“New” trends in online learning are not so new
Here’s an innocent statement I just can’t let go without commenting on. In a post yesterday (“LearnHub Relaunches Its Social Learning Network“) Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch said that “Online education has been booming recently…”
Online education is not a recent innovation. Large-scale corporatisation of education is a recent innovation – if you can call it an innovation. I happen to think that “innovation” carries a far more positive connotation than this financially driven trend deserves.
For as long as the internet has been in existence, forward thinking educators have been finding creative ways to harness its capacity to connect people and experiment with new ways to facilitate and encourage learning – and this is not limited to the likes of the learning managment system.
Certainly the financial success of Blackboard and WebCT play an influential role in this respect. However there are those who would argue other avenues are as effective – if not more so – in the facilitation of learning than the LMS.
It’s critical to bear in mind that there is a tremendous amount of activity in online learning that is taking place in the contemporary and emerging spheres of new media, social software and other so-called Web 2.0 application.
Names like Brian Lamb, Stephen Downes, George Siemens, the New Media Consortium, and a legion of other educational innovators have been exploring the educational potential of new technologies for literally years now – and in some cases decades. For years now they have also been discussing exactly the same themes covered by Joshua Porter regarding the Social View of Learning that is suddenly being touted as “new” by some just because it’s hit TechMeme.
The big difference between the corporate- or capitalistic-leaning sects and those of the recently and somewhat jokingly dubbed “edupunk” sect are in the underlying ideology of mashups, a do-it-yourself mentality, and above all affording learners and educators sufficient flexibility and opportunity to guide and discover their own learning paths. They thrive on open source technology, and the the notions of sharing and reuse.
It is these sorts of visions that inspired the open courseware initiatives we are starting to see emerging in the form of MIT’s OCW Initiative, Connexions, and others.
It is perhaps of little surprise then that this inherently dollar-less economy has not hit the airwaves of the venture capitalists that frequent sites like TechCrunch. They speak two different languages and deal in completely different currencies. Neither of them is more or less relevant than the other. They just don’t tend to view the tapistry of emerging technology in quite the same way.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your pushback on this. I didn’t mean to imply that I was discovering something new…I was merely trying to explore what Seely Brown calls “Learning 2.0″.
I personally dislike the 2.0 moniker…I used it because Seely Brown had done so.
That said, I think you’re absolutely right about there being a lot of people who don’t yet think about learning in this way. I think the group is much bigger than venture capitalists…
Hi Joshua!
Please let me clarify, I did not mean this to be a criticism of you or your post in any way (nor Jason Kincaid for that matter). I really enjoyed reading it and wholeheartedly agree with your message.
To add to this, despite the fact people have been discussing these ideas for some time now the unfortunate reality is they have failed to seep through to many other areas of education (let alone outside education). This would seem to explain the persistent reliance on lectures and a focus on pushing information from one (the expert) to many (the students), rather than co-learners sharing and discussing the information amongst themselves and an emphasis on exploration and discovery. The traditional instructivist heirarchy of expert-student is as widespread as it ever was.
It is equally important therefor to discuss existing theories in a way that’s synthesised with personal experience as it is to present new ones – because to many these ideas are still undiscovered. So I think it’s crucial that those of us who believe in them continue to discuss their significance and application, because that’s how change happens.
Yours may very well be the post that an instructivist discovers which leads them to think differently. So the fact you took the time to discuss Social Learning is incredibly important and valuable and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. The fact it gained attention via Techmeme is even better.
I think the other thing I didn’t discuss in my post, which I should have, is the persistent trend in education that eLearning equals WebCT; that online education is only achieved through the management of learning via the LMS to the exclusion of all else. It’s so pervasive I think that people don’t think to explore alternatives, which might prove more engaging and more effective.
This highlights the importance of modeling best practice too really. There’s no substitute for a good example of implementation to show the sorts of vibrant and dynamic student ecosystems that can flourish in a Social Learning model and importantly the educational outcomes that can emerge.
Cheers,
Mike
I think you are right on track. Did you see the article this morning in USA TODAY? It’s all about Graspr and how learning online from others is really making a splash.
Just thought you might be interested. The link is below:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-09-07-graspr-phillips_N.htm
I think you are right on track. You should check out Graspr they are at the forfront of social learning. USA TODAY even printed and article about them this morning.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-09-07-graspr-phillips_N.htm
Keep up the writing….it’s great.
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