I have just finished writing the conclusion to the book I edited that is to be published by Athabasca University Press (under an Open Access license) for Terry Anderson’s distance education series. It is tentatively titled Emerging Technologies in Distance Education.
I am posting the conclusion below. If you’d like to provide any feedback, I’d be glad to listen. Are there things that you’d expect to see in there but you don’t? Is something unclear? Anything that needs further refinement? Or is everything perfect? (I doubt it!) And, of course, I hope that when the book comes out, you grab your free copy and send us your feedback!
Conclusion
It has been a little over a year since this book was conceptualized. Notwithstanding important global events that happened during the period from July 2008 to October 2009, the period in which this book was developed (such as the worldwide economic recession and the election of Mr. Barrack Obama to the US presidency), technological advances during this time have been rapid. To cite a few, Twitter became part of the popular discourse and the web has seen increased activity and interest in real-time access to published information. In addition, this period has seen advances in the educational front. For instance, this was the first time Open Access Week was celebrated, calling for immediate and free access to scholarly knowledge, while two free online universities were launched (Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People). It seems that both the web and the way we think about education are changing.
Regardless of the fact that both education and the web are in a state of emergence, this book provides evidence that we are moving towards a consensus with regards to how effective and engaging learning experiences should be designed. Whether as a result of technological advancements, as a result of a changing mindset, or a combination of the two, distance learning educators, researchers and practitioners are (a) moving towards a model of distance education grounded upon social, authentic, and community-based learning experiences, where (b) presence, communication, interaction and collaboration are valued, (c) and where emerging technologies are both used to enhance education and where good practice and pedagogy is used to appropriate the emerging technologies available. Reflecting on the finished chapters, the original submissions, and my discussions with chapter authors, I see three themes that can bring closure to this volume: (a) the broad focus of the book, (b) the excitement and motivation displayed by this volume’s practitioners and researchers, and (c) the prospects for future research. I will discuss these themes next.
First, while our focus lies on the use of emerging technologies in distance education, it is clear from reading the chapters and observing the summary of the chapters generated via wordle.com (figure 1), that the focus isn’t necessarily the technology. The authors in this volume focus on enhancing educational research and practice based on the notion that powerful learning experiences are social, immersive, engaging, and participatory. In turn these types of learning experiences lend themselves well to being enhanced through the emerging technologies that we have available at our disposal. [insert figure 1 here]
Second, the authors contributing to this volume have displayed tremendous excitement for their work, eagerness to receive feedback, and motivation to transform the future of distance education. These authors are not just writers and scholars but also activists in furthering meaningful, powerful, and just educational opportunities. To me this is very important. The work of an academic should not be limited to teaching classes and writing research reports to be read and analyzed by like-minded individuals. In short, academics should also see themselves as changemakers, and, academics in schools of education in particular, should focus their work towards developing equitable societies that are free of injustices, where opportunities for deeply personal and powerful learning experiences are open to everyone. Evidence to these authors’ commitment to the noble causes of education was the fact submissions to this book came as a direct result of it being open access. In particular, more than three quarters of the original 65 submissions noted that the reason for submitting to this project was because the book was going to be offered free of charge for anyone to use and download.
Finally, while each chapter suggests future lines of inquiry at the micro level, the work presented in this volume collectively highlights broader areas of interests that deem research attention. At the macro level, it is clear that we need longitudinal research that is multidisciplinary in nature. At the meso level, important areas of inquiry and research include,
• Further inquiry into the symbiotic and reinforcing relationship between emerging technologies, pedagogies, and the rise of the participatory web
• new pedagogies and approaches that embrace emerging technologies as natural artifacts in contemporary educational systems as opposed to add-ons to an existing pedagogy, approach, or activity,
• renewed emphasis on the role and nature of education and universities, along with an examination of the roles of educators and informal learning experiences,
• further research into understanding how social, immersive, engaging, and participatory learning experiences can be initiated in distance education contexts,
• development of research frameworks for investigating social, immersive, engaging, and participatory learning, and
• revamped efforts to understand how learning communities can be fostered (both in the context of formal education, as well as in the context of lifelong informal learning).
In closing, I hope you enjoyed reading this book and that you found it worthwhile for your research and practice. If you did, share the book openly and freely.
George Veletsianos, October 2009
Ashley Casey
Hi George,
Thanks for the opportunity to read and, as a former teacher and now a teachers teacher, I found the conclusion more than interesting enough to prompt me to download and read the book when it comes out. I felt that conclusion tied the themes together and celebrated the great things that people are doing ‘out there.’ It is wonderful to read about the actions of others because they provide the motivation needed to try bigger and better things.
However, and perhaps this is because I struggled to change the way that I taught for seven years against so much indifference in my school and with some of my colleagues, I found it a little too celebratory. The realities of school reform and pedagogical change are not just about looking at the success but also exploring the failures or the near-successes — or indeed any of the notches along the spectrum between the positives and the negatives — and learnfrom these as much as the out-and-out successes. It is the engagement, through action and reflection, in “problem re-identification” that I think is missing from this piece. As Groundwater-Smith and Mockler (2005) have said, with regards to practitioner research, we need to move ‘beyond celebration’. They suggested a desideratum in practitioner research should be the willingness to engage in disputation and vigorous debate with yourself, and/or with others, and felt that there is often more power in critique than applause.
I am not sure that I have put myself across quite right, and do not mean any offence in my observations, but I have been considering this for many hours since reading the conclusion yesterday while walking the dogs and felt that I should comment as invited.
Thanks for the chance to read and have the chance to make observations about your work
Ashley
George Veletsianos
Thank you for your comments Ashley – I would love to hear your thoughts again once you go through the book chapters as I don’t think the 3 page conclusion would fully capture the rest of the 350 pages of the book, especially as a great deal of pragmatism has gone in the book and chapter contributors have openly critiqued the “pie in the sky” view of technologicy-enhanced learning (and even more so that in other publications). :) Below are just a few examples:
One author says “If we employ emerging technologies in our work, we should also be prepared to experiment with different lenses through which to view the world and with different ways to explore such ideas and practices as knowledge, scholarship, collaboration, and even education. While doing so, we should also remain cognizant of the fact that resistance and failures are possible, and, if documented in the literature, helpful.”
Another chapter notes that, “While expectations have run high about instructional radio, television, personal computers, computer-based instruction, the Internet, Web 2.0, e-learning, m-learning, new-name-learning, and the impact of these tools and technologies, results have often been disappointing (see Cuban, 2001): “showcase” learning environments, disengaged students, and technology-enhanced instruction that merely replicates face-to-face teaching seem to be the norm and the standard to which we have become accustomed, rather than the exception. As a field that seems to find joy in the development of acronyms, terms, and catchy descriptors (think i-learning, student 2.0, education 3.0) we seem to quickly traverse innovations in the hope that the next technological advancement will be our holy grail”
And yet another, “is it the emerging uses of technology, or the emerging technologies themselves, that will ultimately lead to more meaningful, transformative, and engaged online learning? Through the collaborative investigations, shared case narratives, and emerging technology research initiatives illustrated throughout this book, we believe these convoluted theoretical questions are evolving quite nicely into practical design challenges: a wonderful and welcomed progression for our field.”
I am sure you can see the issues raised here between technology, practice, theory, design, and so on. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have the time to read the book. Conversation is always welcome and invited :)
Ashley Casey
Thanks for taking the time to reply George and I will certainly look through the book when it is finished (I am not sure I can promise to read 350 pages) but I look forward to it and applaud your authors and yourself on your open approach to research. It is clear from you examples that the book will challenge expectations about technology in education and I wish you every success in your venture.