Assignment 1
What are the trends in e-learning and how do they influence online course design?
E-learning is strong related to Wb 2.0. I’m almost 30 and until now I didn’t realized how big was the influence of a teacher-centered system in my life. This is how I was educated. I considered myself young and opened enough to keep up with all these changes. I did it but I was very selective, taking only what I really need out of this Web 2.0 philosophy.
I’m a good observer anyway, so I have to admit that the E-learning 1.0 based on a teacher-centered learning system evolved in the actual learning system. Not a rigid one, but very flexible. The key word is the information. Where does it come from? Not from a single source but from many sources. Collaborative sites, wikis, blogs, bookmarking, social networking. The issue is not if you have access to the information, but how to filter it, organize it…
It sounds a bit confusing at the beginning. Can we rely on all this trends? Can we build our knowledge on this? I thinks this system brings a lot of responsibility in designing an online course. We have the freedom of choosing and the freedom of personalizing which is not always easy.
Remember the Bold phrase: The information comes from many sources. We need to know how to filter it, organize it and this brings a lot of responsibility in designing an online course. :)
May 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
What do you think of knowledge construction….i mean besides organising and filtering, dont we learn more if we actually try to make sense and put up parts of information into something meaningful in our context?
This is where web 2,.0 has big benefits, it is more democratic to publish anything and be part of this knowledge medium. However, you are right that it comes from many sources and is it then trustworthy?
This brings us new skills of evaluating, sorting also by criteria of correctness of information.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:32 am
You’re right! That’s the reason I brought Responsibility on stage. When I said organizing the information, I also had in mind this aspect of construction. Someone said that creativity is the art of imitating. I know it’s not that simple as it looks, it’s not a copy/paste process, but constructing (as you said) organizing with responsibility.
It is very democratic to be able to participate to the knowledge medium, you’re right. We all should do this. But there is one problem: being democratic doesn’t mean it is true in the same time. The Internet now, it’s full of information and compared to the last years, I can say that you can find almost any information you want. That’s not an issue anymore. And that thanks to web 2.0. And here I go back to responsibility ( I cannot find a better word) so the information we release to be trustworthy.
I don’t know how will look the Internet of tomorrow, I just have the feeling that will be a “gray” place where we won’t be able to distinguish black from white, what is true and trustworthy and what is not. This sounds like a conspiracy scenario.
Anyway, the good point is that we have strong institutions like Universities which are able to release valuable information to compensate the garbage out there. That’s why we need to develop “new skills of evaluating, sorting also by criteria of correctness of information.”