From everything I've so far read (and I admit to be coming from a position of relative ignorance) it would appear that e-learning is some great panacea that will change the educational landscape as we know it or is it just that I'm being hyper-sensitive to change? So does another theory (connectivism) really change the face of education? Do new technologies in practice through philosophies in practice really make a difference? Or is it much more complicated than this? What of the learners who shy away from technology and social media and those for whom technology is inaccessible? It seems to me that there is an absolute assumption that without the latest gadgetry and wizz bang technology individuals and society will be the poorer yet a significant number of learners don't access technology and some avoid it intentionally as they see it depersonalising education and superfluous to their lives. I raise these points advisably, and don't want to appear a Luddite, but I still think we have to accept that not all learners automatically embrace or practise the things that we appear to espouse when we endorse e-learning without a critical lens.
I look forward to any responses and am open to your valuable and considered opinions that may sway my present thinking.
It is interesting that research suggests millions has been spent on technology in educational institutions over the past 20 or so years and yet education remains unchanged by it. Recent developments may change this - with the advent of mobile technologies. More studies are showing that even in the poorest nations, people have access to the internet via mobile phones. Learning may be reduced to a tiny screen! You are right to question elearning through a critical lens - exactly the purpose of the paper.
ReplyDeleteIf technology isn't a tool - what is it?
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