I thought I had seen every type of classroom until I saw one where students were scattered about the room, some on the floor, others at desks, some in the doorway, and all had laptops. At first glance I thought it was one of those classrooms—the kind with the cool, relaxed teacher who lets his students do just about whatever they fancy. How wrong I was! Actually, this was a serious classroom, with serious students and a serious instructor, and together they were embarking on the concept of “E-Learning.”
“It’s about setting students up to access their learning styles and to use them for learning,” the instructor said to me. He went on to say, “Some students are visual learners, some auditory, while others are kinesthetic, and online learning touches upon all styles.” I walked away a little perplexed, with these questions on my mind: What is this E-Learning about? How does it work? Can it be effective for all students?
According to the Ageless Learner, E-Learning has a wide list of definitions, but ultimately is the “unifying term to describe the fields of online learning, Web-based training, and technology-delivered instruction.” E-Learning makes education more interactive, stimulates different areas of the brain and puts theory in to application.
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) notes that “a shift in our definitions of teaching and learning is a critical factor required to enable the transition to Digital Age literacy and 21st-century skills…” Although engaging students as learners is on the top of every educator’s list, eLearnSpace claims that “K–12 E-Learning is driven by increased learning and increased access to learning.” Many teachers I’ve spoken with have not embraced E-Learning; some say it’s because there are still a lot of glitches to iron out, since it’s relatively new. Other teachers believe their schools or school districts haven’t caught on to the trend and are not “wired” enough to support E-Learning systems.
But one thing is true: the new digital technologies brought about by the information revolution have transformed the way we live, work and learn. For instance, in an oral society, learning is different than in a print society, shifting from a verbal medium to written form. Likewise, the advent of our technological culture created a set of new mediums for learning—and the best part is that various learning styles can be accommodated.
NCREL program associate Robert Blomeyer sums it up: “[E-Learning] is one of the most important and potentially significant new instructional approaches available for supporting the improvement of teaching and learning in America’s K–12 schools today.”
Jen O’Neill
Education Writer
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