Evolution of a New Learning Ecology: From E to M-Learning
Dr. Theresita V. Atienza
Associate Professor, Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Asian Public Intellectual Fellow, Nippon Foundation
E-mail: tva_pup@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The paper focuses on a new “learning ecology” that is evolving and the challenges that educators must confront. It looks at e-learning as not just another add-on, but a technology that is transforming our educational institutions. How teaching and learning is conceptualized and experienced to generate a determined community of inquiry that integrates social, cognitive, and teaching presence in a manner that will take full advantage of the distinctive assets of e-learning is discussed. Likewise, the possibility of mobile learning is put forward.
Keywords: learning ecology, e-learning, mobile learning, higher-order learning, “always on – always available”
1. INTRODUCTION
A technological revolution is currently stirring higher education. The development of e-learning is depicted as explosive, unprecedented, and disruptive. Embodying a new “learning ecology”, e-learning is not just another add-on, but a technology that is transforming our educational institutions and how teaching and learning is conceptualized and experienced. For the 21st century educator, the challenge is to generate a determined community of inquiry that integrates social, cognitive, and teaching presence in a manner that will take full advantage of the distinctive assets of e-learning - those interactive properties that take learning beyond classrooms and information assimilation. These properties of e-learning have the capacity not only to create a community of inquiry that is independent of time and space but also achieve a previously unimaginable blend of interactive and reflective nature that stimulates and facilitates a level of higher-order learning.
Technology in general and e-learning in particular, is a mechanism for...