Forum on E-Learning in Windsor

Teachers for Global Awareness and the Education Is a Right Podcast held a community forum on e-learning in Ontario on February 29. The forum in Windsor featured a keynote address by Dr. Beyhan Farhadi discussing her PhD dissertation on e-learning at the Toronto District School Board, North America's second largest school board. The forum also brought together other e-learning teachers and students from Ontario as well as Michigan where taking one class through e-learning is mandatory. The proceedings are being broadcast as podcasts by Education Is a Right Podcast available at edisaright.ca.

The forum informed participants about existing experiences with e-learning and addressed how mandating such courses for graduation would affect the youth. Many aspects of e-learning were raised by panelists and audience members, opening up the discussion on this important matter. A significant point made was that no one, not even those who work in e-learning and advocate for its use on a broader basis, believes that making it mandatory will improve the quality of education. Another issue raised was how e-learning is a way for large companies to extract value from education and gain control over what and how students learn. Members of the audience also provided important experiences from those teaching online courses, including the effect on metacognition, or how students think about their own learning, and the effect on teachers and students of the massive dropout rate for those courses currently.

This article was published in

Number 11 - March 12, 2020

Article Link:
Forum on E-Learning in Windsor

    

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