Reflections about e-learning

I have learned a lot about e-learning after my first reading, and I also have some concerns about his applications to attends people that for some reasons have not the opportunity to receive education or improve the quality of it. But after all, I want to make a briefly description of my experience with distance learning, because These experiences are helping me to understand the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, but I to see the differences with e-learning. During the 70’s, my mother and I took classes through lesson plans received by mail twice a month. My mother studied haute couture, and I learned photography. Twenty year later, I work as voluntary at Radio Fe y Alegría’s distance literacy program. There, I learned a little be about radio’s pre-production, production and post-production.

After reading, I learned that there are three generations of distance education: teaching, multi-media teaching, and the new interactive communications technology generation. I also learn that “distance” is not a defining characteristic of e-learning. Distance educations is non-contiguous communication, and classroom sessions are not the primary goal. Distance learning education is designed to students that could not attend a conventional educational institution. This type of education wants to overcome the barrier of time, space, social class, and family obligation. In addition, it is a cheaper educative solution than regular formal education.

I thinks e-Learning is a definition that try to explained learning experiences produced during the interaction between a person and the information delivered via computer, as for example, multi-media games, e-mail, internet surfing, chap groups and some other new formats. According to the e-Learning book, It is a way of instructional delivered and a kind of content that help people to learn. The most important e-learning features are: the content is relevant to the objectives, use words and pictures to deliver content and methods; it could be instructor-led or self-place individual study.

E-Learning’s content has been classified in five types: fact, concept, process, procedure, and strategic principles, and e-Learning’s conceptions distinguish three kinds of objectives: inform, perform procedure and perform principle objectives. The quality of the content, his relation with objectives, and the use of a cognition theory are the successful are the most important considerations to be applying during the production of an online course.

Paraphrasing the most recently Larry Cuban’s book, I say “ Distance Education and the e-learning: Why these Can't Be Businesses.” While I was reading, I main erroneous assumptions about e-learning came from high technology industries. They were expecting to win billons of dollars selling computers, software, online courses, and many other technology infrastructures. I think that people are not simple target clients for the industrial model of distance education, well know as e-learning at this moment. Time and space are two important barrier to have access to education, but these reasons are the consequence of a economic and political model in which the school system is organized to attend a determine population target.

Unfortunately, some e-learning visions respond almost only to a business conceptual framework. For my, this visions will give millions of dollars to some companies, but it will not solve the gap between millions of people and his right to receive education.