This is the time of year for professional meetings and conferences. I'm not so fond of getting on a plane and flying off somewhere to attend the meetings - until I get there. However, it's always so energizing to meet F2F with people who are interested in the the same things that I am.
I just returned from several days in Vancouver, BC where I attended the Virtual School Society's annual LearnNowBC Conference. It was a great few days. There has been so much distance learning leadership from Canada over the years, I always find myself coming home from meetings like this with a whole new appreciation for what learning technologies help us achieve. I don't necessarily love technology - but I sure have become fond of the stuff that it lets us do.
As I listened to the various speakers and listened to the conversations that their remarks were generating I was reminded of how much and how long I've been tracking this space. I've studied it, researched it, evaluated it, learned more software that I could have ever have imagined to represent content used in its pursuit. Even got involved in helping design software used to build learning content. And even after all this time, there are certain truisms that never seem to change, in spite of all the spinning on the tech side of things.
My most important "lessons elearned" about learning and technology:
First and foremost: Learning is a deeply personal act. It is facilitated when learning experiences are relevant, authentic, and engaging. Sometimes “doing learning unto others” demotivates and disengages the very people we hope to serve.
Secondly, we've got to remember that different kinds of learning demand appropriate strategies, tools, and resources. THAT'S the TRUE blend to maximize learning outcomes!!! More than twenty years of empirical evidence underscore that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” technology solution for learning.
Technology may not guarantee better learning. But it can focus attention, attracting and maintaining a learner’s interest. It can engage by expressing, immersing, display, demonstrating, simulating. It creates connections and encourages collaborations. It allows us to have relationships with information in our own, unique ways.
And finally (at least for this post) the better the experience the greater is the likelihood that learning will occur. And when technology can help strengthen learner motivation, focus attention, make a learning moment more memorable, or demonstrate the relevancy of learning to performance, the greater is the likelihood that technology will have a direct positive effect on learning.
You can find more about the context, background and research I summarized to come up with those four points in an article I wrote for the EDUCAUSE Review back in 2005 entitled Enabling Mobile Learning. These words still seem as true today as they did when I wrote them almost 5 years ago. Thanks for letting me share.
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