NOSOTROS HEMOS COMENZADO.”
COMUNICADOS DEL COMITÉ DE OCUPACIÓN DE LA SORBONA EN EL EXILIO (COSE)
There is a multitude of e-learning tools available today. Whether you break it down by the types of e-learning tools, or by the e-learning tools in regular use, the choices of effective e-learning tools is seemingly endless. By the time you are done compiling a list of e-learning tools, it is likely that there are even more of them available then when you started compiling the list. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the growth in the number of e-learning tools is not the shear quantity, but the prolific and still growing use of e-learning tools.
“Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.” - Donna J Abernathy, Training and Development Editor, 1999 (“E-learning quotations”, 2006)
In a rapidly changing e-world, where the education, or learning, part of e-learning is the deliverable not the delivery system, the better question may be, what is not an e-learning tool? With the kind of growth in e-learning that we are seeing now, every computer application that touches the Internet, and some that do not, has the potential to be an e- learning tool. The online, and offline, e-learning education market is driving the development of e-learning tools.
“The next big killer application on the Internet is going to be education. Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error.” - John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems Imagine education as an application. (“E- learning quotations”, 2006)
How it breaks down:
• What are e-learning tools?
• What is not an e-learning tool?
• What's next?
What are e-learning tools?
E-learning tools come in three main flavors; a content/course or learning management system (CMS/LMS), synchronous collaboration applications, and all other computer tools/applications including asynchronous collaboration applications. Game play or game simulation software is rapidly becoming the fourth type of readily accepted e-learning tool.
CMS/LMS include applications like Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT, Desire2Learn, etc, that create a shell in which to organize the content of the instruction. These CMS/LMS
applications can be quite robust by offering the ability to include self-contained surveys or assessments, to track individual learner use of the course site and all of the components thereof, and to provide forums for asynchronous and synchronous learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor communication.
Synchronous collaboration tools include applications like Wimba, CentraOne, HorizonLive, Elluminate, NetMeeting, etc. These applications allow real-time communication via voice and video, as well as, a virtual whiteboard, textchat and possibly application sharing capabilities.
Email, instant messaging, blogs, podcasts, surfing the Web, CDs, DVDs, mp3s and online and offline computer applications can be used to deliver e-learning. Just about any computer application can be an e-learning delivery or collaboration tool.
Games and game play is the up and coming fourth type of e-learning delivery tool. From the use of Solitaire in Business Education classes to assess mouse skills to SIMS in middle school Social Studies to teach types of government, gaming is making its way into education.
What is not an e-learning tool?
From sophisticated, online, real-time, multi-player games to basic applications like Solitaire, MS PowerPoint and MS Word, almost every computer application can be an e- learning tool. It is hard to think of a computer application without imagining its use for e- learning. With the possible exception of the parts of the computer software relegated to the administration of the computer such as the software that keeps the time on the computer to the right-click on the desktop that opens the Arrange Icons by...Properties dialog box, all computer applications have the potential to be used as e-learning tools. Even these two examples above could be used for e-learning if the content were about how to set your computer clock or how to use the Arrange Icons by options.
What's next?
More and more and more of the same is next. Not the same tools, more of those are evolving everyday. Not the same content, e-learning delivery is breaking ground into new content markets all the time. More of the same innovation of e-learning is what's next. As long as training is a big ticket item for business, as long as e-learning delivery is seen as more cost effective than brick-and-mortar classrooms, as long as cost cutting in public education drives school districts to look at alternatives to the traditional stand up instructor, e-learning will continue to prosper and along with it, e-learning tools. “Learning how to learn has become the most fundamental skill that an educated person needs to master and the instrument that enables learning in almost every field is the computer.” - Dr Peshe Kauriloff, Adjunct Associate Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania (“E-learning quotations”, 2006)
“Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.” - Plato (“E-learning quotations”, 2006)
4.2 References
• E-learning quotations. (2006) e-Learning Center. Retrieved April 18, 2006 from http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/quotations.htm
• e-Learning resources site with links to information about types of e-learning tools. (2006) Retrieved April 18, 2006 from http://www.ibritt.com/resources/
• Horton, William (2003) E-learning tools and technologies: A consumer's guide for trainers, teachers, educators, and instructional designers. Indianapolis, Indiana, Wiley Publishing Inc.