Technology and Professional Development Colleagues,

In a recent "Breakthrough Briefing" newsletter from eLearn Campus,

http://tinyurl.com/3xcquv

Rick Nigol asks "Can You e-Learn at Your Desk? " and lists the  
following pros and cons from a polling Elliot Masie did of readers of  
his Learning Trends online newsletter. Nigol lists the following as  
the pros and cons:

"The 'pro' side arguments tended to be centred around the following  
points:

• We all multitask all day, every day, why couldn't eLearning fit  
into this mix?
• We tend to learn best in small chunks anyway, and can fit this into  
our working day while at our desks
• Finding time to squeeze eLearning into your schedule is simply a  
matter of making an appointment with yourself and putting everything  
else aside while you do it

The 'anti' side arguments tended to be centred around the following  
points:

• There are far too many distractions (e.g. email, phone, instant  
messages, pagers, bosses, co-workers, etc.) in most workplaces to be  
able to concentrate on deep learning while at your desk
• There is no such thing as "do not disturb" in the modern workplace,  
you are "always available," so forget about the 'schedule time for  
yourself' argument
• You need quiet time away from all the noise, distractions, and  
interruptions of your workstation to make real progress with eLearning"

Nigol's question is pertinent for designers of online learning for  
adult literacy education teachers.  When, exactly, do we expect  
teachers to do this?  We might say -- I certainly have said this --  
whenever they can, whatever works for them.  Suppose however that  
they really can't do this on work time, that the level and kind of  
engagement that we expect is impossible with the demands and  
distractions of an adult education workplace, then aren't we really  
saying that we expect them to do this unpaid on their own time, and  
that we hope they do this because they are "professionals" and would  
want to improve themselves? Shouldn't we, instead, be paying them for  
this professional development time, and if so, how should we do it?  
Or shouldn't we provide monetary or other incentives for completing  
online (and other) professional development?

What are your thoughts?


David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net