Revealing The Hidden Curriculum of E-Learning

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/502/Anderson.pdf

Distance/Distributed Learning helps schools meet the goals

 Education is the basic need for the young ones to learn about the society and the civilization. It is considered a fundamental human right, as has been set forth as an important element in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Human Rights Covenants, which have force of international laws. Therefore, it is quite obvious that respective governments around the world will try to make as much contribution towards education sector as possible to make well qualified citizens for a better tomorrow. Technology has made its mark in almost all walks of life, therefore its impact on education sector is also quite apparent if we take a look at the developments in this sector for the last 40 to 50 years. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in US lays an added emphasis[1] on the use of technology for the betterment of the sector. Information Technology is the all important offspring of Technology having its footprints on the way education is imparted or educational material is prepared or education is accepted by the intended audience. Distance learning, as the name itself suggests does the mode of providing and accepting education without the formal arrangement of a four walled classroom comprise the tutor and couple of students. Distance education has been in existence for quite a while now, and this process has undergone many evolutionary changes over the years. The distance learning educational institutes providing correspondence courses have now graduated in the form of online universities providing real-time interactions amongst the students and the education providing professionals in the virtual classrooms. In fact the combination of technologies guided by the progress made by the Information technology has been a driving force behind the paradigm shift in the mode of delivery of education. Globalization has brought about a regime of competition and increasing emphasis towards professionalism, which in turn calls for the learning of newer techniques even after the formal schooling and institutional education. Such requirements further fueled the need for distance education and invited attention of big companies and industries towards tapping the market even for commercial purposes to some extent.  

 

Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. (2004).  Helping practitioners meet the goals of No child left behind. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.   

 

 

 

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