eLearning

Why eLearning matters
Some personal reflections by Dr Philip Evans OBE

It is not often that government policy and the views of those of us on the ‘chalk floor’ coincide on any matter of importance, but the government’s recent conversion to the importance of student-centred learning is one such example. Since it is almost always confused with the other new phrase of ‘personalised learning’, it is important to distinguish the two. Personalised learning refers to the teacher making every effort to direct the teaching towards each individual student - with his or her strengths and weaknesses taken into account at all times. In one sense it represents nothing different from what all best teachers strove to do in the past (and which we all know is difficult in a class of 25!); it has now become something of a new philosophy amongst experts and advisers, if not practitioners.

What is much more important, in my view, is personal learning - and you see the opportunity for confusion I’m sure. Here the student is placed in charge of his or her own learning, so it is student-centred and hence from the opposite pole to that of personalised learning. The word ‘empowerment’ - borrowed from 1980s business speak of course - has been overused, but here it is exactly right in summarising the value of genuine personal learning. Such learning may come from a recognition of the student’s own strengths and weaknesses as a learner - a psychological profile if you like - or through the teacher’s engagement being as much to do with ‘teaching how to learn’ as simply imparting facts.

The opportunities for beneficial change opened up by a proper and determined engagement with the ideas of personal learning are obvious after a few minutes open reflection. Equally, it is also obvious that any substantial change to how a student learns must go hand in hand with a change in ways of teaching - the teaching itself must become ‘personal’ to the learner. Moving along this inexorable chain of logic, we see that the most obvious way of making learning properly personal is to use e-technology: the students accesses what is needed or relevant at any given time by being given self-controlled access to all resources of relevance. These range from simply factual subject-specific material, through the more philosophical, to ‘learning about learning’ in an approach tailored to that subject. If we then add in the further possibilities opened up by discussion forums or by on-line and real-time assistance if an individual school offers such a facility (an interesting blend of personal learning leading to directed responses!) there are few who are opened minded in education who would not be excited by the opportunities.

So eLearning matters because it is nothing less than a paradigm shift in education. If you think of the phrase ‘information communication technology’, a phrase invented because that which computers were making possible had not been possible before, and note the two words, ‘information’ and ‘communication’, it is hardly surprising that education is being transformed as I write. When computers became more common in the classroom in the 1980s, it was said that computer-assisted learning (CAL - remember?) would transform teaching. Well it didn’t happen at that time. Why not? It was because at that time it was seen as a teacher-enabling and not a student-enabling technology. Now, nearly 30 years later, we have this shift to the student as learner. ICT, much improved in being faster, more flexible and with, via the web, an unlimited resource base, comes into its own. The mantra of personalised learning is even heard now in the corridors of educational power. And when it has reached there and if ministers know about it, you know it is important!

In fact, I believe it is more than simply ‘important’. It is, as I note above, no less than a paradigm shift in education. The ICT-zealot might say that it represents the most important change since the paper replaced the slate in the classroom. While this might be too much to claim, it might not be - and certainly where eLearning is fully embraced by the provider (structuring and resourcing an excellent eLearning base are not easy) and student (who will need teaching ‘how to learn’ in this new age) the changes that we will see will be profound. For the first time in history, the learner is genuinely at the centre of it all. It has taken us a long time to get to what was really our destination all along.

Dr Philip Evans OBE, Head Master of Bedford School 1990-2008,
was a government adviser on education, 1991-9.

This article is extracted from ehistory, No 1 Autumn 200