Elearning: 40 years of evolution?

Cun-ent rhetoric around the use of 'eLearning' in Higher Education relates particularly to Internet-based flexible eLearning programs that focus on sustaining particular communities of practice. In this paper we argue that this contempormy view of what eLearning comprises arises from a lack of historical perspective on what the focus of educational eLearning programs has been over the past 40 years. Contemporary descriptions of eLearning as a 'new mode of learning' are fallacious and ignore its 40-year evolution from 1: 1 localised didactic models (both constmctivist and behaviourist) to many-to-many distributed social-constmctivist learning models. In addition, the historic divide between Education and Training has led to both the concurrent development of different notions, foci, and labels for technology-enhanced learning in different contexts and situations, and different conceptual origins arising in acquisitive and participatory learning metaphors. We argue that a more inclusive and historically aware conceptual framework is needed to be able to accurately describe what the full repertoire 'eLearning' really embraces

The evolution of an online community - a case study

This article reflects findings from a long term case study of an online community of practice established through a network for the professional education of teachers in Ontario, Canada. The Education Network of Ontario/Réseau éducatif de l'Ontario (ENO/REO) was created in 1992–1993 to support and connect teachers from kindergarten to grade 12 in the province of Ontario. Its mandate was to ensure that all teachers had free access to the Internet and to each other and to encourage the development of skills in the area of information and communication technology with the ultimate goal of using those skills to improve classroom practice. The study investigated whether information technology had the potential to connect teachers to each other in order to build the capacity to create networks where professional learning could take place in a cost-efficient and flexible time and/or place. It was found that participants were early adopters who enjoyed innovation, that online networkswere supportive for learning but hard to maintain over time, and though they supported the integration of technology in the classroom, other barriers within schools could challenge this effect.

Community of Practice: Aligning Knowledge Work with Organisational Knowledge Strategy

"This book combines research on the cultural, technical, organizational, and human issues surrounding the creation, capture, transfer, and use of knowledge in today's organizations. Topics such as organizational memory, knowledge management in enterprises, enablers and inhibitors of knowledge sharing and transfer, and emerging technologies of knowledge management, offering information to practitioners and scholars in a variety of settings"--Provided by publisher.

Anticipating policy and logics of practice : Australian institutional and academic responses to the globalising "quality research" agenda

Research assessment is now an international trend. This article mobilises a critical policy sociology informed by Bourdieu to unpack the differential effects of research policy shifts in Australia on universities, academics and the field of educational research. It argues in anticipating policy moves - from surveying the logics of practice that have emerged elsewhere from research assessment - that institutional, individual and field responses, while specific to the Australian policy context and mix, have assumed a logic of practice counter productive to "quality" research, education as a field, and equity.

Bridging thought worlds of an academic CoP and IT support

This paper reports a case study of a Community of Practice (CoP) of tertiary educators in information technology (IT), who seek ways to obtain adequate IT support to match their particular work environment. A facilitated workshop sought to bring members of the CoP and a key representative of the central IT department together with the aim of creating common ground for improved communication and collaboration. Subsequent individual interviews explored perceptions, boundaries and potential boundary spanning opportunities. While literature argues that shared domain knowledge and associated language should alleviate boundary issues, we found that in some circumstances it might intensify them.

The non-verbal and the verbal: expanding awareness of practice-led research in creative writings

This paper takes up the concept of practice-led research: research (or the production and performance of knowledge) that is implicit within practice – in this case creative arts practice and more specifically, creative writing practice. Does practice-led research offer new possibilities for recognition of contributions to research by writers? This exploration of creative practice and research stretches out tendrils between creative writing and other art forms. What may the predominantly non-verbal creative arts disciplines offer creative writing in terms of exploring modes of knowledge production and performance?