We need to move beyond elearning and eteaching and we need to do it NOW!
Posted by Lauren O Grady on July 27, 2008
I do not usually write ranting blog posts, but today here is an exception.
As many of you know I have been travelling around and spending a huge proportion of my life at conferences lately. This has enabled me to have some amazing conversations with some absolutely brilliant educators. One such educator pointed out the concern that we are talking to each other in an echo chamber where agreement has the potentials to curb change and community. This statement had me thinking and to be honest this is the 6Th time I have tried to write this post but thought it best to get it off my chest ! It may not be the views of my own echo chamber but hey I have never been the shy one !
We need to stop creating buzzwords such as elearning and eteaching as they are no longer relevant in our schools. Computers and technology have been around long enough. We need to move beyond this speciality paradigm and move into powerful learning and teaching. I see a real danger in the titles such as elearning integrator and epotential. Whilst we still continue to view ourselves as a speciality with specific skills we will never have integration into our classrooms where it is needed to benefit students. I was one of these people butting my head against the wall two years ago trying to understand why people did not integrate technology, I had to change my tact and look at it from a student perspective. I ran student roundtables and asked them what they would like in regards to powerful learning ( I never mentioned eteaching or elearning) and our students wrote about how they learn best. They wrote about the use of images, multimedia, web and how they can get answers but do not know how to distill or make sense of this information overload. There was also a huge push for content creation instead of passive dictation and exercises. These students never mentioned that they wanted more elearning in their classrooms and the teachers couldn’t help but rub it in when it wasn’t mentioned.
However it didn’t bother me in the slightest as these students articulated what powerful learning was for them and as a school and as teachers we responded. We reevaluated where our goals were. We had to change the goal which said “we want to integrate more technology” to “we want to teach powerful inline with our students needs” elearning was a term no longer used in the middle years at our school and the pressure was off and the power boundaries changed as well. Reflection time was an essential part of every class and teachers developed goals with the students for the next lesson. Teachers did have to integrate technology but it was from the students needs, each class had student mentors who assisted in making powerful learning possible with a multitude of technologies. As a group we had moved beyond teachers always having to know the how and the what but assisting with the why ! All this without elearning or eteaching? Who would of thought?
We offer all these buzzwords and terms which allow us to drift from our main purpose in schools which is to teach, scaffold, faciltate and reflect to ensure powerful learning. Teachers all around the world are using these buzzwords as excuses for ignoring the fact that the use of ICT as a learning environment is powerful learning. I am not saying we need to withdraw all support but we do need to shift the paradigm so that buzzwords are no longer used to ignore meeting the needs of every student in our schools.
I asked some of my Personal Learning Network in twitter about this conundum and these were their reponses:
Now I would love to hear from other people in regards to their thoughts on whether elearning and eteaching are still relevant in our schools?
Apologies for the rant !
L 
July 27th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Hi Lauren,
Great post! I used “Blog This” and put some observations on my blog.
Elaine
July 27th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Well said! – Firstly, I think that teachers behave quite differently in a computer room, than they do in a classroom – as physically, the computer room is still a ’special place’ to use computers. For the majority of times that I see, this time is given to ‘researching’ some information that is loosely affiliated with the class ‘text’. eLearning is thought of as some use of an application designed to ‘teach’ – such as Mathletics. It’s a hands off from the teacher in that case, and students undertake some computer led activity. It is rare to see a teacher create or stitch together anything more (a teacher made eLearning activity) that is not Powerpoint – and even then it’s a lecture.
Take apart most teachers digital resources, or look at the digital tasks they ask students to do – its search, cut and paste then powerpoint, word or publisher. It meets the demands of the syllabus, but is hardly innovative or interesting.
Kids like the computer room as it is marginally less boring than the classroom version of what is essentially a ’search’, ’select’ and ’show’ activity.
The term eLearning etc., implies something more. I think that suits teachers all to often. They will use MS Office, but cite anything more as ‘hard’ or ‘lack of time’ or ‘don’t have the (pre-made resources). The term lurks around, as no one ever really overcomes it – or even asks ‘what is eLearning’. The assume it is simply something harder and more time consuming than what they are prepared to do. It is a comfort, as they can endlessly argue why they can’t engage in developing digital lessons beyond MS Office – something they have had well over a decade to do.
But, a school needs an advocate and someone prepared to take a regular lesson activity in a regular classroom and model a better way to do it. Using technology and transitional pedagogy.
But few schools have EdTech, and those that do – the EdTech is usually some early adopter – unpaid and un-empowered to do much more than give a presentation at PD sessions (which are part of the problem too). Learning on the job does not include technology.
Teacher could take more responsibility for their tech learning, but its not ‘required’, so the majority ignore it. Lets face it, no one is going to make you – and if they try, then you simply raise the eLearning arguments again – time, access, resources, training.
We need to de-construct how schools facilitate PD. We need to allow them to choose how to do, and not assume it will come from the ’system’. It should be okay to call in someone from outside the system to mentor staff in technology, and pay them for doing it. But the ’system’ assumes that innovation and professional development is a top down approach, so won’t engage anyone to hold PD via Elluminate for example. PD is face to face.
So we don’t see eLearning in the classroom because systems do not value eLearning as effective professional development. eLearning is a software application, not a mentor via Skype.
It will take time to change this idea … so for those teachers in their 50s – then realistically – they won’t change.
Great post.
July 27th, 2008 at 3:07 am
I love this Lauren, especially that “We need to move beyond this speciality paradigm and move into powerful learning and teaching” and that “Teachers all around the world are using these buzzwords as excuses for ignoring the fact that the use of ICT as a learning environment is powerful learning. ” I was told the other day that blogging was not on the curriculum but that “text response” was, as though they were two different things. I am not so happy about Dean’s comment that the take up of powerful learning opportunities in the classroom is an age thing however. Some of us are willing to change and look at the students’ needs first whatever they happen to be, and indeed, how varied they happen to be. Love the post. But just a thought: How does one label oneself for the job market if you don’t say elearning? Can say powerful learning experiences but will ppl understand? Isn’t that what all teaching is about, not just those who want to make the walls of their classroom thinner? You have raised a lot of questions for sure.
July 27th, 2008 at 4:47 am
No! not that adoption is for the sub 50s, thats rubbish. But I think that given the speed of ICT in the classroom in the last decade, that those over 50 are already in a mind set that it is more than possible to carry on as they are now – right up to that last day. This the tragedy of the aging teacher population anyway. Of course there are a lot of advocates well over 50 doing amazing things. The younger teachers are also doing what Uni told them too, and modelling their classrooms on those more experienced around them.
Unless younger teachers get a personal learning network beyond their older peers in school … then they will find it hard too.
July 27th, 2008 at 4:51 am
I agree dean,
I know many younger teachers straight out of university who do not see powerful teaching as a priority and it really scares me. Last year I interviewed over 150 teachers and was constantly surprised by the reasons people give for getting into teaching, most of them are flaky at best ! They like the holidays and the security of an ongoing position where they can stay right within their comfort zone just like they did when they were back at school !
July 27th, 2008 at 4:59 am
I think that the most important thing/issue/idea that you raise in this post Lauren is that you begin with the most important outcome in mind and that is powerful learning. If we begin with the end in mind then the use or the embedding of technology into the learning falls into place. If we recognise how students learn best, if we ask them what and how they want to learn, if we encourage them to demonstrate their learning in different ways then the “problem” of using technology should go away. The change that is required is not so much using technology but it’s in the way we teach. It requires a real shift, a letting go of the power in the classroom and a change in the expectations of what students can and should achieve. This is not about making things easier for our kids. I believe it’s actually about raising the bar even higher. Perhaps the question is not whether we are raising the bar for our students but whether we are raising the bar for our teachers.
July 27th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Anne,
I totally agree. We refuse to accept the deficit model in our students at school and as a teacher I firmly believe that everyone can learn given the right amount of scaffolding and support yet we sometimes forget about that with our teachers
July 27th, 2008 at 7:44 am
12 months ago I started using web2.0 in the classroom. Luckily I teach with Jess of http://www.technolote.com and together we started to reap the benefits with improved learning outcomes which I witnessed particularly through student blogging. Some staff took a distant look at what was going on, but as students saw the benefits for themselves, they started to drive the learning themselves and bring it to the attention of teachers in other subject areas and classes to look at these tools as well. Now, we have many on board but it has taken a long time and ‘baby steps’. The students are ready for it, but many teachers are not, as many do not want to admit their ignorance, do not see the need for it, do not have the time for it, do not want to relinquish their personal power in the classroom etc
For Dean, I am one of those over 50s and maybe as I work with Jess, a gen Y, we have been a good team and support base for other staff in our school.
July 27th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Great work lauren! you are focusing on the elephant in the room – the reason teachers exist and the reason kids are there. it is much easier to focus on stuff that gets people upset or exciting rather than thinking about things that matter and are seriously hard work that is powerful learning. Powerful learning means I have to examine what i am doing and measure it against real results. That requires personal growth. Powerful learning requires investment in pedagogical commitments by the executive of schools such as Understanding by Design or similar structures as well as the commitments and personal challenges as mentioned in the comments above.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:20 am
Well said Lauren
whats going on in my room when learners spend time articulating ‘how they feel’ and ‘why they learn best’. Reflection, questioning, acknowledging each others deep learning and not pure content slavery are the things many of the kids enjoy the most. Our students have used reflective learning diaries for 4 years now, complete baseline learning questionaires and complete a common assessment themed ‘Schools I’d Create’, always elicits thought provoking responses then used for staff reflection. That is my current flat classroom. No mentions of elearning buzzwords because we don’t have ready reliable access but we still integrate when and where possible. Never mention ICT as a panacea, always ask how do our kids learn better?
Great post, not a rant at all.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Lots to ponder upon Lauren. Have you heard Greg Whitby speak about taking the e out of elearning? It’s like you say and yet here I am in a computer lab and feeling frustrated because I only see the kids twice a week and there is so much I want to do with them using ICT. Sometimes I wish I had a classroom with one class all day then I could integrate and not have to squeeze everything into the small spaces.
I am beginning to tell the children to ask their teachers why can’t we do this or that with the ICT in the room. The children are too polite at times and need some coaching so they can assert themselves for their learning and presenting their learning styles.
As for the over 50’s….nearly there myself and I do know many over the 50 mark who are the early uptakers. In fact just being young does not mean you use technology. There are young technophobics as well. Even as young as Preps. Just as their are learners with literacy problems.
Age doesn’t have a thing to do with it but open mindedness and being willing to make change is what it’s all about. Being willing to take risks, be wrong and have to fix up on the run. Learning with the kids but adding our known to the equation to give insight and context is a must.
Thanks for the discussion Lauren we need more.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Thanks Lauren for posting a great discussion starter here. Being an over 50 myself and yet the initiator in our school some years ago of moodle and other initiatives that create opportunities for students to be involved in more powerful and independent learning. The biggest struggle I have is encouraging other (often younger) teachers to make these shifts, and it is blatantly obvious that until they are ready to adapt no amount of PD on offer will change anything!
August 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
[...] Lauren’s recent post keeps resonating strongly. As a non ICT teacher the gizmos and jargon and ‘makemesoundimportantbuzzwords’ she speaks of leave me cold. [...]
August 30th, 2008 at 7:29 am
To me, elearning denotes distance learning. I’ve had people tell me that they love my application of “e-learning” and I say – “What? I’m right there!” —
I don’t like the buzzwords either — of course, I’m guilty of making up new works (teacherpreneur comes to mind) but when the buzzwords hide what we’re trying to do.
I think elearning is comfortable b/c it has been around a while and people feel less threatened — it is like ‘OK, lets do elearning and webquests’ – they’ve heard it a while and are OK with that!
The tough thing with some words like wiki and blog is that we need them to talk about a thing – about what we are doing — and I use them so much that they are not a buzzword to me. To me, something becomes a buzzword when the “powers at be” start rubber stamping grant requests and proposals that include the “word.” And that is what has happened with elearning at least over here!
I think it is so important to get at what we are actually doing! I LOVE what you say about not letting buzzwords shift the focus of meeting the needs of EVERY student.
The focus is on teaching — not blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. It is teaching. It is the students – every single one of them. And creating an environment that focuses on their learning styles, gives opportunities for assessment that allows a fair range of assessment options to that students can communicate in the way they do best. And projects that add meaning and give deep learning opportunities.
These are the things that make great learning — who cares if the e is on there or not. I doubt anyone watching my class would call it “elearning” hopefully, just learning!
August 30th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Yes, I agree that buzz words, acronyms, and such tend to isolate rather than polarize the education community. I think an important concept in this discussion is that we have been guilty (as an education community) of focusing on all types of gadgets and techniques rather than focusing on learning. And, I think if you asked most teachers, they would be hard pressed to identify more than one or two (at best) powerful learning experiences of their own in school. It is hard to shift to more powerful learning models when all one had experienced is more traditional models of learning. At best, new tools with powerful learning potential get used within a teacher-centered, traditional learning framework. We really need to focus on powerful learning at all levels and provide rich experiences that can then be implemented.
September 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Saw your post. I think all professions use buzzwords to create isolation between what they do and what others do. You can sound more like an expert if you use terms and buzzwords that others don’t understand. I’ve seen it in education, psychology, and other fields. The more we can keep things in simple terms, the better for everyone.