At 14:13 14/10/02 +0100, Nigel PEET said:
>My only agreement with the assertion "They aren't going to change the face
>of learning" is that (technology supported) access to information has
>already changed far more than the face.
I think this is, at least in part, the point I was trying to make, somewhat
badly. Clearly, technology supported access to learning has changed the way
we teach and learn in very dramatic, and, as Steve says, as yet
unpredictable ways. But VLEs of themselves are just an instance of the
application of that technology. The big leap forward was the development of
the internet technology - comparable, arguably, to the development of the
printing press. The effect on pedagogy (however we define it) is surely
attributable to the internet technology itself, and the communications,
etc. which it enables. The VLE just provides the integrated environment for
those applications, rather than, of itself, being innovative (though,
perhaps, integrating different applications can produce its own synergy).
This is not in any way to devalue the importance of VLEs (otherwise, I
wouldn't be list manager of this list). But it is to try to put them in
perspective as one tool amongst many which teachers and learners will use.
But maybe I phrased the original email badly.
Geoff.
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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