E-learning (or e-Learning) is the use of electronic educational technology in learning and teaching. E-Learning requires different types of engagement, categorized in the non-hierarchical framework of key practices or skills. There are two types of learning practices with each has six learning practices for learners, they are for assisting learners to assimilate new knowledge and understanding (searching, selecting, exploring, testing, analyze and synthesize) and to exhorts them to follow through sharing and using their knowledge gains (collaborate, discuss, understand, apply, create and promote ).
To assimilate new knowledge and understanding
Searching and Selecting
Usually in some combination, search and select activities are the ‘bread and butter’ of learners’ collation of information; the one identifying where the sources of information might be (searching), the other choosing the most relevant sources according to the criteria established by their learning needs(selection). Saving and keeping track of the information, and any new knowledge, are skills that will be challenged persistently by the sheer volume of material available. Bookmarking or saving favorite websites will make it easier to conduct subsequent searches, but personal annotated databases will be increasingly needed to hold all relevant electronic sources. There was a time when each family was lucky to have a few texts or perhaps only a Bible; today in the developed world we are literally drowning in information! The skills of criterion-searching and selecting by relevance are staples in the set of basic Internet literacy tools.
Exploring
Similar to searching, exploring implies a more relaxed browsing, looking for information that might match our interests or meet our needs. It is an almost everyday activity, as we scan a magazine or newspaper, for example, for items that interest us.
Testing
Related to exploring is the discovery mode of e-Learning, in which learners try out ideas, test hypotheses, and so on. Web-based information comes in many forms and simulations, and games are examples in which the full potential of interactive engagement is used. Rather than simply reading new information, such activities enable the learner to avail him or herself of a type of information-cum-knowledge creation that requires them to explore and manipulate virtual circumstances and conditions relevant to the focus of their studies.
Analyze and Synthesize
These activities often go together as learners deconstruct the complexity of a set of information (analyze) and rebuild it as their own knowledge (synthesize). When we analyze a set of information, be it train timetables or quotations for holiday insurance for example, we attempt to reduce it to different categories, distinguished by the importance we attach to each of them. Once we have looked at several versions of the information, the risks covered by each of several insurance policy proposals for example, we begin to synthesize it to make sure that what we eventually choose fits our needs and at a competitive cost within the options we have. Learning is no different. Whatever the context, the analysis of relevant information from different case studies, examples of scientific phenomena, periods of architecture or whatever, and the synthesis or pulling together of this information to suit our specific learning needs, are key learning skills necessary not only for constructing the new knowledge for ourselves, but for beginning to contribute new understandings for others.
To share and use their knowledge gains
Collaborate and Discuss
The cycle might begin with the learners seeking to share the information and new knowledge with others (collaboration and discussion); a process that is well known to consolidate and improve understanding through the action of being obliged to explain (externalize) what has begun to be internalized. Very often we tell others about something we have read and a discussion ensues. One of the most powerful factors in promoting learning is this contribution to discussion and collaboration with others who are working towards the same goal. By articulating the ideas to others and hearing their inputs, by repeating them and teasing out the implications of theories or sets of conditions, such discussion will assist in formulating and consolidating new knowledge. In this way, connected learners can move each other beyond the level of superficial understandings.
Understand and Apply
During this consolidation and sharing phase, it is likely that the learners will be faced with the challenges (or opportunities) to demonstrate their grasp of the new knowledge (understanding) by using it in context (applying it). This demonstration of understanding might be for the benefit of others but the major benefit accrues to the learners themselves. It is possible to apply knowledge blindly of course, with little understanding of the concepts and reasons for actions and outcomes. For example, the ‘natural’ snooker player may never reflect upon and understand the mathematical niceties of spin or cue-to-ball contact that make them champions. However, most people will benefit from training that explains and then practices the skills necessary to optimize these features of play. In many areas of life and work, action informed by understanding is generally more focused, efficient and, hopefully, successful. Taking basic information such as lecture notes or a literature review, and developing understanding through discussion, analysis and synthesis, will generally enable better and more purposeful application of the newly gained knowledge in solving problems or making decisions.
Create and Promote
Once they are comfortable with their grasp of a learning context, learners may fashion their new knowledge in transferable forms (creating ‘learning objects’) to make it available to other learners in a communal learning resource space (promoting the learning objects they have created). e-Learning offers unique opportunities to create new knowledge and to promote its use by others through the ease of communication and dissemination of the new knowledge, within a community of learners context. Indeed, this process is an explicit difference between the learning made possible with new technologies and the older, traditional models of learning, whether these might be the restrictive didacticism of teacher-led learning or the greater freedom of teacher-facilitated learning.
SOURCES
- E-Learning Concepts and Practice
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