Comment: In what ways does technology mediated learning change both learning in person and learning at a distance?
Technology mediated learning, especially digital technology has brought about perceptible and noticeable changes in learning in recent times. I have found Clara lim's and other's post in SCHOLAR to be very informative. However, I think, from my experience mostly in andragogy that digital technology has brought much more freedom and has thereby leveraged more potentials as far as learning outcome is concerned. First off, in traditional classroom environment students have teachers to impart knowledge. As prof. Cope mentioned in his video lecture that there is this conduit who brings knowledge to a group of students from outside world. There are also text books which are also another sources of knowledge. At the three architectural levels, viz. information architecture, communication architecture, knowledge architecture there have been changes brought about by the usages of digital technology and the impact can be felt anywhere where these new digital learning technology is used. Before going a little bit deep into it let me mention two important aspects of learning. One is need for learning. Be it Andragogy or Pedagogy this need for learning must be addressed by the 'how of learning ' and the technology employed for that purpose. Two is measurement of learning. How do we know that the 'learning' has happened effectively? So these two very important aspects should be emphasized and kept in mind while discussing about and using technology in learning.

Technology mediated learning vs learning in traditional classroom environment.
If we compare learning in traditional classroom environment with today's technology mediated learning we first need to take some facts into our considerations. Did we not find technology in traditional classroom environment? What are black broads for? What are globes, compasses, measuring scales and others such tools for? These tools are part of the technology used to impart knowledge. In-class laboratory in physics and chemistry class is also an example to be considered in this genre. If we look deeper we can see that learning technology intrinsically includes two very important things here that any learning technology depends on. One is how knowledge is encoded and the other is how knowledge is delivered and these two are also interlinked. For example, books are texts written in a language. So in a traditional classroom learning environment there is a teacher who communicates knowledge by way of information exchanges which may have various modes. From answering questions, what knowledge and how it is encoded for delivery and how it is communicated and by whom, we get these three architectures and they help us understanding and deciding what technology can be used in learning and how we can enhance and design learning. We have known what are these answers in a traditional classroom environment situation of learning. There is a triad. Learner-Knowledge-Teacher. Learner gets knowledge from Teacher and/or books. In ancient times classroom could be a garden or a temple lobby, or ashramas where a knowledgeable teacher gave knowledge to his disciples. We can see that traditional classroom learning is confined in space and time. So, traditional classroom learning is space and time bound in which a teacher imparts knowledge with or without using some tools to help teaching.
 

(Image: Ruins of Nalanda University in Bihar, India. Image curtsy: theculturetrip.com)

Need of the hour and technology driven or technology mediated learning.
 

For our race to survive and progress we constantly need to learn. We are now living in a global village and our society is knowledge based. Now we have means to access to a huge source of information and knowledge which was not possible in the past. For any individual at this time learning is absolutely necessary. World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in his famous book “Black Holes and Baby Universes” wrote about how importance of knowledge and information communication is and how it has changed us human for ever. In chapter ‘Is everything determined’ of his book he wrote:

As evolution progressed, it would have led to the development of the central nervous system. Creatures that correctly recognized the implications of data gathered by their sense organs and took appropriate action would be more likely to survive and reproduce. The human race has carried this to another stage. We are very similar to higher apes, both in our bodies and in our DNA; but a slight variation in our DNA has enabled us to develop language. This has meant that we can hand down information and accumulated experience from generation to generation, in spoken and eventually in written form.

Previously, the results of experience could be handed down only by the slow process of it being encoded into DNA through random errors in reproduction. The effect has been a dramatic speed-up of evolution. It took more than three billion years to evolve up to the human race. But in the course of the last ten thousand years, we have developed written language. This has enabled us to progress from cave dwellers to the point where we can ask about the ultimate theory of the universe.

We can see how extra-somatically encoding and communicating information & knowledge has given us huge advantages in our survival and how it is necessary now than ever.

Famous historian Yuval Noah Harari in one of his recent at google talk emphatically talked about about the importance of learning for adapting to upcoming changes in our society in immediate future. His emphasis on the imminence on such highly technologically advanced society has left no doubt why learning has become all the more important at this moment.

Therefore, one can see that need for learning is obvious and clear cut and we are left with no other choices. Knowledge has out grown us we need new technology and methods to disseminate knowledge where there it is mostly needed. Addressing this need both traditional learning organizations and commercial organization all over the world have taken steps to rethink learning and methodology of imparting knowledge using technology. One of the effects of this is learning on digital platform. E-learning has been adopted by many top business organizations in the world to train their workforce and ripping benefit from it.

The Change

In many ways the change in learning can we see now. The whole classroom discourse has been transformed. In traditional classroom environment now every learner’s responses could be ‘registered’ now every person responds. For example, learning modules can be designed and each person or learner has to interact with that to learn.

This has also lowered the barriers of responses. Barriers have gone away and all the barriers of interaction, response are falling.

It is now to and fro interaction and responses. Learning is more organic by the way of active participation from teachers and students from both ways. When everyone is involved, when everyone responds learner differences become visible and valuable. The read/write mix and participation mix is about right.

Now, learning is highly engaging and more fulfilling both for teachers and learners. Technology has transformed the very thinking of making and designing learning materials for students which has huge impact in helping students understanding and memorizing the learning contents much better than ever.

Assessment of learning can effectively be measured and collected data analysis on learning can be used to improve learning.

The mostly and immediate visible effect of technology mediated learning on digital platform is its breaking away from space and time barrier. Now learning is ‘anytime anywhere’. No student has to come to a place of learning he or she can take class anywhere and anytime. For business organizations this mode of technology mediated learning has revolutionized the organizational training. One with a smart phone and internet connection can learn from any place in the world, distance is no more a constraint for learning, and on his or her time. There is no need for particular time to attend a ‘class’ for learning. This has facilitated many all over the world and learning is now free from, as mentioned, space and time barrier. This technology mediated learning obviously has brought a sea change both for personal and learning at a distance. Wonderful example of this is Coursera where this course can be taken by any one from anywhere. There is plethora of other learning platforms two of which I have personally tested and would like to cite as examples. One is khanacademy.com which from millions of users are using all over the world and whose recommendation are in may technology and other famous blogs and sites. Second is udemy.com which is also a very known commercial learning platform where variety of courses are offered catering to the needs of professionals to hobbyists. Besides these there are other technology mediated online courses offered by universities and learning companies.

Thank you.