Interactive Learning: HE in FE

Can "e-learning" suffice?

Servage (2005), in her article "Strategizing for Workplace e-learning:some critical considerations"*, brings to the fore the organisational tendency towards "technical and economical determinism" with the associated assumption that enabling a learner to interact with technologically supported learning materials will result in learning being attained.

She makes clear her concerns that the social benefits of learning are both less easy to quantify and most frequently neglected despite indications that the internet is, indeed, "very much a social space".

I do have to ask whether any learning can truly take place merely through the interaction with CMC enabled materials. Can we dissociate this learning from accumulated experience, from cultural influence and 'local' perspectives? How do the skills developed from birth and onwards into 'maturity' underpin this learning process - and are these facets a prerequisite for effective e-learning?

* Published within the Journal of Workplace Learning Vol 17 No.5/6, pp304-317 (Accessed on-line 03/02/06) Available from www.emeraldinsight.com/1366-5626.htm

posted by Jane @ 8:36 am