WWWrong with e-learning?
I was recently at an interestingly entitled conference workshop “WWWrong: What Went Wrong? What Went Right? Exchanging Experiences in Technology Enhanced Learning”. Draft proceedings are available to download. The focus was on trying to tease out and address the problems associated with trying to develop and implement e-learning/TEL. Themes that the workshop explored included:
As many of us are only too aware funding mechanisms mean that there is a tendency to focus on the positive outcomes from projects, whereas we are also only too aware of the limitations of the projects we are involved with. This isn’t necessarily a failing on the part of those involved, in reality we know all this stuff is complex and dependent on a range of inter-connected factors. Better articulation of the failures and sharing of the issues might just help… But are we brave enough to put our heads above the parapet?
The workshop was a useful start – there were seven presentations sharing a range of different ‘war stories’. My focus was a personal reflection on four very different evaluations I have been involved with in recent years – ranging from a large-scale, national intervention (the UK e-University … ) through to more localized educational and technological interventions. I think the workshop has the potential to draw out some valuable lessons and I look forward to the follow up! Oh and the venue was pretty wonderful… Crete… I could quite happily spend a sabbatical there writing some esoteric book that no one will ever read… OK, OK I know dream on…