GED 578 eLearning Wiki

 

 

 

History of eLearning Defined

 

In 1997, learning guru Elliott Masie said, "Online learning is the use of network technology to design, deliver, select, administer, and extend learning." A year later, Jay Cross wrote, "eLearning is learning on Internet Time, the convergence of learning and networks. eLearning is a vision of what corporate training can become. eLearning is to traditional training as eBusiness is to business as usual." In 1999, Cisco stated that , "eLearning is Internet-enabled learning. Components can include content elivery in multiple formats, management of the learning experience, and a networked community of learners, content developers and experts." Today eLearning has many definitions for its many uses as it is shown below. 

 

Internet-enabled learning that encompasses training, education, just-in-time information, and communication.

www.eng.wayne.edu/page.php

The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means. eLearning involves the use of a computer or electronic device to provide training, educational or learning material.

www.intelera.com/glossary.htm

is any virtual act or process used to acquire data, information, skills or knowledge. In the context of our research, eLearning is enabled learning, learning in a virtual world where technology merges with human creativity to accelerate and leverage the rapid development and application of deep ...

www.mountainquestinstitute.com/definitions.htm

Any educational content delivered in, or using, digital form.

azelearning.net/glossary/3

Electronic or digital learning on a computer

www.signals.co.uk/glossary/Searchgloss.aspx

for the purposes of this site, eLearning is equated with online learning. E-learning is an all encompassing term generally used to refer to computer-enhanced learning, although it is often extended to include the use of mobile technologies. ...

www.thewebworks.bc.ca/netpedagogy/glossary.html

 

What is eLearning

As stated in Wikipedia e-Learning is a general term used to refer to a form of learning in which the instructor and student are separated by space or time where the gap between the two is bridged through the use of online technologies.

 

 

E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of contexts. In companies it is referred to the strategies that use the company network to deliver training courses to employees. In distance education Universities like Open University in UK or Penn State World Campus in the USA, it is defined as a planned teaching/learning experience that uses a wide spectrum of technologies mainly Internet to reach learners at a distance. Lately in most Universities, e-learning is used to define a specific mode to attend a course or programmes of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend face-to-face or for on-campus access to educational facilities, because they study on-line.

 

Road Map for e-Learning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl6bboj3GdA

 

The future of eLearning - eLearning 2.0

The term E-Learning 2.0 was coined by Stephen Downes, a Canadian researcher, and it derives from the overall e-learning trends stated above in combination with Web 2.0.

To begin to examine E-Learning 2.0, let’s consider an example:

A small team of five practitioners in a corporate learning department has adopted e-learning 2.0 tools as part of their daily work. They need to define their strategy around the use of "rapid e-learning" and present it to management as part of the annual budget process. Here are some of the ways the workgroup will take advantage of E-Learning 2.0 tools:

• Search for useful webpages, then tag, add comments, and share them by using such social bookmarking tools as del.icio.us or Yahoo MyWeb. By using these tools, the team will keep a copy of each page; the page is full-text searchable; it can be accessed from any computer; and everyone on the team has access to the same links.
• Create public blog posts (using a tool like Blogger) that will outline the team's current thinking about how rapid e-learning fits into its future strategic plans. The blog also will solicit feedback from everyone on the team, as well as the larger e-learning blog community.
• Write or copy-and-paste notes into a wiki, which will become a shared resource that everyone on the team can edit.

• Use an RSS reader (for example, Bloglines) to track updates to the wiki, social bookmarking tools, and the blog. This eliminates the need for email as the reader becomes the single place each team member visits to see what’s happened recently.

 

 

In this example, the team will use E-Learning 2.0 tools as a natural support for how workgroups currently go about collaborative learning, research, and work tasks. These tools simplify many of the tasks and increase their effectiveness. For example, without these tools, they might send information via email, which makes it more difficult to track and share information among the team. More important, though, is that these same tools also offer interesting personal learning opportunities. Writing in a public blog forces you to think through the issues you are facing. Putting this out to the larger community will often get input from peers, which will help refine your thinking. And this interaction will help you to form a network of individuals who can help you to learn and problem solve in the future. The reality is that the impact of E-Learning 2.0 tools on day-to-day work and personal learning is difficult to understand until they’ve been experience by an individual.

Beyond this kind of support for personal and group informal learning, E-Learning 2.0 is making an impact in formal learning settings, and they are particularly useful for collaborative formal learning. For example, wikis can be used as part of group projects; blogs can be used to submit written work and offer the opportunity for peers to provide feedback in a collaborative learning setting; and social bookmarking tools can be used as part of collaborative research. Again, the ease-of-use and collaborative nature of these tools make them a natural fit for learning.

 

 

Three Generations of E-Learning

Taking a slightly broader view, one of the interesting aspects of E-Learning 2.0 is that it appears to fit into a larger evolutionary picture of the overall trends in e-learning technology. At a very high level, this evolution is summarized in the table below:

	E-Learning 1.0	E-Learning 1.3	E-Learning 2.0
Main Components	Courseware LMSs Authoring tools	Reference hybrids LCMSs Rapid authoring tools	Wikis Social networking and bookmarking tools Blogs Add-ins Mash-ups
Ownership	Top-down, one-way	Top-down, collaborative	Bottom-up, learner-driven, peer learning
Development Time	Long	Rapid	None
Content Size	60 minutes	15 minutes	1 minute
Access Time	Prior to work	In between work	During work
Virtual Meetings	Class	Intro, Office hours	Peers, Experts
Delivery	At one time	In many pieces	When you need it
Content Access	LMS	Email, Intranet	Search, RSS feed
Driver	ID	Learner	Worker
Content creator	ID	SME	User

 

Criticism and Concerns of eLearning

 

The movement towards online education is a natural transition for educational institutions of the 21st century. Online education is perceived by many instructors as innovation that has considerable potential for enhancing teaching and learning, promoting lifelong learning and reaching to non-traditional learners. However, the quality of online delivery is often subject to scepticism and criticism as well as economic success and sustainability of online courses. http://informationr.net/ir/reviews/revs126.html

 

A frequently touted benefit of e-learning is that it shifts control from the bureaucracy and instructor to the learner. Should learning and performance professionals be enthusiastic about that movement? The answer rests, in large part, on what e-learners will do with their opportunity. Much depends on their eagerness and ability to learn independently and online. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MNT/is_6_57/ai_103136259/pg_1

 

The promise of e-Learning generates as much criticism as applause. This is not because e-Learning lacks the potential to dramatically change the way teachers teach or learners learn, but because the design and implementation of e-Learning applications remains in its formative years. http://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/FFCC55F2-AA41-42E5-A839-4BBD89435682/0/HuffakerELearningDesignChallenges.pdf

 

The facts are clear. Two decades after the introduction of personal computers in the nation, with more and more schools being wired, and billions of dollars being spent, less than two of every ten teachers are serious users of computers in their classrooms (several times a week). Three to four are occasional users (about once a month). The rest--four to five teachers of every ten teachers--never use the machines for instruction. When the type of use is examined, these powerful technologies end up being used most often for word processing and low-end applications in classrooms that maintain rather than alter existing teaching practices. After all the machines, money, and promises the results are meager. http://www.edtechnot.com/notarticle1201.html

 

 

Influential People in eLearning

  Jay Cross - www.jaycross.com

A veteran of the software industry and the training business, Jay Cross coined the term "eLearning" in 1998. He is CEO of Emergent Learning Forum, an 1800-member think tank and advocacy group, and founder of Internet Time Group. The Group helps organizations learn and perform on Internet time. The Group's logo is a medieval French alchemy symbol for time, symbolizing his belief that sooner is better. Carpe momentum.

Jay helped SmartForce position itself as “the eLearning Company.” He worked with Cisco e-Learning Partners to help them implement and market their initial web-based certification programs. Today he coaches corporate executives on getting the most from their investments in eLearning, collaboration, and visual learning. Two thousand people visit www.InternetTime.com every day to get Jay’s insights on eLearning. He is co-author of the book Implementing eLearning.

In previous lives, Jay sold mainframes the size of SUVs, designed the University of Phoenix's first business degree program, and joined the Inc 500 for taking a training start-up to prominence in less than three years.

 

William and Katherine Horton - http://www.horton.com/html/home.aspx

William and Katherine Horton travel the globe, helping businesses, schools, and governments implement effective e-learning programs. In addition to their site visits and seminars, the Hortons have made many of their workshops, publications, and research findings available for download on their website.

 

Leo Lucas - http://www.e-learningconsulting.com/

In his third decade as an e-learning expert, Leo Lucas helped design some of the very first multimedia authoring tools for Windows. After helping launch a major online learning solutions provider, Lucas started consulting with businesses that want to quickly add e-learning to their professional development and training regimen.

 

  Stephen Downes - http://www.downes.ca/

Stephen is a leading voice in the area of learning objects and metadata, as well as the emerging fields of weblogs in education and content syndication and is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily. Through this newsletter he has become a key educational reference, a unique news source and an influential powerful advisor on critical issues relating to education/learning and new technologies.

 

Related Links

 

http://www.e-learningguru.com/

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5961719786180845836

 

http://agelesslearner.com/intros/elearning.html

 

http://www.e-learningforkids.org/