E P I C T H I N K I N G
Issue 41: April 2005
This month:
1. Election Special
2. E-learning Interview: Jay Cross
3a. Article: Bill Gates - US high schools
obsolete
3b. Article: BECTA highlights use of ICT
in education
4. Book review: Computer games, TV, internet
and iPods make us smarter!
5. Show report: ITEC 2005
6. Hall of Fame: Marx and Marxists
7. Jobs: See the latest Epic positions
8. Blended Learning workshops: New dates announced
ELECTION SPECIAL
by Donald Clark, Epic
Fruit flies and Fly guys
Election time again. Did Paul Daniels, Michael
Winner and Peter Stringfellow actually leave the country as they
promised last time? Unfortunately not. Let’s insist this time
round, whoever wins!
Polly Toynbee and David Walker in ‘Better or Worse?’
described Labour policy in education and training as being driven
‘mechanistically, as a tool for either productivity or as
an engine of social engineering’. Time will tell whether there
is any truth in this harsh statement. Despite the huge increase
in spending on learning, it is still not clear that proportional
and sustainable gains have been made in either education or training.
Read more
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INTERVIEW
2. Jay Cross
At Epic, we love to hear the opinions and experiences
of influential figures within the learning industry. You may remember
we ran an interview with Jane Massy last month. This month, Jay
Cross, who invented the term 'e-learning', has generously answered
our questions. The questionnaire aims to get personal views, rather
than general thoughts on the state of the market and the questions
have been designed accordingly.
Q What's your INTEREST in learning/online learning?
That goes way back. In 1977 I developed and marketed
the first business program for what we now call the University
of Phoenix. From the late 70s to the late 90s, I held a variety
of executive positions with mainstream training vendors. Then
the web came along. I was enraptured. I was convinced the combination
of learning and the web would change the world. Did you know that
I coined the term eLearning? To this day I am enthusiastic about
the potential of technology-supported learning.
Q What interactive technology do you use and
have at HOME?
We have a couple of IBM ThinkPads and a couple of
SONY VAIOs hooked to a Local Area Network connected to DSL through
a Linux box. The real issue isn't what's at home, is it? On the
web, hosted heaven-knows-where, we have websites for Internet
Time Group, Workflow Institute, Meta-Learning Lab, Emergent Learning
Forum, and other things. These link to a variety of content, blogs,
and experiments.
Read the rest
of the interview
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ARTICLE
3a. Bill Gates -
US high schools obsolete
At a speech in a US High
School Bill claimed that the failure of the US high school system
'wasn't an accident or a flaw in the system; it is the system'.
He outlined the Gates Millennium Scholars program
for minority students. But his main points were that:
Read the rest
of the article
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ARTICLE
3b. Becta highlights
use of ICT in education
By James England, Business Development Director,
Epic
The British Educational Communications
and Technology Agency (Becta) recently published a report
"Using technology and e-learning to support the 14-19 agenda".
This was written in response to the Tomlinson report on 14-19
curriculum and qualifications reform and looked at how ICT
could support the educational partnerships that would be required
to support a diploma-based framework.
Within this framework, Becta
highlight key areas in which ICT can support 14-19 education
and also the issues that need to be addressed in order to
enable the local and regional partnerships that are required
to support a broader-based curriculum.
Read the rest of
the article
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BOOK REVIEW
4. Everything Bad Is Good for You -
Steven Johnson
Computer games, TV, internet and iPods make
us smarter!
What an interesting idea, right or wrong. Could
it be that all this angst over kids playing computer games,
spending hours on the internet, watching TV and listening
to their iPODS, is actually good for them? Johnson has already
scored a hit with his excellent book Emergence and this time
he's got a fabulous debate going.
We have assumed that mass market media have
dumbed-down television and entertainment, spoiling any attempt
to teach our kids anything meaningful. "In fact, the exact
opposite is happening: the culture is getting more intellectually
demanding, not less," says Johnson.
Read
the rest of the book review
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SHOW REPORT
5. ITEC 2005
Venue: Amsterdam, Holland
Date: 26 - 28 April 2005
Protesters at e-learning conference
I’ve spoken at several defence conferences,
but this was the first time I’ve been heckled by anti-war
protestors. ITEC 2005, in Amsterdam, is an e-learning and simulation
conference. The protests were on Dutch national news and security
was intense – well as intense as you can get in Holland.
Even the security staff had that laid back Dutch attitude.
On the first day we were harangued for having blood
on our hands. Once the protestors realised that weapons were not
on sale, the heckles got a little weird. They switched to claiming
we had virtual blood on our hands!
Read the
rest of this report
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HALL
OF FAME
6. Marx and Marxists
Continuing with our series of leaders in learning
we come to Marx and Marxist theories of education, which have
had a profound effect on education. Although Marx did not theorise
about education in any detailed manner, his followers developed
theories about the role of education in society that were to affect
billions of people across the globe. There are many Marxist theorists
in education, but two stand out as Marxist in the literal sense
- Gramsci and Althusser. These two, more than any others, developed
theories that derive from Marx, but developed into full sociological
analyses defining the role of education in society, along with
ideas on how to change that role in line with the Marxist refrain
that the point of theory was not to describe the world, but to
change it.
Read more about Karl Marx
Read more about Antonio Gramsci
Read more about Louis Althusser
Next instalment covers the behaviourists.
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JOBS!
7. Job vacancies
Epic is looking for interactive designers and
senior designers. Have you got what it takes?
Check
out the latest vacancies
BLENDED
LEARNING COURSE - BOOK NOW
8. New dates
Epic has announced further
dates for the Blended Learning workshops. Learn how to develop
an Effective Blended Learning Programme. This unique course
from Epic, centred around a practical, hands-on workshop, gives
a step-by-step methodology for designing effective blended programmes,
and tools to help with the decision-making process.
Click
here for full course content and booking
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RETURN OF POST
If you have:
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* a response to any of the points raised here
* a suggestion for a topic you'd like to see covered
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