Globally Networked Learning Environments: Reshaping the Intersections of Globalization and E-Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

As many e-learning scholars have emphasized, e-learning – situated in a global network of digital technologies – has, of course, a complex global dimension that manifests itself in diverse ways in different institutional, disciplinary, national, and other local academic and educational traditions as digital technologies intersect with local educational practices, policies, and pedagogies. Accordingly, many e-learning scholars have placed this global dimension of e-learning and its local manifestations at the heart of their scholarship, with Lam (2009), for example, examining the literacy practices of immigrant teenagers in online environments; Al-Fadhli (2008) exploring the perceptions of e-learning at Kuwait University; and Marumo et al (2009) studying the role of an elearning platform for educational innovation in Botswana. Others have compared information and communication technology knowledge and usage through the lens of gender and class in Ghana (Kwapong, 2009); studied the role of e-learning in an early childhood programme offered at a virtual university in Africa (Pence, 2007); examined the role of new literacies in the teaching of