Manifesto for Teaching Online Defines a Flexible Learning Future

Via Scoop.it – Business and Economics: E-Learning and Blended Learning

“Recently, the University of Edinburgh endorsed a collaborative document that defines the future of flexible, online learning spaces. This document strives to challenge the status quo of online education today.

It describes online learning as a preferred mode that is actively selected, not “settled for.” For years, students, teachers, and university professors have been mindlessly chasing outcomes described in “no significant difference” research (Grandzol & Grandzol, 2006). The general populace has been trying to “simulate” traditional learning experiences using online and virtual tools. It has worked well in some cases, and poorly in others. All in all, courses designed within this mindset remind me of veggie burgers. They come close, but they’re nothing like the “real thing”.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs (2010), in her recent book Curriculum 21, encourages teachers to consider reinventing the following 4 aspects of our schools: schedule, space, grouping patterns of learners, and grouping patterns of professionals. Online tools allow us to organize these domains in a flexible, responsive way that was not previously possible.

Instead of simulating traditional environments with digital tools, we need to reinvent the environment.”
Via gettingsmart.com