Epic Learning at Work Day seminar

Epic prides itself on being at the forefront of thinking about e-learning. This involves all kinds of activity, including engaging in discussion with some of the best thinkers in the field of learning technologies. So for ‘Learning at Work Day’ we teamed up with Oxford University for a specially hosted seminar on the theme:  ‘Is technology transforming learning, and if so what does it mean for us?’ Head of E-learning Research, Dr Chris Davis, and some of his colleagues and students from the E-learning Research Group participated in the debate.

In the seminar, there was widespread acknowledgement that some tools for learning have changed, and in so doing have made learning more accessible. For example, electronic search and collaborative technologies mean we now have access to learning resources far beyond the walls of our workplace or the ivory towers of our University. This led on to an exploration of whether, by making these tools more readily available, there had been an increase in quantity (lifelong learning) and in ‘temporariness’ (no longer a need to ‘know’ or remember).

There then ensued concern from one corner of the room that this growth in quantity and temporariness may have led to diminishing quality of learning.  Though, from the other corner came the retort that surely we could not be certain about the impact on quality at the present time, and only history would tell. After all, as one of Epic’s instructional designers, Imogen, pointed out:  in 400 BC, Socrates, spoke of the new fangled idea of ‘writing’ diminishing memory and so, by extension, learning too. Yet, in 2009, one could hardly argue that writing had not in some way transformed learning. Nor could one imagine either Oxford University or Epic viewing the writing skills of a prospective student or member of staff as an obstacle to learning!

So: perhaps we need to wait a few more years (let’s hope not another two thousand!) to seek the answer to the question of our seminar. Perhaps only then will we be able to clearly see the extent to which current technology, just like writing, has truly transformed learning.