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HUMAN LEARNING -
NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
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 Updated
20/02/2003 HUMAN
LEARNING - E-LEARNING PRACTICES SEEN INEFFECTIVE Wilson interviewed an online learning design and developer from a major university - Paul Fritze, special projects manager with Melbourne University's Teaching, Learning and Research Support (TeLaRS) - Findings E-Learning changes an organisational culture for the worse... by promoting bad teaching habits. (!) "To
answer them (the online quiz banks that are easy to mark by lecturers),
often students merely regurgitate facts, not actually think for
themselves." "Undermines face-to-face teaching" .... face-to-face allows students to absorb the multiple variables in a concept : " (The online quizzes...) are completely different from having a student propose an answer in the first instance, be given feedback and rethink the concept... There is no substitute for face-to-face engagement with students." (>Cannot Short Cut Learning<) Plug-N-Play mass generic online courses promote confusion rather than proper learning ! Reusing material from other courses "is difficult" because of current lecturer's different emphases both in breadth and depth of sub-unit subjects as well as terminology. This also means that lecturers cannot properly guide online-dependent students into what aspects of the material is primary and what is secondary. Also, lecturers truly believe that linear course teaching fits the new student rather than a free-for-all meandering that comprises an online course. Finally, no human being is present to clarify the myriad of new terms and concepts... there is a poor feedback loop ! (>Cannot 3rd Party Critical Learning - Must Be First Hand from Originator - Direct Apprenticeship<) An over-dependence on online courses seems to be a deterrent to real learning rather than a catalyst. But academics are not prepared to risk self-examination of their teaching practices for their pursuit of their own subject area research. But a few have and at Melbourne University 80 working papers have been published so far on e-learning for academics to refer to. Videoconferencing is still generations away because of a lack of nationwide infrastructure to support it. So we are stuck with semi-static learning objects for online courses. Wilson concludes : 'This relatively new technology is opening a proverbial can of worms before all the key issues have been thought through.' - DEBRIEF - Online learning is efficient but it simply is not effective. Yes, I can learn how to boil an egg from the internet but dump me stuff on the multiple stages of egg formation and I will go into paralysis. It needs to be introduced and facilitated by a sensitive communicator, not a static, uninspiring textual document. Yes ? My experiences, for instance, in a 12 week online Web Design course I signed up for, left me often frustrated and disappointed despite the sincerity of the online lecturer... They just could not afford the time to answer our many immediate questions... so we had to resort to our fellow students on a discussion forum board. Talk about the blind leading the blind ! We had to physically see a lecturer show us,say, how to properly orient pictures around a web page five times rather than attempting it ourselves after 50 frustrating times (and still not being confident). It wastes EVERYONE'S time because of the REWORK factor. I can teach you any computer software I am proficient in THREE TO FIVE TIMES FASTER face-to-face than even if I put it down on paper for you ! But you will have the manual as a SECONDARY GUIDE. That's why at Harvard and at Oxford you have PERSONAL ONE-ON-ONE TUTORIALS WITH YOUR LECTURER ! This is true for many of their courses I believe (That is also why it costs a mint for you to be there). Is the penny dropping for you ? Rumour
has it that at Harvard certain courses are dumped online - all the
year's course - then you are interrogated in lectures about each
sub-section. Here
is the issue that will shock you. Most academics at university have
no teaching qualifications ! A subject-matter expert does not equate
to a teacher ! So...FORM
FOLLOWS FUNCTION... DEVELOPMENT FOLLOWS DESIGN... You cannot....shortcut... profound learning. ___________________________________ See also case study of one e-learning subject training experience by Professor of Education Technology, Dr Allison Rossett, San Diego University, USA. |
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