e-learning+Vision+-+The+Big+Ideas

=What big ideas inform or justify the push to bring students into the Digital age? =

“The times they are a-changin”, Bob Dylan sang, and this is true of the changing face of primary schooling today. Educators and researchers in New Zealand and Australia, and indeed worldwide, cite many reasons for the push to bring schools into the “Digital Age”. Current educational ICT policies and strategy documents, promote a view that ICT will transform teaching and learning. This e-learning vision is clearly stated by MCEETYA (Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training Youth Affairs, 2004), “pedagogies integrating ICT can do more than enhance learning – they have the potential to transform learning.” Similarly, the e-Learning Action Plan in New Zealand, (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2006) highlights the potential of e-learning to transform the way we learn. The strong links between Australia and New Zealand in terms of vision is to be expected as MCEETYA has been established to inform both counties about e-learning principles and practice. Most current e-learning initiatives are justified using a mixture of ideas from a range of sources. Bolstad and Gilbert (2008) have summarised these as four main arguments:
 * 1) The ‘efficiency’ argument
 * 2) The ‘digital generation’ argument
 * 3) The ‘community building/ connect-to-the world’ argument
 * 4) The ‘knowledge Age/21st century learning’ argument.

1. The ‘efficiency’ argument.
Essentially the ‘efficiency’ argument refers to the benefits that ICT can bring to school by enabling teachers and administrators to work more efficiently. In this argument, Bolstad and Gilbert (2008) believe ICT is an add-on to existing practices.

2. The ‘digital generation’ argument
The ‘digital generation’ argument appears to get a lot of ‘press’ and is referred to regularly in research, literature, online blogs and videos centred around the importance of ICT/ e-learning. Essentially it is based on the idea that the students themselves are demanding the shifts to an e-learning environment. These children, as outlined by Prensky (2005) are no longer “little versions of us”, they are so different from us that Prensky (2005) has coined the phrase ‘digital native’ to refer to those born in this digital world. Similarly, Jukes and Dosaj (2006) in ‘Understanding Digital Kids’, outline how and why these students are different and concludes by saying that the bottom line is that there needs to be fundamental shift in how teaching and learning takes place in schools. These digital natives, Prensky (2005), Layton (2000 as cited in Campbell, 2001) and Spender (2007) believe need teachers who have reconsidered both the way that they are currently teaching (methodology) and what they are teaching (content). The children have changed but the conventions and convictions of many educational professionals have not. The argument is that the old ways of teaching are not going to work for these children.

Below is a video, ‘A Vision of K-12 kids Today’ (Nesbitt, 2007), which highlights some of the features and perceived needs of the Digital Natives or Digital Generation as they ‘ask’ for changes to teaching and learning in schools.

media type="youtube" key="_A-ZVCjfWf8?fs=1" height="342" width="425" align="center"

3. The ‘community building/ connect-to-the world’ argument
The ‘community building/ connect-to-the world’ argument is about being connected with new people, ‘building new and different relationships – between teachers, students and people or resources outside school’ (Bolstad & Gilbert, 2008). The introduction of the Internet has opened opportunities for people to make connections with others around the world and use them to support teaching and learning. Bolstad and Gilbert (2008) argue that this argument does not allow us to see why it is important to change and does not outline what the change might look like.

4. The ‘knowledge Age/21st century learning’ argument.
The ‘Knowledge Age/21st century learning’ argument is the other big player in the justification stakes as it is also regularly referred to in research, literature, online blogs and videos centred ICT/ e-learning. This argument is well supported by many educationalists including Treadwell (2008), Gilbert (2005) and Whitby (2007) who all refer to the new paradigm shift in education that is needed as we move out of the industrial age context, that the current education system was designed to serve, and move into post-industrial ways of thinking.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Each has a slightly different spin on what this should look like but there is no doubt that they all agree that ICT and e-learning has a vital role to play in supporting pedagogical change and addressing the issue about the kind of future that we want for individuals and society. Treadwell (2008) believes that the new paradigm shift will provide opportunities for a more individualised approach to learning. In contrast, Gilbert (2005) believes that the very nature of knowledge is changing – from being a passive recipient to making ones own knowledge. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Greg Whitby (2007), the Executive Director of Schools, Diocese of Parramatta in Australia, also agrees that teachers and schooling in today’s world needs to break from the past as transmitters of knowledge and become co-constructors. In this video, ‘ 21st Century Pedagogy’ he talks about the need for teachers develop a new ‘pedagogical dna’.

media type="youtube" key="l72UFXqa8ZU?fs=1" height="325" width="536" align="center"


 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Red Hat Question**:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Feelings ||= || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">A new ‘pedagogical dna’? How did you feel about this idea? ||

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Evidently there are a numbers of ‘big ideas’ (arguments) which justify the use of ICT or e-learning in schools in New Zealand and Australia. A glace though ‘Enabling the 21st Century Learner’ (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2006) shows the use of many aspects of these ‘big ideas’ for placing importance on e-learning in schools in New Zealand. Examples include, ‘placing the learner at the centre of the education system’, ‘connect schools and communities’, ‘pursue knowledge’, ‘make new knowledge’ and ‘transform the way we learn’. In Australia, MCEETYA have been charged with developing a vision for schools use of ICT, with individual states and being responsible for making the vision a reality. Like the New Zealand vision, this statement, ‘Learning in an Online World’ (Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training Youth Affairs, 2004) also utilises a number of the arguments to justify the use of ICT or e-learning in Australian Schools. So the ‘Big Picture’ for e-learning in Australia and New Zealand has been built upon similar foundations – a mixture of each of these ‘big ideas’. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Interestingly, Bolstad and Gilbert (2008) question the success of such a blend of ‘big ideas’ as they argue that the 4 different argument have different origins, are underpinned by a different value system, and can produce different results.


 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Black Hat Question:**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Cautions** ||= <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> ||= <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What are 2 possible effects of education systems blending the ‘big ideas’ when constructing an argument to support a push to bring schools into the “Digital Age”?

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Justify your response. || ||= **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Yellow Hat Question: **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Benefits ||