Learning as Adaptation
"Learning is the natural process of adaptation which enables people to participate successfully in life and work and in groups that are important to them"
One of the big discussions about online education is, "Does it actually lead to learning. Is is valid?" In my case, is my students' English knowledge growing?
I reconsidered my answers to this question after listening to Jay Cross' presentation "Natural Learning". In light of his definition of learning (above), I believe we can answer the questions simply and confidently.
-Do online activities enable people to participate successfully in life and work and in groups that are important to them?
-Yes, they do.
How do these kind of activities create learning/adaptation?
Our students live, work and use the English we are helping them learn in a world of face-to-face and also the world of cyberspace. How can we possibly believe we are preparing our students for life in a globalized reality if we don't help them to be multiliteral?
Online activites are useful to practice points of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation etc. Their greater advantage, however, is to enable students to work in the multicultural world of multimedia and internet. They are a step to multiliteracy.
posted by Gwen @ 12:24 PM
2 Comments:
Gwen asks three questions about online education is, "Does it actually lead to learning. Is is valid?" and "Do online activities enable people to participate successfully in life and work and in groups that are important to them?"
The yes answers to both really hinge on the NEXT question:
"HOW do these kind of activities create learning/adaptation?"
This is the CRUX of the issue. The first two questions could be asked about libraries or whiteboards or OHP's. Do OHP's lead to learning and enable people to participate successfully in life and work? Libraries? Chalkboards?
YES ... IF used appropriately. So the real question is HOW. Gwen has come on this conclusion in the progression of her writing this post. I think it's important to stay focused on that question.
I think online education leads to learning as it is the most growing phenomena these days.
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