What is the most important issue in e-learning? That was the question I asked this morning when I first logged on to Twitter. There are, it seems quite a lot of issues, judging from the responses I received. The majority seem to be generic and seem to affect most sectors of education. Here's a brief summary of the responses:There were some technical and design issues: Jedd Bartlett in New Zealand, says that the most important issue is to ensure availability of real broadband in the home. Alex Hardman who is in Liverpool, UK says that integrating e-learning into the mainstream (and perhaps losing the 'e' that distinguishes it) is important, a sentiment echoed by Cath Ellis (Sheffield, UK) and Robin Cox (Edinburgh, UK) who thinks that we should be designing e-learning to be as interactive as f2f learning. Pat Parslow (Reading, UK) had a lot of suggestions including: 'Reliable computer services, high SLAs. Student acceptance. Open standards. Assessment...' but thinks that it is vital to nurture students to develop their personal learning networks. Clive Shepherd (e-learning consultant in Brighton, UK) thinks that the 'important issue in e-learning is how to free itself from its dull CBT heritage.'
Teaching and learning issues were cited by several: Bjarne Slipsager (Berlin, Germany) wants to know how we can get teachers to use new technologies and experiment with them, a comment echoed by Dorothy Burt, (Auckland, New Zealand) who thinks that teacher skills are generally lacking, whilst Meredith James in Sydney, Australia, makes a simple plea: We need clean, concise e-learning materials to make it work. More words on skills from Sarah Stewart who is a health professional in Dunedin, New Zealand. She thinks that we need to address the level of computing/internet skills for all.
Mel Phillips (Leicester, UK) thinks that teachers need to understand the pedagogical changes associated with move from f2f to online, so that they can adjust their methods appropriately. Dave Sugden (Huddersfield, UK) Asher Jacobsberg (London) and Rose Heaney, (London, UK) all agree, pleading for pedagogy over technology. Dave also argues that 'e-Learning isn't necessarily online learning'. He calls for a 'common understanding of terms.' Julian Prior (Swindon, UK) made an incisive comment I'm sure many of us would agree with: We need to wrest control of e-learning from the technocrats and hand the control over to the teachers and learners. Catherine Emmett (Cardiff, UK) thinks we need to ensure that educational technologists and teachers need to work more closely together to ensure that e-learning is more learning focused.
Some general issues were also raised: Thomas Curtis in Essex, UK, thinks the main issue is a fundamental one: He wants to make e-learning relevant, 'not just a box of tricks that is thrown at education with the expectation to solve everything'. The Digital Maverick over in Rickmansworth, UK, sees e-learning changing working practices and wants to see new pay structures. Adam Read (Plymouth, UK) and Pete Whitfield (Manchester, UK) both think that institutions need to better support e-learning initiatives and there is already some discussion on Twitter that the institutional VLE and e-learning are not synonymous, although many universities and colleges work as though they are. Shelly Terrell, in Stuttgart, Germany, underlines this by arguing that e-learning tools need to go beyond simply pushing information to students, and begin to support problem solving and critical thinking. Cristina Costa (Salford, UK) made one of the most searching comments, when she suggested we should promote the idea of learning as an active process, and then ensure that e-learning provides the basis to empower the learner in that process. And Sarah Horrigan (Leicestershire, UK) thinks 'one of the most important issues in e-learning is the gap between innovators & lack of real engagement by the majority'. Sarah is supported by Natalie Lafferty (a medical educator in Iran) who also argues for better staff development to make it happen.
If you have any more comments on what you consider are the key issues in e-learning, please post them below as comments. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this important discussion.
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10 comments:
in simple terms.. without equality of access and appropriate technology it will continue to be a struggle to achieve true and valid personalisation. There are also the challenges of e safety/appropriate behavior of adults and youngsters.. this will take some time to address and requires something more than knee jerk panic solutions :-)
Thanks Steve for the chance to comment. There is only one issue, and it's nothing to do with broadband, equality of access, or appropriate technology. It's all to do with student motivation and the ability of the lecturer to keep students Encouraged (keeping on & keeping in contact), Enthused, Engaged, Empowered (with the learning to learn ethos), and Excited (remember how that feels.
The fact there are almost as many "most important issues" as responses makes me wonder 2 things:
1) that the lack of one clear common issue perhaps means there is no real issue, just separate minor concerns
2) that the lack of one clear common issue means that it is really really hard to do right because ALL of these things have to be overcome and it just varies which one trips different area up
I hope it's the first case ;-)
the other thought I had was isn't "e-learning" passé or at least innacurate in most application and blended learning is now de rigeur. I wonder if that would raise a different set of issues?
Although many of the pre-cited points are very valid, I still think that underlying all of them is pedagogy. Online, everything is amplified so good teachers, great students. Engage them or enrage them, said Prensky. Of course, this is conditional to equitable access (so true when I see our "rurality" here in high schools) and performant technologies (give 'em access to the right tools), but at the end of the day, a thoughtful, caring, good planning and open-minded teacher will drive student motivation upwards. Our teens strive for human connectedness and relationship-building milieux. By taking care of their socio-affective dimensions, they will open their cognitive minds. Catalyse this with capable activities, and tools, and expectations, and feedback, and watch 'em go!
I agree with Slime, equality of access is an issue, whilst 45% of UK households don't have internet access then "e-learning" (in a learning doesn't have to happen in a classroom sense) is only for those who can afford it. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8
there is a major problem in getting educators who have been slow getting off the mark to catch up well enough so they can see the potential, and realise they can't just plunk their old text online.
Many of them are unwilling to put in the hard yards to make up for their lack of personal experience.
They are the ones who say "how long did it take you to learn how to do that?" and make you too embarrassed to say months or years. They want ready solutions and at the same time don't want to put aside more time for an online life.
First of all, let me point out that e-learning is subject related. Discussing e-learning in general may lead to superficial discussions. Getting in depth is much more fun by the way.
E-learning should be more than exchanging presentations and videos in a learning environment, it should provide a powerful means for students to observe, experiment and examine relationships between variables (as you may have deduced, I'm a sciences and geography teacher). It should also enhance visualization and thus create a
lesser degree of abstraction. When the matter becomes less abstract, it's easier for most students to get motivated.
This way, students will become more active as well. In order to work effectively, the tasks and media should be organized in lessons with expectations clearly pointed out (I use different colours).
Let me give you an example from my lessons. When discussing agriculture in Africa, provide immersive panoramas (the ones students can drag around), videos and well described tasks, preferably linked to a map. Have your students stroll around and observe Africa virtually for about half an hour. Have them look for themselves and share their 'discoveries' if they want to (collaborative learning is the fancy word for this I believe). You need the tasks to keep the students going. Use a powerpoint to summarize what they have seen or should have seen. Your students will have a totally different learning experience then when using a fifty minutes presentation. They got involved.
Of course, some aspects of e-learning like programming, webdesign and scripting code are beyond the reach of most teachers. We need editors and/or universities to develop the software for the weblessons. They should remain adaptible to some degree.
Put simply: we need digital books with weblessons and we need them now.
Wait for recidivists to retire, get made redundant.... for universities and depts that can't move to close....
Seriously. I start to collect my USS pension this month. I have used computers in teaching since 1973 and have never been stopped, and have usually found ways of being resourced.
If you have excellence in human networking and physical resource there is no need to adopt elearning. It is an opportunity not an answer.
There is no "important issue". You do it , act reflexively and do it better.
There line between technology and pedagogy is seamless. The printing press, light bulb and the railway helped design education- you just don't notice it now - stop either fretting or being holier than thou by polishing your "pedagogy credentials" - look to your lack of technological insight.
Study a good framework _ I would suggest cultural historic activity theory - but almost any will do - after all in the 70's I started with Skinner and Systems.
Too much e-learning is presented as read this web-page then answer a multi-choice test so we can check your comprehension of the topic. It is used to speed up marking and attempts to be authorative without any form of collaboration or chance to simply ask why is this information true? Then students go off to their favourite social media site and find out that some hotshot in another country has already found a better method rendering the e-content outdated. At least that's how it is imho.
Agreeing with much of what Martin Owen says as a description of good practice. It's still necessary to explain failures though (and there have been plenty of those). I am thinking that the 'reflection' part is sometimes missing, and that's the key. There is not much hard evidence around, so you have to use your head. I am also thinking that misplaced government initiatives can seriously distort the picture. So what's to be done about those? Confront? Ignore? Engage? Anyway, not so many around now - recesssions have some benefits ;-)
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