Apologises for cross-posting

 

Dear List colleague

 

Within our group of “learning with technologies” practitioners, we have been debating the use of the term “e-learning” to designate the educational use of technologies.

As members of many international mailing lists in the field, we realised that the term “e-learning” is now much less  frequently used that it once was. We have also noticed that within the titles of journals (printed and online), conferences, books and portals the term is disappearing and terms such as “learning”, “teaching” and “technology” are being employed instead.

 

What are your thoughts on this phenomenon?

 

If you agree with our perception of this, what is the cause of this change in terminology?

Our view is as follows.

-          The failure of the “e-learning approach” to enhance the learning experience (to use technologies for delivering contents/learning materials; to substitute analogical  teaching/learning tools with digital ones) has created the change in terminology;

-          Within the “community of practice” of the people who use technologies to improve the learning outcomes at the individual and the educational systems levels, there is a growing awareness of the necessity of adopting a more pedagogically-based approach than the technologically-based one adopted in the early e-learning era;

-          To demonstrate a tangible added-value in the use of technologies to justify the added-cost, it is necessary to adopt an operational model which uses technologies not only in the online/distance learning settings, but also in face-to-face learning settings;

-          The use of technologies to enhance learning does not have to be based on the use of costly courseware, but rather on simpler and cheaper digital documents (for organising and delivering contents) and on communications and collaboration tools not necessarily arranged under the form of a complex LMS         

 

Regards

Gianni Marconato