Information Technology Reference
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lifelong learning experiences. There will no doubt be an increasing trend for delivery of
courses of the nature described in this chapter, as increasing proportions of the community
will need to choose online education and training because of lifestyle needs and demands.
However, an equally compelling reason for this trend is that wider community use of ICT
should result in the adoption of online learning as a natural learning choice. This is because
a wider spectrum of interaction opportunities with others (learners, teachers, peers, etc.) are
possible along with more immediate and wider access to alternative information sources. This
is in contrast to traditional forms of teaching which can restrict the context of interactions
in the learning process.
CONCLUSION
This chapter began with the proposition that a wider participatory approach being
advocated for service delivery in organizational management has application in distance
education. An underlying theme developed throughout the chapter suggests that new ICT-
based approaches can provide substantive advantage for DE, because they can substantiate
advantages for courses and help liberate educational processes from the domination of
unitary approaches. These unitary approaches, often justified in terms of order, quality, and
management, are now being increasingly used to equip individuals, organizations, and
communities with the means to deal with the increasing complexity of information availability
brought about by information communication technology.
The approach outlined in the online teaching model presented above provides a
mechanism for a wider engagement in, and interpretation of, the learning process through use
of ICT, which reduces the negative impact of social presence, increases the use of weak ties
in the learning process, and provides a degree of anonymity to increase contribution. It
recognizes the reality of power relationships, politics, and conflict in the learning process and
brings them into the process rather than ignoring their existence. Thus, with the approach,
skills, which are becoming increasingly important in the application of knowledge and
learning in a community setting, are developed. It encourages a pluralistic interpretation,
which allows learning to be discussed, and it is locally contextualized across wide variations
in culture and experience. As such, it provides structure and opportunity for communities
to engage in learning in new ways and provides much more than a new service delivery option
for DE. It is important to recognize the potential for centrality and lack of reality associated
with ICT. However, a CI approach to distance education allows individuals, groups of
individuals, and communities to “
live an ongoing learning experience
” and to locally apply
and interpret learning from outside their immediate constructs. In this sense, the application
of CI recognizes the dynamics of structuration, which occurs when nonpassive actors
interact with institutional structures, and which provides the interactions for changes in
structure and processes for the delivery of products and services (Giddens, 1991; Orlikowsky,
1992).
This iterative process of sharing the interpretation of information and its local applica-
tion in a forum of learners, involving a range of cultural understanding, can obviously provide
for better understanding and educational outcomes.
But, the learning model discussed above also provides for the following:
•
Greater understanding across cultures, because geography and place do not restrict
the process
