Workshops
E-learning: A practical guide
Organized by
Comedia
11 December, 2003.
Structured as an open consultation between e-learning experts and a diverse group of media professionals and stakeholders, this workshop explored the opportunities and challenges raised by e-learning for journalists.
Content
Programme
1. Exploring best practices in e-learning
Moderator:
-
Kevin Burden, BBC i-learn
Panel:
- Gerd Rohde, Union Network International
- Roland Stanbridge, Orebro University
- Andrew Taussig, University of Oxford
2. Media and e-learning
Moderator:
Panel:
- Kevin Burden, BBC i-learn
- Tihomir Divjak, SEE TV
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Report
 It is easy to see the benefits of e-learning: it could reach new groups of learners at lower costs and with increased diversity of courses. But the benefits still seem far away: today the drop-out rates are high and there is a risk that e-learning initiatives reach the same, already educated people as traditional education. There is a lack of overview, recognition and assessment of e-learning initiatives.
From a trade union point of view, e-learning presents both challenges and opportunities for professional employees. Gerd ROHDE, Union Network International presented numbers showing how the share of e-learning is increasingly important among other methods of distance learning. He presented the example of Addisco Learning Forum, which started as a union experiment in Norway in the mid-90’s, with the aim reach members working on oil-rigs. Today the Forum offers courses in subjects ranging from European Computer Driving License to Frontline Management.
The communication platform includes discussion groups, mentor-student interaction, chat, shared documents and email. The courses include a large number of subjects, lectures and other documents. It was stressed that the whole learning idea is based on group work with mentors and teachers to guide the students.
Gerd Rohde underlined the importance of avoiding hype and utopism when talking about e-learning. There are still technical constraints and a digital divide that is not limited to North-South or Rich-Poor but also concerns for example urban centers-rural areas.
Recommendations from Gerd ROHDE :
- a realistic approach to e-learning
- an emphasis on “learning” and not on “e”
- e-learning should not be seen as a substitute fro conventional teaching and learning
Roland STANBRIDGE, currently teaching international students at the University of Stockholm, is one of the authors of a new UNECA-report on the state of Information Society reporting in Africa. The study bears evidence of the enormous training needs for African journalists when it comes to reporting about the ICT’s. Journalists in general do not understand the issues, ICT stories appear out of context and include little analysis, debate or voices of ordinary citizens.
Proposing e-learning as the way forward in response to the need for training, Roland Stanbridge highlighted its advantage as an alternative for journalists who are unable to be absent from their workplace for long periods. However, existing initiatives are either inadequate or of a too high cost for most African journalists, he said.
He recommended that we start to identify the appropriate tools for expanding e-learning and that those who promote journalist education (i.e. donors and sponsors) in Africa should seriously consider this option.
He also announced that one concrete result of this workshop was a joint e-learning project for journalist education between Örebro University, Sweden, Makerere Univeristy, Uganda and the University of Rwanda.
Andrew TAUSSIG, University of Oxford, who has 30 years of experience from the BBC, focused on e-access to learning choices in the field of media studies. The ignorance about e-learning is part of the digital divide, he said and stressed that there is a multitude of personal experiences but no common knowledge in this field. The lack of overview and guidance is a challenge to academic media studies, professional media training and all those who care about information within civil society. Andrew Taussig called for the creation of a web portal to address this need. The objectives would be to:
- help students with media studies choices – at home or abroad, campus or online;
- encourage awareness and resource-sharing within the field of global media teaching;
- promote understanding of learning needs.
The BBC World Service Trust has a long experience in journalism training projects in crisis situations and in transition countries. Some two years ago, Kevin BURDEN and his colleagues started to think of ways to leave something more behind once the time-limited projects were finished. The possibilities of online training came up, and this is the background of i-learn, the BBC online’s e-learning project for journalists. Kevin Burden demonstrated the online platform for delivering learning, assessing students, interactions, management of training material etc. The main prerequisites for the e-learning alternative was that:
- it could be done in local languages
- the training material could be kept fresh
- the system of managing and updating web content could be done at a relatively low cost
- the website would be content-driven and possible to use even with very slow connections.
Tihomir DIVJAK from South East Europe TV (SEE TV) presented his interregional broadcasting project,
which was launched some years ago on the Balkans. As a major success of his programme, it has to be
noted that ethnical groups and nationalities fighting each other only some years ago are collaborating
today in a common, educative tv-programme.
The provisional room facilities of the workshop were poor and
did not foster any exhaustive discourse. Conclusions in its proper sense could therefore not been drawn.
Nevertheless, the workshop turned out to be a valuable opportunity for experts reflecting theory,
relevance, challenges, benefits: e-learning at work in different contexts. There was common
agreement that the workshop was a starting point for a better, perhaps more systematic exchange of
experience which should be offered in regular terms. It was agreed among the actors that a follow-up
should be organized in a due course of time.
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Notes for a Broadcasters' Action plan
- Raising the level of journalistic standards requires more and better quality professional training.
- E-learning can provide cost effective opportunities for media practitioners; it needs to be better funded and further explored.
- The web should provide a global overview of the world’s training expertise and facilities.
-International e-learning projects for journalists are being developed, such as the BBC’s i-learn and a joint project by Oerebro, Sweden, Makerere, Uganda, and Rwanda Universities.
Guillaume Chenevière, Executive Director of the WEMF
Resources
Media training
Universities
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