TEL is NOT a Technology Issue

In this ebook, Terry Freedman provides a nice compilation of 87 classroom projects using Web 2.0 technologies.

The projects listed in the ebook are quite interesting and almost all contributors stressed the benefits of using Web 2.0 technologies in their teaching activities. However, these projects - and all current Web 2.0-based classroom projects - share a common emphasis on how to best integrate the emergent Web 2.0 technologies into the learning process without influencing the traditional pedagogical principles and policies imposed by formal educational institutions. The result is that technology is often applied in the existing institutional context of learning controlled by the institution and organized into courses with preselected tools and predetermined learning outcomes.

In my eyes, the challenge is not to mimic old ways of doing things with new technology, based on traditional institutional norms and values, but to first test, challenge, and eventually change the norms that govern our educational models before introducing new technologies. The problem of TEL is not a technology problem, but rather a cultural and pedagogical one.