Does elearning have to be so awful?

I blogged on 13 April about my earlier Death Of Elearning stance(s), and how now it was time to be a little more constructive. So now I’ve written the abstract of my keynote address at the forthcoming International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, which will hopefully be appearing on their site shortly. However, since it’s my own words, I’ll just paste it verbatim below, i.e. without quotes.

Does elearning have to be so awful? Time to mashup or shutup!

Abstract

Advanced learning technologies have been touted for six decades as either a cost-effective or an exciting new way to provide real benefits to a wide audience. Yet, even given some stellar exceptions, the broader promise is demonstrably false.

The essence of the problem is that new-tech disguising old ideas is almost certainly doomed to failure. Learning Management Systems and Learning Objects, for example, despite the noble intentions of many protagonists, can in fact conceal neo-behaviourist drill-and-practice thinking. Equally frustrating is the paradox that, despite Moore’s Law, sustainable computing for schools gets more and more expensive annually in real human terms. And what about Elearnng2.0, Moodle, Semantic Multimedia, Wikiversity, The Grid, MySpace, Moblogging, Vodcasting, YouTube, Second Life campuses, Plazes, Bebo, Elgg, and Twitter? More promises, but for now the jury is out, and a parental backlash against computers in schools is underway!

But all is not gloom and doom. This presentation considers success stories ranging from decades-old cognitively-based intelligent tutoring systems and problem-based learning to current day learning ecosystems, star teachers, thumb-twitching social networking, geo-social mashups, simulations, peer-to-peer mentoring, numerous “banned” games and resources, and tasks that engender creativity and ownership directly in learners, in both formal and informal (non-school) settings. It also looks at the UK Open University’s OpenLearn initiative, which offers high quality educational resources for free, embeds them in a strong pedagogical framework, and encourages educators to download, re-mix and upload fresh material, while leveraging real-time peer presence awareness, large-scale multi-party video interactions and knowledge capture, and a purpose-built knowledge mapping tool.

Is this kind of peer-supported open educational resource the way of the future, and can it overcome some of the negative stereotyping of elearning? Maybe: much depends on a strong commitment from ICALT practitioners, and a willingness to confront some long-standing myths!

Technorati Tags: , e-learning, elearning, elearning2.0, ITS, ICALT