Abstract

=E-learning - Crossing the Ditch =

According to Treadwell (2008) the Internet provides an overwhelming resource and a powerful set of communication skills to pursue "deep and profound learning outcomes” and yet this is not necessarily being realised. The Education Review Office (ERO) (2005) in their report “E-Learning in Primary Schools” found that while teaching programmes incorporated e-learning which generally increased student motivation and enjoyment of learning, the extent to which teachers used e-learning effectively to support students’ learning was limited. In some schools, ICT was being used to occupy students rather than to engage them in learning. The ERO (2005) also found that “Pedagogical skills and ICT skills overall, were not being transferred into teaching practice in many schools.”

In many of the schools I have worked in, teachers have not changed the way that they teach since the introduction of computers. They have “integrated” e-learning into their general classroom programs in the most basic of forms – by simplify tacking it onto already existing ways of teaching. Often the focus has been on acquiring a set of ICT skills, rather than on the way that it can be used to deepen children’s thinking.

Trevor Bond (2010) agrees. He stresses how important it is for schools to move the primary focus away from skills like word processing, spread sheets, Internet searching towards quality learning and teaching and using ICT as a tool to enhance this.

This was a concern for me and the driving force behind this wiki. Is this the case thoughout New Zealand? How are we using ICT in schools? Are we using it to enhance the learning process or to support it? How do we compare with Australia? But before we investigated what was happening in practice, I felt that it was essential to discover the foundations on which e-learning had been developed.

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1. Establish commonalities and differences in the ‘big picture’ of e-learning in education in Australia and New Zealand. =====
 * =====E-learning Vision – What big ideas inform or justify the push to bring students into the Digital age? =====
 * =====E-learning Vision – What is the reality of e-learning in schools and classrooms in Australia and New Zealand? =====

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2. Draw together some features of current practice for e-learning in the classroom from both Australia and New Zealand. =====
 * =====E-learning in practice - What is appropriate e-learning practice – ICT Integration or a new pedagogy of teaching and learning - in Australia and New Zealand? =====
 * =====E-learning in practice – What are the common features of current e-learning practice, aka ICT integration, in Australia and New Zealand? =====