Nicola van den Berg :: Blog :: defining the "e"

I was reading a Blog post e-learning? Isn't it just learning? today, and what this person was saying made total sense to me.

"However, one thing that occurs to me is that sticking the letter e in front of a real-world concept does not give it magical powers! So we have e-learning, e-portfolios, e-assessment, e-etc, but what are they really? Aren't they just the real-world concepts supported by technology?"

Adding an "e" to something doesn't make it revolutionary, and as a colleague of mine is fond of saying "technology should come last".

The ins and outs of the concepts are what should be explored, if you are creating a portfolio, does it really matter whether its on a web page, or a its a bunch of Word documents available on a CD, or even something on paper?

The "e" often makes things a little more accessible, it tends to suggest things will be online, they will be electronic and therefore more people should hopefully be able to access things.

However, just because there are new ways of doing things doesn't mean the old need to be completely ignored. The process is how you get there in the end, it doesn't really matter how you do it, so long as it suits you, and you understand the concept.

If you want to communicate with someone then there are various ways in which to do this, one would be e-mail, but the difference between e-mail and written mail is simply the method, the process, the how you actually create it. The concept of written words, sent to someone, for them to read is just the same.

Therefore, wouldn't "eLearning"  be just the same? Its still learning, and thats whats important, it doesn't matter how a student learns, it matters that they learn.

They should have the opportunity to learn the way they wish to learn, an ideal world i guess, would be able to cater for every variation, but so long as we don't prevent students learning in their way, things should be ok.

eLearning then, at least in my mind, should be the application, the use of technology, where it provides an easier, better, more accessible, more fun.... way of learning.

It must be appropriate, there is no point in using technology because its new, because its there, because its fashionable, it should be used where it can aid the learning process.

Can eLearning be classified as one thing?

Where i work we had many conversations with lecturing staff, and to a large percentage of them, "eLearning was the VLE" and visce-versa. Our message is that eLearning is a general label under which many different things fit.

So then eLearning, isn't it just "Learning" supported by technology?

Isn't that all it should be? Nothing revolutionary, nothing new, just a way of supporting learning.