Posted 11:05 AM by George Siemens


I've been yipping about the need for transformation in education for months...I've been thinking about the degree and the nature of change that should occur. This is the by-product of my thinking (it hurt...I won't do it again for awhile!)

My concern with education does not rest in the quality of the curriculum. I think many colleges and corporate training departments do an excellent job of creating content. The problem rests with how the content is presented. If I'm employed as a web developer, and I want to take a course in XML, why do I have to take an entire course?? Why can't I take the areas that I need? If I'm taking a business course - and I spent the summer self-employed - can I get credit for that learning? Are educational facilities setup for this type of flexibility? No.

New approaches suffer previous perceptions. For example...I decide to move a course online. Rather than evaluate the new medium, I try and recreate classroom material online - modularized and sequential (I transfer, rather than transform the content). Why not step back and think about "what online learning is good for"? Rather than create another 30 hour modular course, why not create individual learning objects that can be accessed at various stages based on learners previous experience (onliners should be friends with PLA'rs) or need for learning. This injects an element of flexibility into course that is not common in many educational institutions...and yet will be demanded by future students. Let me say it again: THE ISSUE IS NOT THE CURRICULUM - IT IS THE PRESENTATION OF THE CURRICULUM.

Glossary
Bookmark this link...let it become your friend. It is the most complete glossary I've seen on the Internet relating to elearning terms.

Interactivity
Quote: "It’s not that interactivity is a bad idea. It’s just too simplistic to be a useful guide for instructional design. It can even be dangerous...So what is it about interactivity that makes a difference? The answer is that interactivity prompts learners to retrieve information from memory, and it’s this retrieval practice that prompts the learning improvements."

Comment: The author makes a good point...interactivity in itself does not result in learning...learning is the result of retrieving information...grappling with it...evaluating it. Like I mentioned in a previous issue...learning happens in a small narrow window - between reflection and validating. Interactivity is useful only to the degree that it causes this to occur.

Email Miscommunication
Quote:"E-mail makes it easier than ever for professors and students to communicate -- and, unfortunately, to miscommunicate. Some distance-education professors say they are surprised at how often students misinterpret messages online."

Comment: DUH! It's a new medium...very little training is happening in teaching instructors how to communicate using the Internet...and they're surprised problems occur? Seriously...

Cultural Adaptation
Quote:"There are many reasons for this apparent lack of enthusiasm: poor technology infrastructures in some regions; lack of design expertise; fear of technology on the part of users, and so on. But there's one readily identifiable cause that seems to go ignored: lack of cultural adaptation."

Comment: This (along with general issues of accessibility) will become a huge issue over the next several years. The global market is shrinking (I love using over-used simplistic statements! :)). Learning facilities may soon be struggling with how to create learning that is unique to a culture or a language. Good read.