LEARNINGEmbracing E-Learning

ELT7001 Assignment 2

Darren Cannell

• Should our organization embrace e-learning?

The Big Questions?

Who?

• “Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” Prensky (2001) .

Students say:• “We have learned to 'play school'. • “We study the right facts the night before the test

so we achieve a passing grade and thus become a successful student."

• “It’s not attention deficit – I’m just not listening!” • “When I go to school, I have to ‘power down’”

• Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized - much less responded to - the new ways students communicate and access information over the Internet. Levin and Arafeh (2002)

• These children have new needs, new capabilities, new capacities; they are significantly different in nature from children born before the existence of the 'wired' world Dudfield (1999)

• Students themselves are changing because of their use of and reliance on the Internet

• Students who rely on the Internet for school--who cannot conceive of not using it for their schoolwork--may ultimately force schools to change to better accommodate them.

Levin and Arafeh (2002)

• Society is ready for a change to education but the stakeholders are not so willing to let go of a system that has served us well for two plus centuries. Education needs to reflect the reality of the students living in the information age.

When?

• Change in education has never been easy or quick which is best illustrated in the following statements: (made in a PowerPoint in the Garden Valley School Division, 2006).

• "Students today depend on paper too much. They don't know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper" (Principal Association Conference, 1915)?

• "Students today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education" (The Rural American Teacher, 1928).

• “Students today depend on these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib. We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury..." (Parent Teacher Association Gazette, 1941)

• "Why would you ever want the Internet for student use? It's just the latest fad - have them use the library" (District Employee, 1995).

• "What can you do with an LCD Projector that you can't do with an overhead projector" (Member of School Accountability Committee, 1999 )?

Why?

• The current approach to education has resulted in a dropout rate of nine point four percent (2005) and only twenty-eight percent of twelfth grade high school students believe that school work is meaningful. (Wirt, Choy, Gerald, Provasnik, Rooney, and Watanabe, 2002).

• Twenty one percent believe that their courses are interesting and a mere thirty-nine percent believe that school work will have any bearing on their success in later life (Wirt, Choy, Gerald, Provasnik, Rooney, and Watanabe, 2002).

What?

• E-Learning: E-Learning is the learning process created by interaction with digitally delivered content, services and support.

Imperial College London 2007

• E-learningLearning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers.

• New Zealand Government 2007

• The greatest spin-off of alternative modes of education is not that they will ultimately take over the traditional face to face education or weaken it but that they provided a revised perspective on how it is currently being done better.

There are four types of e-learning.• Informal• Self Paced• Leader-Led• Performance support tools

Broadbent 2002

Informal Learning

• Informal learning can be described as a well-designed web-site.

• “ In informal learning, a learner accesses a Web site or focused online community and finds pertinent information. This type of e-learning is not training because it does not include a formal instructional strategy consisting of a presentation of material , application exercises and feedback.”

• Broadbent 2002

Self-Paced Learning

• Self Paced learning can be described as a web-based training material which the student uses at their own pace.

• “Self-paced learning refers to the process whereby learners access computer-based or Web-based training materials at their own pace. Learner select what they wish to learn, decide when they will learn it, and set the pace they wish.”

• Broadbent 2002

Leader-Led Learning

• Leader-Led learning uses a teacher who facilitates asnychronous or synchronous online discussions

• “Unlike self-paced leader led e-learning always involves an instructor, coach, or facilitator. There are two basic forms: learners access real-time materials or (2) learner access delayed materials through threaded discussions or streamed audio or video.” Broadbent 2002

Performance Support Tools Learning

• Performance support tools learning can be described as online material which help a user complete a task.

• “Performance Support Tools is our fourth e-learning type. This is an umbrella term for online materials that learners access to gain help in performing a task, normally in software. Performance support tools normally lead the user through the steps required to perform a task.” Broadbent 2002

How?

• ‘Digital Immigrant’ teachers can continue to think that it is possible with a dated system of education to compete within the four walls of our face to face school with the information age which is a reality to the “Digital Natives”.

• An information age with connected students having instant information, communication, multimedia and entertainment and social networking tools is a new era that no teacher can realistically compete with using the current education approaches.

• In the past, technology has been used as a supplement to education. As teachers get more comfortable with technology it becomes a support for education but until it becomes integrated with education we will not be preparing the students for the world in which they live.

• We need to connect to our students and connect them to their world.

• Using one or all of the types of E-learning can do this.

• WE NEED TO EMBRACE E-LEARNING!

• Should our organization embrace e-learning?

• Can we afford not to...