Is All that Glitters Gold?: Re-Thinking E-Learning and Education Revolutions

Background

More than a decade ago, Newman and Johnson (1999) argued a similar point. As grand plans for the new wave of “virtual” universities began to crest in the late-1990s, they lamented ‘reducing professional training to the telematic transmission of an organized stock of knowledge is shown to be ultimately incoherent because it ignores the crucial need for implicit understanding and skill’ (Newman & Johnson, 1999, p. 79). And, yet, similar mindsets among policy makers, administrators and teachers continue to be observed across the educational spectrum, from P-12 to tertiary education. Perhaps the fundamental question posed by this discussion is how many information communication technology inspired education revolutions are needed before a more balanced approach is taken to planning for and implementing ICT in our classrooms? For example, in 2008, the newly elected Australian federal government pledged such a revolution:

Not all that different from the visionary language of Malaysia’s Smart School program launched in 1997 which reconceptualized the school as a ‘a learning institution that has been systematically reinvented in terms of teaching-learning practices and school management in order to prepare children for the Information Age’ (Smart School Project Team, 1997, p.10). And, very similar in tone to what was foreshadowed in Korea’s 1995 Education Reform Proposal which argued, ‘The ultimate goal of informatization in education is to encourage human creativity that will excel in the new knowledge-based society’ (Korean Government, 2000, p.5).