My first experience of TEL as a learner - other than the school Janny wheeling out the TV and Video console to allow my classmates and I to watch the Space Shuttle make its maiden voyage - was receiving an e-mail from an academic during my first week at University. This new - but seemingly normalised - form of communication contained the aims, outcomes, lecture outline, key reading, and suggested self-directed activities relating to the first week of my Information Management module.
That I had to cycle ten miles to University, get past the IT Support Staff and into THE computer lab, find a vacant computer, retrieve from my bag the piece of A4 paper which contained my username and password, and then quickly learn to type, in no way detracted from my joy at what some might - and still do - call spoon-feeding. It was a most welcome amenity, in my view.
I (almost) instantly appreciated the (almost) continuous and (almost) persistent availability of the supportive materials sent directly to me by some of my lecturers, and it MADE ME A BETTER STUDENT; I was more organised, prepared, engaged, and often looked forward to finding out more about the next week's learning as a result of the 'trailer'. I should point out that I was not even the slightest bit aware that my access, reading and printing might have been recorded and monitored - as part of a research project into ICT and student engagement, for example.
<DevilsAdvocateRantWarning>Fast forward a few years and those e-mails would most likely be buried beneath competing messages from other course leaders, family, friends, marketing wonks upon whose mailing lists my details appear having once bought a bag of porridge online, and the latest example of ersatz campaigning from one of many social networking sites.</DevilsAdvocateRantWarning>
I created my first piece of e-learning content not long afterwards. Charged with designing, creating, and then evaluating an 'Information Resource' in any format and on a topic of my choosing, I opted to build an 'interactive Route 66' using Apple's HyperCard tool. One of my areas of interest at that time was in the shift from paper-based systems to digital ones, and how the former could be used as an analogy to help users make the transition to the latter. An example of this is that HyperCard used the well established Rolodex concept of a stack of cards as the basic building blocks for content.
This small project introduced me to a world of reiterative design; the importance of prototyping; the virtue of trial and error; the beautiful efficiency of templating; and with all these new concepts, the need to manage projects properly from the outset. The most important thing I gained, however, was an understanding that technology is nothing without people; users need support and this must be considered and built into the design process of any online learning project. Examples of support include the use of helpful analogy; conditional access to materials and activities based on starting levels and individual progress; and designing group tasks which aim to move the cohort on as a whole. When helping teachers make the transition to TEL, I think of the Rolodex, and aim to maintain the best bits of the established approach while capitalising on the benefits of new technologies.
In my role as a Learning Technologist I face rather a lot of resistance as I promote new approaches to teaching, administration and assessment. That is only to be expected and is often the best part of the role. On one occasion, in 2005 I think, I attended a conference on the subject and was moved by the possibilities. I was surprised to hear my E-Learning colleagues' disdain for mobile learning. Their rather singular opposition was that it 'is too hard to read content on such a small screen'. True perhaps, but that view betrayed a rather old-fashioned belief that learning is all about content. I argued that learning also comprised other things; organisation, communication, sharing, responding, distilling, and what Piaget referred to as 'chunking'. 15 years previously I was spending a lot of time and effort to access something that can now be pushed to me in an SMS, a tweet, or a message through a VLE app. Small beer, but the teachers who are now making a difference through their use of TEL are those who are thinking beyond the transmission of content. E-Assessment, flipped classrooms, and learning activities based upon social-constructivist principles, are proving to be effective uses of TEL, not least because they allow students to use their preferred blends of hardware and software.
Senior Learning Technologist @ Royal Holloway, University of London; CEO of El Swedgio Industrial; School Governor at Isleworth & Syon Boys School