e-Learning Ecologies Case Studies’s Updates

Week 1 - Admin Post response

I love the visual comparison between the Collaborative/Reflexive Learning and Didactic/Mimetic teaching. It is succinct and powerful, and brings up many discussion points. I have been through and the videos and readings and am trying to pursue an integrative approach in seeing a bigger picture that is not polarised at either extreme. I feel that depending on context and pragmatic considerations, particularly where access to technology is near impossible, the didactic approach still has validity. I also feel that foundational/functional skills are built using the didactic approach and then the learning is expanded using the collaborative process. However the vision that the collaborative/reflexive learning provides is intensely exciting, and although implementation of this at scale is a long and difficult process, without a vision we are doomed to stagnation.

What I found particularly insightful were James Paul Gee's videos. As we know Gee is a great advocate of teaching through games, yet made clear that he is not advocating all of teaching by replacing with games. He emphasises that games have their place and context and I think this wisdom applies to all of education whether that is didactic, reflexive or technology enabled education. What surprised me was his somewhat "conspiracy theory" perspective on the notion of replacing teachers using technology. Certainly the way the assessment standards are constructed at the moment, intelligent tutors can do an admirable job of delivering content for meeting these standards. However teachers are central in collaborative learning. And education has to evolve to collaborative learning. That is the way the world of work operates and sooner or later education will have to respond. 

  • Jenny23 rao23