Effective e.Learning Design

Effective e.Learning is the next topic which I have covered as part of the courseware for Managing e.Learning. The first part of the topic discusses how 21st Century learners are engaged by e.Learning, and according to Waterhouse 2005, “At a very basic level e-learning is using information communication technologies (ICTs) to engage, enhance and extend learning in flexible and innovative ways, now and in the future” (Central Queensland University, 2009).

In relation to e.Learning, in 2001 Prensky suggested that learners can be identified as either a digital native or digital immigrant. To an extent I would have to agree with Prensky’s generalisation about digital natives vs. immigrants as today’s students are natives to digital technology when compared to past students, including myself (Prensky, 2001). For example, for prac this year I am in a year one class and the students are making their own PowerPoint presentations, where as, when I was in primary school my class and I weren’t able to make PowerPoint presentations until we were in year five which was in the year 2000. Therefore, even though I am only nineteen years of age I feel that at times I can be considered as being a native to digital technology when compared to older generations such as my parents as when I was in year five they didn’t know how to make PowerPoint presentations, where as, when compared to current primary school students I could be considered as being a digital immigrant. I think that if digital immigrants are provided with appropriate training and resources they could quickly become natives to digital technology. In my current role as a student teacher and future role as a learning manager, I want to be perceived by my students as being a native to digital technology as this will help to enhance the students learning as students would be more engaged in their task as we would share some of the same interests and real life experiences.

The internet can play a large role in a student’s e.Learning journey, the issue of Internet Safety definitely arises when implementing learning experiences to students as it is quite easy for students to unintentionally expose themselves to sexually explicit, pornographic, violent and hateful material. For example, at times when entering websites that you think are appropriate for use within school learning environments images of a pornographic nature are displayed in pop ups (Central Queensland University, 2009).

Cyber bullying and physical dangers are also associated with using the internet, in particular, the risk of students meeting a person online who they do not know and arranging to meet them in person. As we all know from media reports people who have met up with a person who they met online can result in very dangerous situations. When I was still in secondary school three years ago, Education Queensland had a system put into place that everything that a student did on the internet was monitored and access to inappropriate sites would be blocked immediately when a student clicked on the link to view the site. However, even though many sites were blocked as they weren’t seen as being educational, for example, msn. In regard to instant messaging there were ways of getting around the blocked site and gaining access to msn, such as, by logging into your account through websites like Meebo. Although communicating through social networking websites with others on the internet can be quite dangerous, I think that it does need to be done by students as it will help to enhance their learning. Therefore, I think that learning managers should encourage their students to use safe communication sites such as chat rooms on the Learning Place, as the students are guaranteed to be associating with other school children.

I agree with the department restricting students internet access, however, at times I felt that the amount of sites which were blocked restricted my learning within my classroom environment, for example, when surfing Google for information for a research assignment half of the sites that you would click onto to have a look at were blocked. Therefore, to use the information from the sites we were required to access the site outside of school hours on our home computer or at the local internet café.

Therefore, access and equity is another issue involved in relation to e.Learning. There are four main groups of students associated with the access and equity issue of e.Learning; students with a disability, from an Indigenous background, cultural and linguistic diversity and their gender (Blackmore, Hardcastle, Bamblett & Owens, 2003).

As a result, in order for the use of ICT’s to be advantageous to all learners, it is essential for changes to be made when using ICT’s in the learning environment in order to make learning effective. The main change which I think needs to be made is that if the schools/learning managers require their students to use ICTs throughout their schooling years, the school should receive funding from the government which ensures that ALL students have access to using these resources outside of their school environment, for example, if a year seven student is required to make a PowerPoint presentation for their assignment, they should be given access outside of schools hours to a computer in order to complete the assignment. Students could receive access to a computer through a lending scheme with the school where the student borrows out a laptop for the night. If a lending scheme is unable to be implemented, the school should have their computer laboratory open for a period of time after school so that the students whose families do not own a computer have an equal chance to completing their assignment and learning, regardless of how diverse they are. For example, I know that when I was at school some of the students in my class did not have a computer in their home environment, and even though we were given a limited amount of time during our school day to complete our assignment in the computer room, we were still required to finish the assignment outside of school hours. Therefore, the students without computers in their home tended to become disengaged in their task, had a negative experience when working with ICT’s and did not reach their full learning potential.

Uncle Ernie’s Holistic Framework was also covered in this topic and I think that a better understanding of Indigenous culture and perspectives in all Australian students could be achieved by adopting Uncle Ernie’s framework or one similar to his within school learning environments, as it caters to students preferred learning styles whilst embedding Indigenous perspectives into their learning experiences (Grant, 1998). I believe that e.Learning could facilitate Ernie’s Holistic approach by setting up a site which has Aboriginal elders filmed discussing the six processes- land, language, culture, time, place and relationships in relation to Indigenous people, as their culture is based upon oral information rather than written information (Grant, 1998). Therefore, students from various schools could be added into a live chatroom and could discuss with the elder and other peers their thoughts and understanding of the six processes and information which has been delivered by the Indigenous speaker.

Reference list:
Central Queensland University (CQU). (2009). FAHE11001- Managing E-Learning: Moodle site. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Scot Aldred.

Blackmore, J., Hardcastle, L., Bamblett, E., & Owens, J. (2003). Effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance learning for disadvantaged school students. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from
http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/D63F92A3-6931-464F-9970-D599BE3E390E/4520/ICTreport.pdf

Grant, E. (1998). My Land My Tracks: A framework for the holistic approach to indigenous studies. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from
http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/indigenous/docs/uncle-ernies-framework.pdf

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf