Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

Visions of Autonomous Learning
� very often traditional ways of imparting knowledge are transferred to the new
technological medium without reflecting this process;
� virtual learning is used for the transportation of subject matter content, and not as a
medium of self-organised active learning conceived on the basis of a cognitive
foundation;
� pedagogical software, which uses the possibilities of the medium in the right way, is
rare.
Som Naidu (2003, p. 355) also observed that in the beginning “faculty rushed to
embrace it by doing little more than post course syllabus and PowerPoint slides of their
lectures on the course website”. This means that they used the independence of time and
location for logistical reasons only. They tried to apply methods of oral face-to-face
teaching developed in real learning spaces in the virtual learning spaces of digitised
learning environments. They adhered to the traditional pattern of expository teaching
and receptive learning. When I say that this is “putting old wine into new bottles” I wish
to express my opinion that the replication of traditional learning and teaching methods
will not lead very far. On the contrary! It prevents us from discovering, developing and
applying the marvellous powerful approaches made possible by networked computers.
Quite a number of them are without parallel in traditional education.
Pedagogically speaking, the replication of traditional formats of learning is a flagrant
misuse of the digitised learning environment. It strengthens the ability and the skills of
students to learn by being taught. According to our vision we should be promoting the
development of the activity of the learners and strengthening their skills of self-directed
inquiry and self-directed learning. This is quite the opposite behaviour.
Currently theorists and practitioners are in the process of developing a "second generation”
(Reimann & Zumbach, 2001, p. 35) of online learning. Participants of the Third EDEN
Research Workshop 2004 in Oldenburg (Germany) played a material part in this endeavour.
More and more faculty see and understand that learning and teaching in virtual learning
environments require specific and adequate methods of learning and teaching. This is a
pedagogical challenge and will lead to a pedagogical paradigm shift. One major goal of
these endeavours is to create and promote independent, self-regulated learning, that is,
autonomous learning. In order to achieve this we need a vision of how learning in virtual
spaces will have to differ from learning in real spaces. The problem is that nobody can tell
us, as the changes before us may be drastic and therefore unpredictable. Nevertheless, I
am going to try to draw a rough and tentative sketch of a vision of this kind based on
current experiences and pedagogical thought.
6.2. Prerequisites of Success
If we intend to promote autonomous learning at colleges and universities we need students
who have already developed some of this competence as children in their families and at
school. Here education must be geared to our demanding goal. More important than
strategies of autonomous learning is the general attitude towards this form of learning,
the forming of the habit of learning autonomously, the process of internalising this new
way of learning. My vision tells me that in ten or twenty years parents and schoolteachers
will be much more concerned with fostering independent thinking in their
children and students, that they will encourage their natural curiosity and their urge to
223