E-Learning, From Theory to Practice (original) (raw)
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Chapter 1: Conceptualizing e-Learning 1
E-Learning Ecologies, 2017
This book explores a phenomenon we call "e-learning ecologies". We use this metaphor because a learning environment is in some senses like an ecosystem, consisting of the complex interaction of human, textual, discursive and spatial dynamics. These take a coherent, systemic form. Traditional classrooms, with their linear arrangement of seating and desks, their lecturing teachers, their textbooks, their student workbooks, their classroom discussions are also learning systems. Moving from one of these classrooms to another, the modes of interaction are familiar and predictable because they are so systematically patterned. After a while, they seem "normal". However, these are strange human artifacts that were not put together into this configuration until the nineteenth century. They quickly became universal and compulsory sites of socialization of massinstitutionalized education. In terms of the long arc of human history, it was not until our the time of about our great, great grandparents that we first encountered these modern educational systems. But will these institutional forms survive long into the twenty-first century? Is it time for them to be reformed? And if change is to come, what will be the role of new technologies of knowledge representation and communication in bringing about change? This book explores transformations in the patterns of pedagogy that accompany elearning, or the use of computing devices to mediate or supplement the relationships between learners and teachers, to present and assess learnable content, to provide spaces where students do their work, and to mediate peer-to-peer interactions. Our thesis is this: e-learning ecologies may play a key part in the largest shift in the systems of modern education since their rise to dominance in the nineteenth century. Everything may change-configurations of space, learner-to-teacher and learner-tolearner relationships, the textual forms of knowledge to which learners are exposed, the kinds of knowledge artifacts that students create, and they way their outcomes of their learning are measured. Or, we may introduce a whole lot of technology into schools, and nothing changes in institutional or epistemic senses. Technology is pedagogically neutral. So our questions of e-learning ecologies becomes these: how can they be different? And, why should they be different? About this Book This book is a collaborative work, written by the members of the "new learning" research group coordinated by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, including colleagues, postdocs and graduate students at the University of Illinois, some of whom have authored the chapters in this book. The work of the group has been in part conceptual, to create an analytical
E learning: issues of pedagogy and practice for the information age
It is evident that information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed our lives and reshaped the nature of everyday activities and contemporary times are often called the 'information age' or the 'knowledge society'. From banking to watching television, from wars to computer games, ordering groceries online and booking holidays, we employ the use of ICT to communicate and facilitate a myriad of pastimes. However, in the educational arena the advent of new technologies seems to have had a minimal impact. Indeed, there are many educators who have attempted to rethink the nature of their work and reconceptualize their curricula and pedagogies in light of the ways in which ICT can enable them to transform their practice. Yet, it is apparent that much of the education sector often seems to be in denial about the relevance of ICT and its implementation in educational contexts is tokenistic and introduced to appease stakeholders who demand access and innovation as their educational right. Clements, Nastasi and Swaminathan (1993) stated a decade ago that we were at a crossroads in terms of our use of computers in education. They noted that we could use them to reinforce existing practice or for catalysing educational innovation. This chapter is about taking the path of innovation. It is about reconceptualizing curricula and pedagogy and about transforming educational practice via the use of ICT in higher education contexts.
Re-Thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods and Practices
In the rapidly-changing world of the Internet and the Web, theory and research frequently struggle to catch up to technological developments and to the social and economic forms evolving with them. Re-thinking E-Learning Research responds to this challenge by introducing and illustrating a number of research frameworks and methodologies to study new e-learning technologies and practices. These methodologies include methods of narrative, content, genre and discourse analysis, of hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation, and also, of critical and historical inquiry. These frameworks and investigations stand as examples of a few possibilities taken from the rich palette of methodological opportunities that can begin to address the even richer and expanding subject-matter proper to e-learning. Almost every chapter in this book both describes and applies a particular "alternative" research method to a common or emerging e-learning technology, practice or phenomenon. Examples of these pairings of method and subject-matter include narrative research into the adaptation of blogs in a classroom setting, the discursive-psychological analysis of student conversations with artificially intelligent agents, a genre analysis of an online discussion, and a phenomenological study of online mathematics puzzles. Nearly every chapter in this book, then, offers a discussion of technologies familiar to a wide range of students, teachers and researchers in e-learning, and to methods that can readily be used in their investigation.
E-Learning: Emergence of the Profession
e-learning, 2011
The e-learning profession has grown leaps and bounds over the past two decades. Despite being slow to take hold, e-learning is now rapidly increasing in universities: "Today, almost all institutions of higher education offer some form of distance teaching and learning in the U.S." .
In My End is My Beginning: E-learning at the Crossroads
Indian Journal of Open Learning, 2016
The increasing popularity of e-learning does not refer to a specific educational method of instruction nor method of delivery. The design can have different meanings depending on the sophistication of the educational method employed, the resources made available, and the educator’s skills. Unfortunately the application of technology in education does not necessarily equate to effective forms of learning. The literature does not always provide clarity in defining a framework for educational technology initiatives. This paper suggests that such a taxonomy is necessary to establish distinct categories of e-learning between industrial models, bottom-up innovation and top-down institutionally-led changes.
Some Reflections on Learning and E-learning
2005
Educational technologies' designers always refer to a model, more or less explicit, of the teaching/learning process. Even when not explicit there is always an idea about how people learn behind the design of an e-learning product as there is for every other formal or informal context of learning (school, training classes, working places, etc.). At the same time there is an implicit model of the role of technology: computers can be seen essentially as a 'cognitive tool' which allows one access to a series of information and contents to isolated users or as a 'social tool' which allows one to communicate, share and negotiate competent practices, identities and meanings. In this paper we outline an analysis of the most widespread educational technologies by investigating the nature of such 'theories' that are 'behind' their design and that supports -more or less-learning social practices. Finally, we outline some principles to follow for the design of effective educational technologies following a social and situated learning theory.
A History of E-learning: Shift Happened
The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments
What is virtual reality and how do we conceptualize, create, use, and inquire into learning settings that capture the possibilities of virtual life? The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments was developed to explore Virtual Learning Environments (VLE's), and their relationships with digital, in real life and virtual worlds. Three issues are explored and used as organizers for The Handbook. First, a distinction is made between virtual learning and learning virtually. Second, since the focus is on learning, an educational framework is developed as a means of bringing coherence to the available literature. Third, learning is defined broadly as a process of knowledge creation for transforming experience to reflect different facets of "the curriculum of life". To reflect these issues The Handbook is divided into four sections: Foundations of Virtual Learning Environments; Schooling, Professional Learning and Knowledge Management; Out-of-School Learning Environments; and Challenges for Virtual Learning Environments. A variety of chapters representing different academic and professional fields are included. These chapters cover topics ranging from philosophical perspectives, historical, sociological, political and educational analyses, case studies from practical and research settings, as well as several provocative 'classics' originally published in other settings.
Journal of Special Education Technology, 17(3), 37-47.
The Internet and its applications in education and industry have significantly influenced how we teach and learn. This has all occurred as a consequence of emerging technologies and the demands for online instruction by · consumers. In the midst of this environment of rapid growth, a new form of pedagogy has emerged. Howevei; much of it is not the result of research. This paper addresses the need for a conceptual approach to researching, e-learning instructional design and the technologies employed as a basis for e-learning. A programmatic research construct is offered as a structure for building a conceptual model. Three categories of variables are considered in building the construct. They include outcome, in situ, and independent variables. The intent of the paper is to engage researchers and developers in a process of further defining the variables and translating them into research questions that might serve as guidelines in building the literature base for the pedagogy of online instruction.
E-Learning: Much More than a Matter of Technology
International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, 2013
Education benefits of e-learning have been confirmed in numerous research studies. This paper focuses on Web 2.0 technologies, various e-learning systems and discussion of student attitudes toward utilizing these Web 2.0 technologies. The paper commences by reviewing the basic concepts of e-learning, Web 2.0 technologies, various e-learning systems and their roles, and provides a rich picture of the development in the area. Aiming to better understand and contribute to the utilizing Web 2.0 technologies in an online teaching and learning environment, we have used our university's online courses as an example to identify trends, changing expectations, evolving needs, the advantages, disadvantages, issues and opportunities of using technologies in e-learning. The paper concludes with findings that although technology comprises an important element of e-learning, successful e-learning commands more than just technologies. Other elements, which include appropriately designed courses, relevant, current content, reliable and strategic teaching plans, and service/support from all levels staff are also considered essential. Our paper offers an alternative dimension to the analysis and interpretation of the role of technologies in an e-learning environment.