Author: Andras Szucs General Secretary of European Distance and E-Learning Network.

1. ICT enhanced learning – the
socio-economic environment
Andras Szucs
Secretary General, EDEN

2. 2
Social factors influencing E-Learning
• Human and social elements in the forefront - technology is
available and affordable
• Accelerated technical-economic development, globalisation:
– performance pressure at universities,
– strong competition for their „social space”
• Migration of ‘knowledge construction’:
away from traditional educational institutions
• Easier access and affordability of new ICT - it becomes
natural commodity
• Cheaper tools with higher performance,
cheap/free access to network
• Integration of three sectors with the ubiquitous technology:
− Work,
– Education and Training and
– Lifestyle and Entertainment

3. 3
Trends and contextual factors in learning and ICTs
• Unemployment, economic crisis - Focus is shifted
nowadays to the socio-economic environment and
contexts, access issues.
• Enormous changes in user habits and expectations
– Dramatically increasing number of users
– RAPIDLY LEARNING USERS!
• Spontaneous strengthening of on-line informal (e)-learning

4. Some socio-economic facts and concepts
• Increasing domination by market realities
• Labor productivity up 85% since 1980 – wages up 35% only
• Social role of education, in particular higher education:
keeping students in frames of the educational system -
when their chances on the job market are uncertain and
unstable, unpredictable
• The post-modern world puts a premium on ‘tertiary
learning’ - a kind of learning which our inherited
institutions, are ill prepared to handle
Zygmunt Bauman, The Individualized Society, 2001
• “Only the well educated will be able to act effectively in the
Information Society.”
Michael Barber, The Learning Game

5. Distance and e-learning:
distinctive European elements
• Avoiding social exlusion, support equal access,
fight against digital gap(s)
• Stressing the importance of pedagogy,
educational methodology, instructional design
• Critical and responsible application of technology (ICT)
• Linguistic and cultural diversity,
• Remarkable differences in (e)-maturity across
member states

6. 6
The EU role
• Important initiatives, programmes, commitments:
- eEurope - eLearning - Information Society Technologies
programmes, Opening up Education
• EU policy and funding important in the field –
national initiatives are rarely strong enough
• Main objectives:
- improving quality and effectiveness
- facilitating access of all to E&T
- opening education and training systems
to the wider world

7. 7
Recent Keywords for Education
Economic growth
Employability
Accountability
Enterpreneurship
Innovation
Competences, Skills
Change towards excellence, flexibility, adaptability
... Did something really change in pedagogy...?

8. 8
Critics - Problems
 Digital competence problem: gap between students’ and
teachers’ approach
- Students seek for efficiency gain, rather than exploring the pedagogic
opportunities
 In the educational sphere the effective takeup is not satisfying.
– E-learning fails meeting the access and digital-social divide challenge
 Discrepancy of supply structures, access possibilities and social
demand
 E-learning policy is often dominated by hypothetic/speculative
scenarios, overstatements.
• Are we working with real needs along real situations or modelling the
needs and situations?
 “learners must change, learning must change, system has to
change, schools must change …”

9. 9
„Rhizomatic learning”
• Proliferating informal and non-formal learning contexts, situations, with
the help of ICT
• Practice of learning which is diversifying spontaneously
without co-ordination,
• Nodes, able to grow independently, no center, no boundaries
(cf. blogs, wikis)
• Strength and weakness at the same time: the content and competence is
legitimated by the networked co-operation.
A botanical metaphor, offering flexible conception of knowledge for the information age: the rhizome. A
rhizomatic plant has no center and no defined boundary; rather, it is made up of a number of semi-
independent nodes, each of which is capable of growing and spreading on its own, bounded only by the
limits of its habitat.
• http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03

10. Distortive effects of the free world of the web
• Concept and business model of voluntary contribution, free
work for the online community
– Authors: User generated content, Wikipedia- Peers : mentors,
tutors, evaluators, advisors online.
• ANYTIME - ANYWHERE...? - Moving parts of the burden of
education on the learners' shoulders: time and often costs
as well.
• The openness model and underfunded educational systems
• What can change the scenario?
– A breakthrough when employers will consider, accept the
atypical certifications as"normal" ones
• Civil society, professional community is our strength
- Needs investment in the power of the organisations !

11. Thank you!
www.eden-online.org