Reflective Synopsis

“e-Learning is so broad and encompassing that it’s hard to articulate a brief definition that actually does the term justice…the use of any electronic technology to aid in the acquisition and development of knowledge and understanding in order to demonstrable and positively influence behaviours.” – aadm

e-Learning is the implementation of ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies) in pedagogical methods. Today’s “‘digital natives’…absorb information quickly, in images and video as well as text…they operate at ‘twitch speed’” (elearnmag). Through the integration of these technologies in the classroom, learning managers are able to offer more individualized instruction. Students are able to learn when, how, where they want and with an enhanced level of creativity.

“…more than just adapting for different learning styles or allowing the user to change the font size and background colour; IT IS THE PLACING OF THE CONTROL OF LEARNING ITSELF INTO THE HANDS OF THE LEARNER.” – elearnmag

The web itself has been revolutionised. The ‘new’ Web 2.0 sees the change from the ‘read web’ to a more constructivism form; the ‘read-write web’, with strong encouragement of participation from it’s users.

“…a platform, in which content was created, shared, remixed, repurposed and passed along…with a vocabulary consisting not just of words but of images, video, multimedia.” - elearnmag  

A quote I have referred to previously reads;

“There are arguments that classrooms are in danger of becoming redundant unless significant changes are made to curriculum and assessment practices.”

The Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians has the ICT capability requirements listed as;

“…recognises that in a digital age…young people need to be highly skilled in its use…empowered within a technologically sophisticated society now and into the future, students need the knowledge, skills and confidence to make ICT work for them at school, at home and in their communities.” – MCEETYA 2008

Through the past six week blog posts, a reoccurring theme presented. As teachers, our role is to empower our learners. Through the engagement of challenging, invoking content; strong pedagogy, which enables higher order thinking; assisted by solid teaching strategies and supporting the three learning theories, whilst working legally and ethically. Embedding ICT within this framework plays a powerful role. This leads to exploring how educators can successfully implement these strategies within pedagogical practices.

Underpinning e-Learning design is the TPACK framework. It’s basis combines the appropriate technical skills, strong content knowledge with the combination of relevant pedagogy. Pedagogy, “the art and science of teaching”, is naturally critical for educators. As previously referenced in my blog;

“…authentic context, problem-based learning, deep understanding and higher order thinking, collaboration for learning, and the creative and inventive solution to the problem that addresses the real-world problem posed.” 

However, in order to plan engaging and provoking learning experiences, Education Queensland has clear outlines of the incorporation of ICT to facilitate quality lessons. They outline that digital pedagogy ‘transforms learning…supports thinking…allows learners to build solutions and products through highly creative, expressive and reflective processes.’

Digital pedagogy supports and enhances HOW learners learn. As learning materials suggest, within the cognitive theory, learning is ‘best designed…if it is presented in small chunks.’

“Enter Web 2.0, a vision of the Web in which information is broken up into ‘microcontent’ units that can be distributed over dozens of domains.” – elearnmag

The development of ICT within education clearly enhances the social constructivism theory also. When reflecting upon the ‘mobile phone Wiki activity’, a favourable outcome was achieved through the platform of Wiki and using the de Bono’s Hat framework. Collaborative, higher order thinking was achieved, supporting the constructivism theory. This setting stimulated creations of new thinking as problem-solving was enhanced.

“…what is important to recognize is that the emergence of the Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution, it is a social revolution…Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It’s about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services.” – elearnmag

Finally, the behaviourism theory is also stimulated. Through positive reinforcement utilising online tools with ‘pre-defined’ results. As it proposes in course materials;

“The biggest impact of ICT on learning outcomes is where you are working towards complex outcomes, such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation.”

These technologies allow learners to tap into their higher order thinking, as referred to by Bloom’s Taxonomy, whilst learning in their preferred method. While researching and analysing each technology, copyright of images and materials existed in each platform. Within course materials a principle, which highlighted awareness on the web proposes;

“…normal copyright guidelines for education apply in an online environment.”

Obviously there is a standard. Users must work legally, safely and ethically. As an example, each of my blog posts has references.

Upon completion of schooling, students need to be equipped with fundamental skills to be life long learners and valuable within their chosen field. I appreciate the role ICT performs in this development. Reflecting on the skills I have now acquired whilst exploring these technologies, I acknowledge that ICT will play a significant role in my classroom, which will give my learners an enhanced, rich learning experience.

“There is also an increasing recognition that learning is becoming a creative activity and that the appropriate venue is a platform rather than an application. In the future it will be more widely recognized that the learning comes not from the design of learning content but in how it is used. Most e-Learning theorists are already there.” - elearnmag

To fully appreciate the evaluation of e-Learning, I have prepared a SWOT Analysis.

http://www.aadm.com
http://elearnmag.acm.org
http://www.elearnagedcare.com.au
http://groupx.edu.au/event/young-ict-explorers-2013 http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf 
'course materials'
Chapter III Pedagogical Potentials of Multimodal Literacy
http://www.creately.com
http://www.wordle.net