Educators, technologists and career changers from all disciplines convene on the fickle E-learning stage for a unique wordplay. Their creative potential is combined. New terms are coined and existing ones redefined. Oh yes, the creative power of e-learning is enormous. This is how a myriad of novel, crazy, wayward, catchy, unspeakable, yet successful terms have emerged. Here are some highlights:
Telematics: the fortuitous alliance of telecommunications and computer science already achieved a brilliant career in the 1990s on the (not yet so-called) E-learning stage. It was the birth of a new era. The Internet had come, and so had the possibility to use this new medium for telecommunication. The end of its career came quickly though. New stars arose and shone much brighter, such as ODL.
Let’s stay with ODL – Open and Distance Learning. There hardly is a more appropriate term for technology-based distance learning systems, in fact. Shortly and precisely, it describes the degrees of freedom in the learning process. Nevertheless, it went out of fashion quickly: dusty, incongruous, no sex appeal.
Then, finally, E-learning (aka elearning, e-Learning, ELearning, also available in plural as E-learnings etc.). Learning received an electronic component, and the “E-” was born. Really sexy, and a real hype! It still is, too. Electronic learning or electronically based learning isn’t going out of fashion. There have been many appeals to “let that E finally disappear”, or “learning in the 21st century would be entirely impossible without the E, therefore the E is a matter of course”. But it abided. If anything, the concept remains topical because it is plain and arbitrary. Its soft contours allow for a variety of context-dependent definitions. Everyone knows it, but nobody knows exactly what is meant by it…
And when E-learning had established itself, another new fashion came up: Web 2.0 and E-Learning 2.0 were suddenly there. The static, unidirectional Web model had changed: The community with its social costume entered the stage, and suddenly everyone was in contact with everyone. You give and you take. Important news and trifles are all published. Profound and futile things are committed to writing. Will there be a Web 3.0, too?
There are still a few more, minor characters on the E-learning stage:
Second Life: the world has a double. All on stage make way for the exciting and limitless Second Life! Everyone wanted to play and become an important part of it. But the added value was low, and fatigue followed quickly. Second Life was a mega-hype with a short appearance.
Learning Objects: learning elements (text, images, videos) that can be applied to any learning context with the help of tags (metadata) and skilled “decontextualization” (Uh…). Tell me who you are, and I’ll mix you your own learning module. Well, that didn’t work out, sadly. LOs quickly exited the stage. But none surrendered. “Mash-ups” were invented: the remix of E-learning contents. Same sound, new beat. Yeah!
Serious games – an interesting paradox. The term attempted to portray learning and fun as antonyms. Educational games have got to be a serious matter! If games are to play a role in education, then a serious one, please. Serious Games can also be “immersive“. You dive into them, you forget time and space, you take on exciting roles… but please, let’s be serious!
Sónia Hetzner 