Take a deep breath Selwyn its going to be ok!!

Wow!!! What a Reading! Tony was right this article by Selwyn is definitely full on and very conflicting to the way many of people in education feel about e-learning.

As a child who began school in the mid 1980's and completed my high school education in 2000, I have personal relationship with the points made at the beginning of this reading. I agree with Selwyn (2008) when he points out there has been distinct mediocrity with the eduction technologies of the 1980's and 90's promising much but delivering little in the way of sustainable educational change.
As a guinea pig of the new technologies in education at this time and the new curriculum framework of the 90's I understand Selwyn's frustration that the re-launch of often indistinguishable national policies and local initiatives hard to swallow. However while children of this time may not have had the greatest access to new technologies and the clarity over assessment, teaching curriculum and vision for the future of NZ schools may not have been the greatest, one clear positive has come forth.

Through this time teachers began to explore, imagine and wonder about a world of technology enhancing devices. And while this may be a bit holistic in view it has allowed teachers from the traditional ways of teaching slowly accept new approaches and ways to teach.

Another area that Selwyn challenges and I must agree with is; while money has been thrown at e-learning in many ways the lack of a collaborative shared vision from the beginning has left the infrastructure and hardware in schools lacking and the software provided limiting. Thus the introduction of the private sector and control had by these companies when informing and supplying schools.

Although while Selwyn makes some understandable and justified points I would have to disagree when he now claims the e-learning could now be seen as just the implantation of computers into the classroom, and current teachers/schools are still unsure, and many are somewhat sceptical, as to why they have computers in their classroom in the first place. I believe this view is narrow minded and does not show a clear representation of how e-learning is now taking place in 2009 across NZ and asks the question "when was the last time you taught in a classroom????"

In summary while agreeing with many points about lack of vision, continuous changes to policy and lack of the basics when developing a e-learning world, it must have been hard for those first involved in introduction. To think they were creating policies and convincing teachers, schools, communities and politicians that e-learning was the way to go when only 1 in 10 people had access to a PC and the idea of broadband was just a dream. I think Selwyn needs to take a chill pill and focus his energy on how policy can enhance e-learning and not stay dwelling on what has been.


Selwyn, D. (2008). Business as usual? Exploring the continuing (in)significance of e-learning policy drive. Computers in New Zealand Schools, 20(3), 22��4�