Wednesday, June 8, 2011

eQuestioning eLearning

The Polytechnic is embarking on the development of an 'eLearning Strategy' - but what do we mean by 'e' Learning?

Some point out that eLearning is really about learning - which already has e integrated into learning - as it should.

Is e-learning still conceptually the same as e-mail - electronic-mail from the 70s? What is electronic learning?

Should we be developing a 'Digital Technologies and Services Learning Strategy'? Apart from being a mouthful does the term invite us to envision learning for the 2nd decade of the 21st Century?

Derek Wenmoth in eLearnings: Implementing a National Strategy for ICT in Education, 1998-2010 describes recent moves conceptually from connected eLearning to networked Virtual Learning and the development of the 'networked school'.

The Polytechnic also has a focus on a virtual campus and blended online and face-to-face learning.

Would a 'Networked Learning Strategy' be more appropriate than an 'eLearning Strategy'?
Conceptually networked learning appears to have broader connotations:
  • face-to-face and online networking
  • personal and professional learning networks
  • learning communities and communities of practice
  • national broadband networking of homes, workplaces, community centres with campuses
  • connecting the physical, the virtual and the mobile
  • networked cloud computing
It could also refer to how such a strategy should be developed - collaboratively - even co-constructively. Perhaps it could even be massively openly collaborative (following Jane McGonigal's discussion in Reality is Broken).

Or is that a bridge too far? Everyone has just got used to eLearning :-)

No comments: