1. LEARNING
Embracing E-Learning
ELT7001 Assignment 2
Darren Cannell

2. The Big Questions?
• Should our organization embrace e-
learning?

3. 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.quot;
• “It‟s not attention deficit – I‟m just not listening!”
• “When I go to school, I have to „power down‟”

4. • 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)

5. • 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)

6. When?
• 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.

7. 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).

8. • quot;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 paperquot; (Principal Association Conference,
1915)?

9. • quot;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 educationquot; (The Rural
American Teacher, 1928).

10. • “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...quot; (Parent Teacher Association Gazette, 1941)

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

12. • quot;What can you do with an LCD Projector
that you can't do with an overhead
projectorquot; (Member of School Accountability Committee, 1999 )?

13. 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).

14. • 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).

15. What?
• E-Learning: E-Learning is the learning
process created by interaction with digitally
delivered content, services and support.
Imperial College London 2007
• E-learning
Learning 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

16. • 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.

17. There are four types of e-learning.
• Informal
• Self Paced
• Leader-Led
• Performance support tools
Broadbent 2002

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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”.

23. • 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.

24. • 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.

25. • 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!

26. • Should our organization embrace e-
learning?
• Can we afford not to...