What is Telelearning?
Reflections and an Invitation to Respond
Betsy Frederick
Do you remember Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas? In 1980 Seymour Papert envisioned how the use of computers could change school. This was ten years before CompuServe connected commercial and government supported networks. Papert's idea that children should have rich environments to explore underpins the International Society for Technology in Education's Special Interest Group's TeleCommunications' understanding of telelearning.
SIGTel was formed a decade ago to further a vision of using telecommunications to facilitate communication and collaboration in an international learning environment. In those early, heady days the focus was on the "how to" of modems, cumbersome dial-up software, and finding ways to borrow or lease phone lines.
During the early to mid 90's, SIGTel moved to being a leader in the online curriculum arena. The SIG-sponsored TelEd Conferences were exciting meetings where innovative practitioners shared applications that both enhanced existing classroom goals and opened the doors to new world-wide experiences. TelEd exemplified the "I" in ISTE. The potential of teaching and learning with international colleagues, uninhibited by classroom walls and distance, was becoming a reality.
Ferdi Serim, Online Internet Institute, shared his "Reflections Recorded in Albuquerque, TelEd '94 Report Number 1." at http://www.globalclassroom.org/teled01.html
All of this (planning) has been done online, and in a few hours we'll all be together for a few days. The power of these sessions can only be compared to the tribal gatherings, one of which will take place a few miles from here on Saturday, as Native Americans celebrate the Corn Dance. Our celebration of Global Telecommunications is quite different, until you realize that we too celebrate the "Four Directions" in our own way, and that everything (electrons, plastic, copper wire, even fiber) is natural at some level, and capable of providing expression to what ever spirits we choose to indulge. (Serim, F., 1994)
Today, access, bandwidth and greater memory capacity are still ongoing issues in much of our world. In spite of the barriers, new and remote communities are joining the cyber world in greater numbers. Wireless and satellite communications show promise for many isolated communities. SIGTel members and leadership continue to press for increased capabilities for isolated schools around the world.
Now in the 21st Century, the "Tel" in SIGTel refers to TeleLearning. What does it mean? Generally, telelearning is couched in terms of process. One appealing description comes from the Glossary of the Canadian TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence.
... Telelearning supports five core principles of collaboration, access, active learning, multiple perspectives, and knowledge work. It is a fundamentally important technological and social innovation for education and training at all levels in a knowledge-based society.
Another and similar view of telelearning is that "Telelearning relates to 'making connections among people and resources, via communication technologies, for learning-related purposes'. Telelearning as a general term includes asynchronous learning activities;..." (Moonen, 1997 at http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/issue2/moonen.htm )
The Instructional Technology Council (www.itcnetwork.org/default.htm), an organization of US and Canadian educators and businesses, hosts an annual telelearning conference that focuses on distance education. Although distance education can include the broader descriptions of telelearning described above, distance education is conventionally associated with distributing classroom teaching across a well-organized network of participants.
A new trend is to use e-Business nomenclature as in this example: "The eLearning initiative of the European Commission seeks to mobilise the educational and cultural communities, as well as the economic and social players in Europe, in order to speed up changes in the education and training systems for Europe's move to a knowledge-based society" (European Commission, 2000 at http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning/).
Cisco Systems talks about e-learning, too. They quote John Chambers from Bell Labs: "The two great equalizers in life are the Internet and Education" (2001). The page goes on to describe Key Cisco E-Learning Philosophies one of which is "Old-world learning models don't scale to meet the new world learning challenge. E-learning can provide the tools to meet that challenge" (2001).
SIGTel's view of Telelearning includes distance learning concepts and the more expansive descriptions from the TeleLearning Network and Jef Moonen. SIGTel invites a range of interests under an umbrella that includes research, technical innovation, distance learning, and curricular application. However, it is a passion for global connections between teachers and students that is central to SIGTel's understanding of telelearning. Early in their evolution, classroom "electronic pen pals" note-exchanging was thrilling. Curriculum goals addressing literacy, world geography, and introduction to world cultures were being met and the children were engaged.
Soon, though, teachers moved beyond electronic pen pals to theme-based study. Students began sharing scientific data, exchanging myths, discussing troublesome and universal themes like hatred and bullying, and publishing journals of art and writing. SIGTel members have a long tradition of work in KidLink, ePals, iEARN, and Aussie School House. These networks offer a structure for international connections projects that cut across the curriculum and answered questions well beyond "What is your favorite rock group?"
SIGTel gives Online Awards annually to teachers who use communication technologies effectively and imaginatively. This year's winner, Marilee Patterson from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, submitted a project called "From Russia with Love". You can read about her students' work on the SIGTel Web page. In 1999, Joanne Tate and Nikki Deighton from Ararat, Victoria, Australia, took First Place with a project called "Faces of War." The meaning of telelearning is exemplified in these works.
Your turns now! I hope this article has stimulated your perceptions of telelearning. This is an opportunity for you to respond to my remarks. SIGTel editors, Zella and Tuiren, will be publishing some of those responses. Please send your reactions to tbratina@unf.edu.
References
Chambers, J. (July 16, 2001). E-Learning at Cisco. Retrieved from the World Wide Web, July 16, 2002: www.cisco.com/warp/public/10/wwtraining/elearning/educate/
European Communities. (Sept. 10, 2000). eLearning: Designing tomorrow's education. Retrieved from the World Wide Web, July 16, 2002: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning/
Moonen, J. (1997). The Efficiency of telelearning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 1(2). Retrieved from the World Wide Web, July 16, 2002: www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/issue2/moonen.htm
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.
Serim, F. (1994). TelEd '94 Report Number One: Reflections Recorded in Albuquerque. Retrieved from the World Wide Web, July 16, 2002: www.globalclassroom.org/teled01.html
TeleLearning Network of Centres of Education. (2001.) Retrieved from the World Wide Web, July 24, 2002: www.telelearn.ca/
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