Research, Education & Technology

The State of E-Learning in Canadian Higher Ed

Hello again, blogger and Twitter accounts. I know it's been a while since I've last posted (and, I know one of my posts last year was about not abandoning your accounts...). So, here I am, ready to renew my posting efforts! Lots has been going on...

A couple of things that I've been following lately in the world of e-Learning. One is the article from the National Post, "Students Give E-Learning a Grade of Incomplete." It seems that the jury is still out on what all is going on in the world of e-learning -- particularly regarding notions of digital natives, popularized by Marc Prensky in 2001. Reading the full report on e-learning in higher education in Canada (see: The state of e-learning in Canadian universities, 2011: If students are digital natives, why don’t theylike e-learning?) gives us a chance to begin to see some of the perplexities and complexities of e-learning today. Unsurprisingly, students like some ed tech things sometimes, and dislike other technology innovations at other times -- it's all about context, and the teaching and learning purposes for which the technologies are being used.