Opening the gates

One of my recent publications is entitled: 'E's of Access: e-Learning and Widening Participation in Education. It turns up in an edited volume on Participation and Inclusion in Education, and I was asked by the editors to write a reflective author piece at the end. I would like to share it with you:

I have been priviledged to be an eye-witness to the rapid evolution of new learning technologies over the past thiry years, and have watched as we have been ushered into the Information Age. Throughout my career I have taken on the role of change agent - it has been my job to introduce emerging digital technologies into the classroom and to train teachers to get the best out of them. It now appears that just about everything found within the classroom can be delivered or managed through digital technology. However, this has come at a price.

I was there when the first personal computers were introduced into schools, and heard some teachers express their fears about being 'replaced'. To assuage their fears I remember quoting the celebrated science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who declared 'Any teacher who can be replaced by a computer ... should be.' It hit home, and the teachers realized that computers were there to support them, not supplant them. I believe also that this was the first time I myself began clearly to appreciate that learning technologies (what we also refer to as information and communication technologies or ICTs) were merly tools to enable and facilitate learning. They are very sophisticated and powerful tools, but still tools nevertheless. I was also there when the World Wide Web was birthed, and watched as it quickly became the 'killer application' that would replace many other well-established learning resources. Now I am witnessing the deep and far-reaching impact of mobile and wireless technologies, social networking services and classroom-based technologies such as the interactive whiteboard. As I observe, I notice that professional practice, teacher roles and student experiences are all being transformed.

These changes are all-pervasive and, to many teachers, just as disconcerting as the time the first computers were introduced into the classroom. When I first entered the world of learning technologies, I knew very little, and my learning curve was steep. I felt like an outsider looking in, and worked hard to 'learn my trade'. Thirty years on, the learning curve is still rising, and I find that I have to run hard in order to keep up with the pace of the change. I am expected to, because I am an ICT specialist, an insider. This leads to a number of problems, one of which is my need to continually update myself on 'what is new'. Because I am now 'inside' I often risk losing sight of the 'big picture' as I focus on new technologies. I constantly have to remind myself that ICTs are still only tools and that the 'learning' comes before 'technology' for a very good reason. They are tools that have inherent advantages and disadvantages, and they still have the power to exclude or include. They are tools that evoke a number of emotional responses from students and staff alike, some positive and some less so.

ICTs are tools for learning and for teaching, tools that enable better communication, quicker access to resources and, ultimately, tools that have the potential to include everyone in the wonderful experience of learning something new. Although I am now an insider, I know that there are many who feel themselves to be outsiders. Whatever the 'e' stands for in e-learning, it certainly stands for 'eclectic' for there have never been so many methods of delivery available to the teacher as there are today. If there is a strap line to my chapter, it is this: as well as the power to widen participation, e-learning has the potential to marginalize some students and teachers, and it is the wise practitioner who realizes this and manages to use technology appropriately.

Wheeler, S. (2009) 'E's of Access: e-Learning and widening participation in education. In S. Gibson and J. Haynes (Eds.) Perspectives on Participation and Inclusion: Engaging Education. London: Continuum. pp 134-146.

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