My investigations of the world of eLearning have led me to realise that there are aspects which I need to clarify and understand.
1. What is eLearning?
2. What do I understand by eLearning?
3. Where do I position myself in terms of being an optimist or positive or a pessimist or negative in the debate on eLearning?
Along the way I realised I needed to redefine for myself in relation to the application of eLearning
a. ICT
b. Blended Learning
c. Theories of Behaviourism v. Cognitivism v. Constructivism
d. Pedagogy v Andragogy
I have found 2 articles in particular which have helped shape and help inform my understanding.
An Instructional model for web-based e-learning education with a blended learning process approach, a paper by F. Alonso, G. Lopez, D. Manrique and J. M Vines written for the British Journal of Education Technology and appearing in Vol 36 No2 2005, pp 217-235. (Ref 1)
A Theory for eLearning, a pre-and post discussion paper prepared by Mark Nichols in New Zealand and published in the periodical Educational Technology & Society, 6(2), pp1-10 (Ref 2)
1. eLearning has variously been described as "the use of new multimedia technologies and the internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services, as well as remote exchange and collaboration" (Ref 1 as quoted from EC) or "the use of various technological tools that are either Web-based, Web-distributed or web-capable for the purposes of education." ( Ref 2). eLearning incorporates ICL i.e Informational and Communication Technologies and so can include specific purpose learning tools and technology such as streaming video/audio, online or web-based training and learning or interactive whiteboards; or communication tools such as social networking sites.
2. eLearning is a shift in the concept of teaching and learning. Face to face teaching involved the imparting of the teacher's knowledge to the learner, whether in fact the learner wants to know it, and often in a didactic manner. This is a pedagogical paradigm, (pedagogy meaning 'leading children') and so implies that the process of learning is predominantly teacher directed. Pedagogy has however come to refer to principles or theories that relate to the science or methodology of learning. By contrast, 'andgragogy' was the term used for the process of teaching and learning for adults and implied a much wider sense of involvement from the learner, including the ability to have input about what, why, how and even when they learn. The 2 are almost interchangeable for child or adult, implying a blended or constructivist approach to learning.
Constructivism is the theory of learning that says people construct their own understanding and knowledge through experiencing things and then reflecting on them, and then learning more from the reflections. It espouses the notion that we are active creators of our own knowledge. This is in contrast with either the Behaviourist (Skinner) theory with its conditioning, and the Cognitive theory of learning through internal mental mechanisms.
Clearly, eLearning is built on a Constructivist theory, even though a pedagogical, or andragogical, theory for eLearning is still very much in its infancy. "..unfortunately the use of technology in education has tended to be technology-led rather than theory-led (Ravenscroft, 2001)" (Ref 2, p.1)
Mark Nichols goes on in his Discussion paper to put forward 10 'hypotheses' as he originally called them, to elicit debate on the missing theories of eLearning. The Alonso et al paper also takes the view that there is a lack of theory behind the technology revolution and proposes what it calls an ‘Instructional Model’ to “..enable learners to apply the concepts learned and evaluate the results”. (Ref 1, p6)
3. Currently I am sitting very firmly on the fence in regards to being an optimist or a pessimist for eLearning. I found the Nichols paper guided my thinking about what is behind the ‘learning’ in eLearning. It consolidated previous study and practical experiences about the nature of learning with a springboard for understanding how that will apply to ICT. The Alonso et al paper proposes how that learning takes place, and could be viewed as a Blended approach.
"Blended" learning could mean one of at least 3 different things - blending of modes of web-based technology; blending or combining theories of learning (i.e. behaviourism, cognitivism and cognitivisim); blending of web-based/online research or training with face to face training.
When I think of my past and present experiences of teaching and even my own learning, what has not changed is that different people do still learn in different ways. ICTs are here to stay and there can be no question that they have already had an effect on the body of knowledge available to be discovered, applied and evaluated. Understanding of What and How eLearning can be applied is lagging behind the actual application of the technology and therefore has implications for the teachers as well as the learners. In terms of the benefits for individualised learning, there is no doubt that technology and computers are a gift to educators. In Ref 1, this is referred to as 'personalised learning' but I prefer to think that personalised learning is the face to face component of a blended model, where different technologies are utilised and explored in learning discovery, but that guidance through various technologies still comes from face to face guidance.
The greatest challenges I see with eLearning are the seemingly limitless availability of information and communication, which can be overwhelming; and the lack of real pedagogical direction as to how to harness and use this limitless availability effectively. In my life, it has been a wonderful enriching learning tool on the one hand, and a major cause of distraction on another! And from watching Michael Wesch, I know I am not the only one.
Other references.
EC - European Commission, (2001). Communication from the commission to the council and the European parliament: the e-Learning action plan, Brussels, 28.3
http://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/teaching/andragogy
