October 26, 2004

E-learning Future: With or Without Teachers?

When you read reports about the future of e-learning such as the latest ACTeN - Anticipating Content Technology Needs report of June 2004 you get the impression that e-learning is and will be void of any teachers.

Traditional classroom-based training initiatives are seen to be "disruptive" when compared to the freedom, that e-learning brings: access to knowledge anywhere and anytime.

The role of the teacher is reduced to a mere 'tour guide' who “supports the learners through their learning path" showing them where to find sources of information and helping them to stay motivated throughout the course.

Who is behind this ACTeN report?

ACTeN "monitors the digital media market and transfers know-how in Europe, as such ACTeN detects new developments in e-content research . ACTeN continuously monitors market innovations, facilitates expert discussions and undertakes best-practise workshop Europe-wide looking into the future."

ACTeN’s experts, made up of 18 round tables of throughout Europe, are paid to look into the future of e-learning and most amazing as it may seem: they do not see teachers in virtual classrooms in this picture. Teachers are completely missing. Virtual classroom technology is not even mentioned.

Quite in contrast to the experts’ opinion: I have a vision.

I have a vision of teachers returning to their classrooms. Not to real classrooms but virtual classrooms and I perceive that we will even see an increase in live online courses outnumbering traditional courses.

Let me explain why this is a realistic vision and let me also explain why classroom teaching is viewed so negatively in the ACTeN report ....

The ACTeN report provides three reasons why e-learning is beneficial and fits our mobile society:

• access to content anywhere and anytime: 24 hours x 7 days


• classroom teaching is inconvenient because students “have to wait to make up a class”


• the quality of e-learning content is measurable, consistent and based on pedagogical expertise

Point no. 1: ‘access to content anywhere and anytime’ is a strong reason. Imagine, however, you would be able to pick and choose your live lessons from a 24h schedule? Teachers who are available 24 hours a day. How is this possible? It is possible because of the time zones and because one can enter a virtual classroom at any given time. Look at Englishtown who offers live speaking lessons, 24 hours a day. They can easily do so because their teachers are located in America, UK and in Asia. This may also be possible with other content, such as ‘general, financial studies, frequently changing content’ (to quote ACTeN again).

Point no. 2: ‘students have to wait to make up class’, this is why traditional classroom-based training initiatives are seen to be "disruptive" because they often or not include a waiting list. What about virtual classroom-based initiatives? Very likely it will be much easier to fill these classrooms, because enrolees are more numerous when recruited from national or an international territories.

Point no. 3: ‘quality of e-learning is measurable’. Granted: a CD containing a course will very likely be pedagogically and methodologically sound and will contain a test to examine progress made, when studying it from beginning to end. A book or a manual too are of high quality. And still, both cannot be compared to the quality of a course conducted by a teacher. Who would argue that learning Spanish with a native teacher is Spain gets anywhere near to learning Spanish by means of a CBT or a WBT program? Well they simply cannot be compared and both are needed just like pupils in a school need their teachers and also do well to do their homework.

By means of virtual classroom technology it will be possible to enhance the quality of classroom teaching in general. Simply by being able to access lessons which you would not be able to otherwise. Or wouldn’t you want to learn Flash with a programmer at Macromedia, .NET with an MS expert in Silicon Valley, English with a teacher from Cambridge and your product training with those who manufacture the items independent from any local restrictions?

We are convinced that this kind of teaching has a future and we would like to hear your opinions about this. Where do you think the trend is going?

Will the future of learning likely be with or without teachers?

Will ACTeN need to review their reports?

If so, how soon?

Posted on October 26, 2004 at 09:49 AM

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Readers' Comments

March 11, 2005 10:17 PM

marcela ferrere

I think it´s a greta idea and in fact i would like to teach on line from home and contact people all around teh world. I think it´s simply fantastic!,rather than go to a school to teach

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October 26, 2004 07:01 PM

Godfrey Parkin

Heike:

Good article! The problem with EU-funded projects is that they tend to have very tightly defined parameters that are executed at a level of aggregation that makes them almost pointless.

If ACTeN is supposed to focus only on developing an e-content industry, then it may feel anything outside that scope is irrelevant.

Unfortunately 'anything outside that scope' includes most of what is useful in e-learning, because the canned content business is so 20th century.

To answer your questions:

Yes, live teachers and live trainers will always have a vital role to play, though they will more and more use technology to communicate remotely.

And yes, ACTen needs to update its report urgently. I suspect that you or I could have written this report in a couple of days, and been more relevant in our commentary. ACTen seems to have fallen foul of the commitee syndrome, taking a lot of time and spending a lot of money to come up with something that is interesting but not actionable, factual in selective content but misleading in its omissions.

Thanks for pointing it out. I did a longer piece on it and a linkback to your piece in my blog (http://parkinslot.blogspot.com)

Godfrey

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