I have developed and run a MOOC; and have another in development.\u00a0 I run a fully distance learning MA.\u00a0 I did my PhD on a theme related to the Internet. You would think I would be in love with new technology and eLearning.\u00a0 My secret confession is\u2026 I have never been in love with it. \u00a0It simply started as an affair.\u00a0 An affair that felt exciting at times and wrong at others.\u00a0 It felt like I was cheating on my real love \u2013 the adrenaline and buzz that comes with classroom based teaching. \u00a0Now eLearning and I are \u2018going steady\u2019; our relationship is maturing and I feel more comfortable talking about it.<\/p>\n
So what have I learnt?\u00a0 Perhaps, most importantly, when it comes to eLearning being a skeptic is healthy. I remember at one memorable conference dinner being sat next to the White House chief technology advisor.\u00a0 He blew me away with his conversation \u2013 predicting the end of schools as we know them.\u00a0 He painted a picture of \u2018super teachers\u2019 piping the very best learning through virtual reality headsets to millions of children at a time.\u00a0 There would be adults employed as minders \u2013 simply there to keep the headsets on.\u00a0 I am sure the wine was talking and he was trying to blow my mind\u2026but the image has stayed strong in my head.\u00a0 It looked and felt like a dystopian nightmare.<\/p>\n
Yet I keep finding myself coming back to that dinner time conversation.\u00a0 What if elements of the vision could be actualised?\u00a0 What if, for an hour tomorrow, all children could learn interactively, through dynamic headsets, about space from Tim Peake, or anatomy from our very own Alice Roberts? This sounds more exciting.\u00a0 This is how I have learnt to become comfortable with my affair; by being open to the possibilities of technology enhanced learning while, at the same time, remaining questioning and critical. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I believe this requires all of us, to ask (and then try and answer) some challenging questions.<\/p>\n
We need to work out which aspects of the technology genuinely improve learning and teaching, which are simply a distraction \u2013 and be aware that a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 approach is probably unsuitable.\u00a0 We need to be honest: eLearning brings many benefits for teachers and learners but these (currently) come at a price. \u00a0Is this a price always worth paying? We need to think harder about how we can ensure eLearning remains essentially human and keep trying out, embracing, and also being prepared to jettison, new innovations.\u00a0 We need to be excited about the possibilities of bringing together a global audience to discuss, debate and, hopefully, unite as a community of learners to address the big questions of the day.<\/p>\n
To address these challenges and big questions will requires us to be innovative, take risks and properly research impact.\u00a0\u00a0 It will require investment.\u00a0 But we are in a great place to do this \u2013 as I believe innovation and self-evaluation should be the watchwords of any good University \u2013 now and in the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have developed and run a MOOC; and have another in development.\u00a0 I run a fully distance learning MA.\u00a0 I did my PhD on a theme related to the Internet. You would think I would be in love with new technology and eLearning.\u00a0 My secret confession is\u2026 I have never been in love with it. … Continue reading “An Affair\u2026 by Dr. Tom Harrison”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,31,13,18],"tags":[11,4,22,28,20],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-distance-learning","category-e-learning","category-teaching","category-technology","tag-distance-learning","tag-e-learning","tag-learning","tag-teaching","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}