Course: E-learning
Hong Kong, 30 June – 5 July 2009

I’ve just finished teaching a Master’s level unit on e-learning in Hong Kong for third year running.  There can’t be a better place to talk about digital technologies in education, with such a technologically wired population inhabiting such a technologically wired urban landscape. Of course, I’m continually reminded that using technology for social and entertainment purposes in everyday life is not the same as using it for pedagogical and professional purposes, so that there’s still always a lot of ground to cover in such courses.  But what really struck me this year, looking back to the first course I taught here two years ago, is that around 50% of my teaching material is different now from what it it was then.  That in turn is a reminder both of how fast the technology is developing, as well as how fast our understanding of the technology is having to develop to keep pace with it.  Perhaps more than any other courses, e-learning courses can necessarily only provide a base level of understanding and familiarity with key tools, on which participants can continue to build as technology, and our underrstanding of it, keeps evolving at breakneck speed.