Abstract
Changes in the language we use to talk about our activities in service of this mission and a concomitant increased emphasis on blended learning are two trends that emphasize the importance retaining important meaning and knowledge associated with earlier practice and do not limit our thinking by unnecessarily circumscribed discourse. Educators should keep an intentional awareness of the “distance” inherent in the activities and a focus on the multidimensional nature of “education,” which includes but is hardly coterminus with “learning.”
Highlights
This paper explores possible effects of two trends on particular aspects of the experiences of students and faculty: 1) changes in the language we use to talk about our activities in service of this mission and 2) a concomitant increased emphasis on blended learning
In highlighting specific issues in these papers, I will use the terminology the authors themselves employ to talk about our educational endeavors, that is, blended learning, online learning, and e-learning
This threat has taken the form of an ahistorical attitude reflected in 1) the almost universal rejection of the term “distance education” in favor of new terms coined to describe a type of education characterized not by “distance”—a field of little interest to all but a few people—but rather by the term “electronic”, which was of great interest to most people, and 2) the failure of e-learning researchers to build on earlier theories and studies of prior forms of distance delivery
Summary
The Sloan-C mission is to make education “a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time” and “to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access, affordability for learners and providers, and student and faculty satisfaction.” This paper explores possible effects of two trends on particular aspects of the experiences of students and faculty: 1) changes in the language we use to talk about our activities in service of this mission and 2) a concomitant increased emphasis on blended learning. The Sloan-C mission is to make education “a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time” and “to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access, affordability for learners and providers, and student and faculty satisfaction.”. This paper explores possible effects of two trends on particular aspects of the experiences of students and faculty: 1) changes in the language we use to talk about our activities in service of this mission and 2) a concomitant increased emphasis on blended learning. The starting place for this exploration will be the four main Session 2 papers for the 2006 Sloan-C Invitational Summer Research Workshop. In highlighting specific issues in these papers, I will use the terminology the authors themselves employ to talk about our educational endeavors, that is, blended learning, online learning, and e-learning. I will offer an argument for the inadequacy—one might even go as far as to say the dangerous inadequacy—of these terms to appropriately describe and guide what the educational community does in these new teaching and learning environments
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