E-learning education for students

In many ways, it is difficult to tackle any aspect of contemporary society without taking the internet into consideration. Many people's lives are so completely saturated with digital technology that the once obvious distinction between  online  and  offline  no longer does justice to a situation where the internet is by definition  always on . In fact, we often observe that young generations are unable to speak of the internet as a distinct entity. Online activity  it is part of their lives from birth and that is why they consider it a basic requirement of modern life, almost as much as oxygen, water or electricity. As Donald Tapscott (2009: 20) put it, "For them, technology is like air." So talking about the internet and education these days almost always simply means talking about contemporary education. The Internet is already an integral element of education in (super) developed nations and we can assure with certainty that its importance in this field will continue to grow throughout the world throughout this decade.

That said, the impact of the internet on education is not direct. For starters, it is important to remember that more than half of the world's population does not have any direct experience of using the internet. And while this may change with the global expansion of mobile telephony, the problem of unequal access to the most powerful and versatile ways of using the internet remains a concern. Furthermore, as suggested by the continued prevalence of traditional training models based on classroom instruction and paper-and-pencil exams, the educational changes experienced in the internet age are complex and often poorly entrenched. When dealing with the subject of the internet and education.

For many analysts, the internet has always been an inherently educational tool. In fact, many would argue that the main features of the internet largely coincide with the core interests of education. For example, both the internet and education aim to exchange information, communicate and create knowledge.

Thus, given the internet's ability to enable these activities to take place on a huge scale and almost instantaneously, often - and this is understandable - the educational implications of the internet are often grandly described. Take, for example, Jeb Bush's recent statement:

The Internet is not just a powerful tool for communication. Arguably, it is the most powerful learning and innovation force since the invention of the printing press. And the central element of what probably represents the fiercest fight and at the same time the greatest opportunity for the United States, which is to define education for an era of transformation.

(Bush and Dawson, 2013)

Exaggerations aside, the impact of the internet on education and learning can be viewed from at least four different angles. First we have the potential it gives individuals to learn more freely, without the bondages and constraints of the real world. What is generally meant by this is that the internet reduces local, spatial, temporal, and geographic limitations so that individuals can access high-quality learning opportunities and educational media, regardless of their particular circumstances. Thus, the Internet would be that medium that allows providing education "anytime, anywhere and at any rate." There are analysts who have expanded these freedoms to include overcoming social and material impediments, thus conceiving the internet as an essentially democratic medium. The ability to support 'freer' and 'fairer' interactions and educational experiences is seen as a reflection of the inherent qualities of the internet as a 'radically democratic area of ​​infinite connectivity' (Murphy 2012: 122).

Second, the Internet is seen as the support of a "new learning culture" that will be based on the "bottom-up" principles of collective exploration, play and innovation, and not on "bottom-up" individualized instruction. (Thomas and Seely-Brown, 2011). The Internet makes possible many-to-many rather than one-to-many learning, which would foster socio-constructive learning modalities and cognitive development of a deeply social and cultural nature. Some pedagogues believe that the student benefits from the socially rich environments that the internet makes possible (Luckin, 2010). For example, it is often claimed that the internet provides individuals with easy access to sources of theoretical and practical knowledge outside of their immediate environment. In this sense, There is now considerable interest in the ability of the internet to support powerful forms of situated learning and digitally dispersed communities of practice. Thus, the internet is considered a powerful tool that enables learning through activities authentic  and the interaction between people and broader social environments.

Third, there is a sense that the internet's ability to foster large-scale connectivity between people and information has radically altered individuals' relationship to knowledge. Sometimes it is argued that the internet favors forms of knowledge creation and consumption that are far removed from the epistemological premises of formal education and mass instruction. The network relationships that internet users maintain with online information  have led to a reevaluation of the nature of the learning process as a whole. There are already specialists who are beginning to spread concepts such as "fluid intelligence" and "connectivism", in the conviction that online learning is subject to the ability to access and use distributed information as needed. From this perspective, learning is understood as the ability to connect to specialized information nodes and sources when and as needed. Therefore, knowledge is possessed or not by virtue of the ability to nurture and maintain these connections (Chatti and Quix, 2010). As George Siemens (2004) says, learning, therefore,

Fourth, it is considered that the Internet has radically personalized the way in which people learn, hence education becomes a much more individualized process than before. The Internet is associated with greater autonomy and social control by offering individuals more choice in the way and nature of what they learn, as well as where, when and how they do it. Thus, education becomes an aspect of life that the individual can completely control, since the Internet facilitates a "digital exchange" that allows educational activity to be combined with other daily occupations and duties (Subrahmanyam and Šmahel, 2011). In fact,

All these changes in direction and reordering undoubtedly call into question the traditional forms of education that were imposed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, specifically the institutionalized and formal models of schooling and university. For many experts, therefore, the internet challenges the monopoly of public education systems and the web of interests of the professionals who work in it. Thus, as we have already seen, it would seem that the internet challenges the boundaries established by official education between experts and neophytes, the processes of production and consumption of knowledge, and also the temporal and spatial conventions for learning. As for the teaching exercise itself,

Indeed, the internet has sparked continued debate and concern within the educational community. On the one hand, a set of pedagogues has set itself the task of rethinking and reconfiguring the notions of school and university so that they respond to the demands of the Internet age. During the past decade, several proposals have been formulated for the development of educational institutions that are more in tune with the characteristics that define Internet users and online learning. . As Collins and Halverson (2009: 129) state, the task of reinventing schools and universities for the internet age requires not only "reconsidering what is important to learn," but also "rethinking learning itself." Thus, we have witnessed the development of teaching modalities built around the collective creation (instead of individual consumption) of knowledge in order to endow learning with a playful sense, expression, reflection and exploratory desire. In the last 10 years there has been an explosion of ideas from enthusiastic educators who propose to develop new pedagogical approaches and curricula based on social interaction, exploration, games and creativity / practice. All these school 2.0 proposals they reflect what Whitby (2013: 9-11) describes as "new models" of teaching "open to learning and mastering technologies".

However, in the face of these proposals for school reform, a movement has emerged that links the internet with more radical forms of deinstitutionalization of teaching. These unschooling arguments have become popular among groups outside the traditional official education and consider that the internet will end up making the educational institutions themselves redundant. Some of its key concepts are "self-determination", "self-organization", "self-regulation" and (in a twist of the "do it yourself") the idea of ​​"let's do it ourselves". All of these ideas link the internet with a general rejection of institutionalized education, especially what has long been described as an obsolete banking model for accumulating knowledge content. Instead,

The systems and institutions that we see around us, in schools, universities and at work, are being systematically dismantled. If someone wants to learn the skills necessary to navigate the world, with all their hustle, connectivity and creativity, they will have to hack their own education.

They are all very controversial proposals, although they are also very tempting. These are arguments that, whether we agree with them or not, emphasize the fundamental challenge posed by the internet for which, for the last 100 years or so, it has been the dominant educational model. Therefore, it is understandable that one speaks of the internet in terms of the inevitability of educational change, its transformation, and the widespread "disruption" of 20th century teaching models. As Jeff Jarvis (2009: 210), a well-known technology expert, wrote in a praised paper on the importance of the internet in society: “Education is one of the institutions that most needs disruption, something that will bring excellent opportunities ». Daring statements like this are heard with such frequency and conviction today that hardly anyone doubts that the digital disruption of education is coming. So many people no longer wonder if the internet is going to completely reinvent education, but when it will.

MAIN EDUCATIONAL MODALITIES BASED ON THE USE OF THE INTERNET

Given how insistent these predictions are about what is going to happen, it may be a good idea to look back and review what has actually happened with the internet and education. As indicated at the beginning of this article, in view of these ambitious demands for transformation and disruption, it is important to ask how the real educational potential of the internet is being exploited. In this sense, it must be recognized that the Internet has been used for educational purposes for a long time, and that a series of outstanding models of Internet-based education have emerged over the past 20 years. Perhaps the most widespread is made up of the various forms of what has been called  e-learning, , and which ranges from online courses  even virtual classrooms and even schools. Many of the earliest examples of  e-learning  basically consisted of providing content in a one-way way, and therefore were a replica of the traditional epistolary forms of distance education. These programs (which still exist) usually depend on online content management systems  , although with the support of some type of interaction in the form of emails, virtual bulletin boards and other communication systems. Along with these forms of content transmission, there is a constant development of the so-called «virtual classrooms», usually spatial representations of classrooms or conference rooms that can be  inhabited by students and teachers. Often these virtual spaces have been designed to host synchronous forms of live instruction and response, in which the student can listen to classes, watch videos and visual presentations and also interact with other students through text and voice. There are other asynchronous modalities of virtual classroom in the form of digital spaces that allow access to resources such as audio recordings and transcripts of class texts, complementary readings and discussion forums. These forms of  e-learning  have been developing since the 1990s and there are currently online schools and universities  online  that are consolidated elements within educational systems around the world.

While these e-learning models   often reproduce the basic structure and procedures of physical schools and universities, a variety of other models of online education have emerged in the last 20 years. One of the best-known forms of online education   is the open and collective creation of information and knowledge. The best example of this is the online encyclopedia  Wikipedia. Despite the continuing debate about its reliability and scope, Wikipedia is of considerable importance in education. Apart from giving access to a huge amount of information, the possibility for the user to contribute content and refine existing ones, makes Wiki tools, such as Wikipedia, important educational resources. The idea is now taking hold among many educators that popular user-controlled applications, such as Wikipedia, allow individuals to participate in unprecedented learning activities that are personally constructive and publicly meaningful. As John Willinsky (2009: xiii) explains:

Today a student who makes a minimal correction to a Wikipedia chapter is contributing more and in a matter of minutes to the advancement of public knowledge than I could have done in the course of my entire university career.

These features of Wiki tools correspond to the broadest movement of open educational resources, which seeks to make  educational materials developed by professionals freely accessible  online and free of charge. Thus, for example, it is estimated that almost 80% of the courses taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are available on this free support. Similar initiatives can be found in institutions ranging from internationally renowned universities, such as Yale and Oxford, to local higher education institutions. In all these cases, the teaching material, such as seminar notes, podcasts and class videos, is shared  online with students from all over the world, most of whom would not be able to attend classroom classes. In essence (as with Wikipedia), in open educational resources the emphasis is not only on access to materials, but on encouraging users to alter and modify these resources when they consider it necessary. For example, the ambitious OpenLearn project at the Open University in the UK provides free online access   to all of the institution's teaching materials and invites private users to adapt it if they wish.

The free dissemination of educational content created by individuals and also by institutions is another way to share knowledge  online . Thus, for example, the YouTube.Edu service offers access to millions of educational videos produced by educators and private students. Similarly, Apple Computers' collection of educational media, called iTunes-U, is designed so that students do not need to attend classes as in traditional education and instead access mobile, free and on-demand learning (see Çelik  et al., 2012). Describing itself as "arguably the world's largest collection of free educational media available to continuing education students, teachers, and students," iTunes-U offers free access to hundreds of thousands of podcasts with educational content on audio and video media. More recently, online access has been highly praised  from the Khan Academy to thousands of customized educational videos, quizzes and interactive assessments covering a wide variety of topics and areas of knowledge. The aim of the Khan Academy is to provide the tools for individuals to learn at their own pace and to review the content as often as they like. Called "upside-down classroom," this model is designed to allow individuals to familiarize themselves with the elements of instruction before attending a formal class. In this way, face-to-face classes can be devoted to the practical application of knowledge through problem solving, research and project-based learning and experimentation (see Khan, 2012).

Another notable example of open internet-based education has been the development, over the last five years or so, of the Mooc (Massive open online course, that is, massive  open online courses  ). Right now, especially thanks to the success of large-scale initiatives like Coursera and Ed-X, MOOCs consist of delivering  free online courses  with direct contact to a large audience. The central idea of ​​the MOOC model is to stimulate individuals to learn using online tools  of your own choosing, a system that has been called "personal learning networks." The collective results of said election can then be compiled by the coordinators of the courses and shared with other students. This emphasis on self-discovery learning has been found to be especially appropriate for university teaching. Today, individuals of all ages can participate in massive online courses   led by professors from such prestigious universities as Stanford, MIT, and Harvard. The examples are varied, ranging from Yale's elective course, Roman Architecture to Harvard's official Foundations of Neuroscience course.

Initiatives such as Hole-in-the-Wall and School in the Cloud constitute another radical application of the internet to support self-directed and non-institutional learning. These programs revolve around the concept of "minimally invasive education", in which children and young people can access digital technology at any time and learn to use the computer and the Internet at their own pace. The original philosophy that inspired the Hole-in-the-Wall program was to bring the internet to points that Arora (2010: 691) calls "remote and forgotten places", rather than to more formal settings, such as schools or universities. In fact, the ethical conception of a minimally invasive education is declaredly non-institutional and foresees that children participate using the internet as a «free and unsupervised» educational tool (Mitra, 2010). This concept is considered suitable for recipients such as the poorest communities in India and Cambodia who otherwise would not have access to the internet. For its part, the recent School in the Cloud initiative is an attempt to use communication tools online  so that individuals from high-income countries act as 'learned but close' mentors and mediators for young students from lower-income countries. Providing this access and support is considered the backbone of what the project team calls 'self-organized learning environments' and 'self-activated learning'. It is about offering an alternative to "those who cannot access formal schooling" in poor countries (Arora, 2010: 700).

These programs, projects and initiatives give an idea of ​​the diversity of ways in which education and the internet have been merging over the past 20 years. Although perhaps the most common forms of online education are those of totally informal learning that comes with its daily use. In this sense, it could be considered that the greatest impact of the internet in education occurs through its implicit support for the various forms of «informal learning» (Ünlüsoy  et al .: In press). As the cultural anthropologist Mimi Ito has described, there are several forms of daily use of the internet that could be said to involve elements of learning (Ito  et al., 2009). At a basic level, there is the popular custom of using the internet just to hang out with other people. Often these ways of hanging out can lead to more intentional situations, which Ito calls "entertaining yourself with something," that is, interest-motivated activities and more focused on socializing with like-minded people, which often involves random searches, experimentation, and play with resources. This way of entertaining yourself with something can lead to a more intense commitment, which Ito calls "sharing enthusiasm for something." These are sessions with concentrated and intensive participation within specific communities of individuals with similar tastes, ideas and interests driven by a common and often very specialized hobby. Since it facilitates all these forms of  learningThis daily use of the Internet can be considered an intrinsically educational activity.