Hi, all

I just read Linda's posting (thanks, Linda!) on the anybody anyplace anytime myth: yes, there definitely is a kind of promotional discourse in e-learning that fits with your characterization.

One of the points of assigning this article was to provide a kind of skeptical warning regarding this kind of writing and thinking --which tends to crop up in different situations. For example, here's an document by an important authority in the "open courseware movement" (of which I am definitely supportive) that unfortunately illustrates this discourse:

1. It starts off with a reference to a recent book in the popular technologist, futurist and/or business literature (Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat). This is only the most recent example in a long line of texts (e.g. Negroponte's Being Digital, Kurzweil's Spiritual Machines, Toffler's the Third Wave) making breathless predictions about the future that simplify complex and contradictory trends and (conservative) ideologies, and present them as inevitabilities or imperatives. It is the language of "inevitability" here and elsewhere that should tip you off that something is afoot.

2. It makes reference to a fourth "e-learning myth" that I didn't include in the chapter you read, but is the myth of the "net-generation." I wrote about this myth (or more accurately, this distortion) in an earlier incarnation of this blog (see also this article on generational differences from Thomas Reeves). This distortion arises from a complex interrelationship between age and technology use that we'll explore in a few weeks.

3. It presents an unequivocal identification of technology (and its particular technological vision) with politicized ideals such as openness, connectedness, personalization, and participation. While opening up course contents is a great idea, there are many things that need to be added to the mix before it results in greater connectedness and personalization in an unqualified sense.

4. The piece talks about education as falling behind business and other institutions and practices. Again, I think the issues have to be seen as more complex. See my post from yesterday for more on this.

so be on the lookout for some of these signs of promotional discourse in writing on e-learning, and don't mistake it for academic writing or the results of research. It has a role to play, of course, but this role should not be confused with more explicitly academic activity.

Cheers,

Norm