I must disagree with some of the comments made in this mail.
1. "They aren't going to change the face of learning". OH yes the are! They may be a tool but so is a textbook, paper and pens. Surely no one would argue that these technologies did not change the face of learning.
2. "They don't change the pedagogy". Again, they should. Everything we use to support learning has an impact on pedagogy. To enhance this point let us look at the term "Pedagogy". The German word "Pädagogik" means both educational theory (including the science of education and its metatheory) as well as educational practice (including its working values, aims, techniques; its historical foundations, and its institutional structure.) If it also covers techniques, the use of online tools will inevitable lead to new techniques and therefore a change in pedagogy.
One problem is that we simply do not know what impact on pedagogy these new technologies will have. As a technologies I will colleagues with a firm research commitment to educational psychology to debate this one.
I think many in our industry abuse the terms Pedagogy and Didactics to suit their needs rather than make use of the pure definitions in context.
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Minshull [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 October 2002 20:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Red-Bricks vs. New Universities
At 11:28 10/10/02 +0100, Jon Rowett said:
> > VLE's offer new solutions but what was the problem?
>
>PMFJI - Perhaps one of the problems is that institutions have been
>using I.T. to support teaching & learning for some time now, but that
>the hobbyist-driven approach has resulted in an inconsistent and
>unreliable mess of broken web pages, suspicious freeware, legacy MIS,
>and learning content of dubious legality. <optimism>VLEs offer the
>opportunity to tidy up that mess and to achieve what the hobbyists have
>been striving so hard for.</optimism>
I think that's a good explanation. Frankly, I think people read too much into VLEs, which are just a tool to enable online learning, bringing together lots of discrete applications into one environment. They aren't going to change the face of learning - the internet might have done that, but VLEs are just a tool to make it easier for people to access content, communicate, etc., using the internet (or, rather, web-based technology). The problem is to make learning more meaningful, more responsive to different needs, more accessible, more flexible..... VLEs are one small tool within that, which, if implemented properly, is a bit better than just using an intranet to deliver the same, discrete, services. They don't, in themselves, change the pedagogy. There was the awful BT advert a few years ago with Stephen Hawking, saying that if only everybody could speak together (presumably using BT) they would all understand each other so much better. Clearly, absolute rubbish, and confusing the medium with the message. There is the same danger with VLEs. Don't make them more than they are - but, equally, don't devalue the contribution they can make to facilitating learning and teaching.
Geoff Minshull
Direct Learn Training
Online services to education, project management and evaluation, VLEs, deafness/disability consultancy
Web: http://www.directlearn.co.uk/ - last updated 08.04.02
Tel: 01629 540386
Fax: 01629 540820
Mob: 0771 264 7600
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