning events such as classes and lectures, into the context of the student’s wider life, a wider frame of reference is necessary. In this wider frame we would expect to find a wider environment of conversation and interaction with friends and associates. This wider frame situates, and plays a significant role in the selection, of episodic learning events.

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-technology-supporting-informal.html