Learning and teaching strategies and practices in teacher education through open and distance learning

Abstract

Early online approaches to teaching and learning were limited by the level and quality of interaction available between teacher and student and between student and student. Fourth-generation technologies (e-learning or Internet-based learning) have made it possible for learners at a distance to communicate and interact effectively with their teachers and other students. Initial adoption of e-learning in higher education has not resulted in significant intrusions into the field of teacher education. Location-based approaches are still preferred over online approaches even though there continues to be emerging and compelling evidence that online approaches might offer a capacity to manage quality at scale, share resources across networks and, importantly, provide greater flexibility of provision in time and place. Recent work in the area of e-learning has begun to challenge the dominance of classroom-based models as the benchmark for judging the adequacy of online approaches to deliver quality teaching and learning. The work of several researchers has provided much needed evidence to suggest that online approaches can provide alternative educational experiences that challenge the legitimacy of location-based models to represent the best way to deliver quality education. This chapter first provides a brief historical perspective of the development of technologies in educational settings to demonstrate that the emergence of fourth-generation technologies marked a watershed for an increasing acceptance of delivering quality education at a distance. Second, the authors argue that for e-learning to realise the potential that online interactivity provides, it must promote transformation in learning and teaching. Finally, the authors offer a learning framework for the deployment of e-learning within teacher education settings. They also contend that the framework presented is robust and captures the essence of post-industrial thinking about education in a knowledge economy.