The document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning. Some key advantages include students being able to access information on their own schedule, having mobile access to content, and eLearning accommodating different learning styles. Some disadvantages are students not knowing how to access classroom resources, a lack of opportunities for in-person questions, and eLearning being time consuming to prepare. The document also suggests eLearning can be a valuable complement to face-to-face teaching when used appropriately.

1. eLearning
Rick McKinnon, Ph.D.
Supported by the WIRED grant from the State of Washington
1

2. How do you feel about
elearning?
1. All hat and no cowboy?
2. A necessary evil?
3. A valuable complement to f2f teaching?
4. Undecided?

3. eLearning
advantages disadvantages
• Students can access info • Students don’t know how
On their own schedule to access classroom
• Mobile access to content • No opportunity for f2f
questions
• Time to think and respond
• Time consuming to
• Accommodates a wide prepare
range of learning styles
• Too much information
• Unverified information

4. Something is broken
Slide from: Diplomas Count 2008: School to College, Education Week, 6/508.
As presently configured, our schools produce a
failure rate (30% not graduating high school)
that would be intolerable if it were found in any
other field. 4

5. A Paradigm Shift
5

6. Multiple Intelligences
6

7. Learning is Inherently Social
Buy-in Amplifies Learning

8. Peers are important
8

9. Rule: If a card has a “D” on one side,
then it must have a “3” on the other.
Abstract:
Hard!
Rule: If an individual is over 21, then
that person can drink a beverage
with that contains alcohol.
Social: Easy!
Ref.: Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. Neurocognitive Adaptations Designed for Social Exchange. In D. M. Buss (Ed.),
Evolutionary Psychology Handbook. NY: Wiley. 9

10. The web,
Weinberger writes,
"is enabling us to
rediscover what
we've always known
about being human:
we are connected
creatures in a
connected world
about which we care
passionately."
10

11. Humans, as well as
other primates tend
to suppress certain
behaviors under
conditions of acute
crowding.
This is referred to as the
“Elevator Effect” by social
psychologists, and is an
adaptive mechanism for
reducing the likelihood of
conflict.
11
Ref: de Waal, F., Aureli, F., & Judge, P. Coping with Crowding. Scientific American, 5/00

12. What’s the optical proximity for learning?
12

13. Free range learners
Free-range learners choose
how and what they learn. Self-
service is less expensive and
more timely than the
alternative. Informal learning
has no need for the busywork
and bureaucracy that
accompany typical educational
practices. Less is more.
13

14. How Networks Evolve
as communication costs drop
Nodes Top-down Distributed
14

15. Human Governance
Bands Kingdoms Democracies
15

16. Business
Single Proprietors Franchises Business Webs
16

17. Learning
One-on-one Classroom Informal
17

18. How do people learn their jobs?

19. Participatory web culture
ACTIVE PASSIV
E
Web 2.0 culture: Pull School culture: Push
Learner-driven Instructor-driven
Process focus Event focus
Content defined by learner’s Content mandated by others’
perception of need perception of need
Relationships, conversation Courses, workshops

20. SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS
• Instant Messaging (Skype)
• Virtual classrooms (Elluminate, DimDim)
• Blogs (Blogger, WordPress, Drupal)
• Photo Sharing (flickr.com)
• Wikis (Wikispaces.com) – collaborative workspace
• Social Bookmarking (http://del.icio.us/)
• Personalised learning environments, or PLEs (
http://elgg.org/)
• Social Networking sites (MySpace, Facebook)
Many of these sites encourage contributing content (text and media) to the
read/write web.

21. Mapping the cultural emphases of emerging social software tools
Adapted from Stuckey and Arkell; Development of an eLearning Knowledge Sharing Model; 2005

22. Employability Skills
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem Solving
• Initiative and Enterprise
• Planning and Organizing
• Self-management
• Learning
• Technology

23. eLearning: which skills?
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem Solving
• Initiative and Enterprise
• Planning and Organising
• Self-management
• Learning
• Technology
Which skills? – all of them!

24. Executive Functions
(Neuroscience)
• planning
• decision-making
• inhibition
• meta-cognition (thinking about learning)
• creativity
• problem solving

25. Employability Skills Executive Functions
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem Solving • problem solving
• Initiative and Enterprise • decision-making,creativity
• Planning and Organizing • planning
• Self-management • inhibition
• Learning • meta-cognition (thinking
• Technology about learning)