Hahaha .. JoAnn, I never saw that coming! (It's what I've always liked about conferences, real or virtual, a chance to get to know people and have some good old fun!) I especially liked the "virtual cheese-world" and "the groups of mice started to be aware that they might want to learn more from each other and that cheese might not be the whole reason to their existence". Made me feel better about my not getting my SSHRC (but I did get part of a NSERC... can’t win’em all). Indeed, attending virtual conferences sure cuts down on the need for research funding in the first place. I think the main ingredient is simply "wanting to know", the rest will follow.
During this conference, we've heard quite a bit about well-funded research initiatives simply not panning out, which is unfortunate for many reasons: the lost opportunity, "the (research) road not taken", our facing the same questions all over again and, not the least of misfortunes, the larder being bare for all those who come along later on (keeping with our cat and mouse story (:-).
I understand a lot of quality research begins more humbly, with a need, then an idea and hopefully a shared passion, all wrapped into one. This conference is leading us to various levels of realisation about e-learning and how we, as researchers or practitioners, are examining questions (both scientifically… and metaphorically) that we believe need answering. For instance, I lived in Central Africa for many years and often saw human potential not being recognized. But even when it was, the means were simply not there to fully develop it. I used to dream of somehow being able to tap into the huge university system we have in Canada. I still do, right here in Canada, watching faculty "bottled up" teaching on campus and interacting with the well-heeled few, while we have the means at our disposal to be in instant contact virtually anyone, virtually anywhere, like students who ardently desire to learn, to share, to coconstruct knowledge and thus to recreate society to the extent of their possibilities. (Ok, listen: if you hear violins playing in the background, it’s just your imagination.)
Anyway, E-learning to me is learning and creating learning opportunity using whatever means I have at my disposal. They just happen to be electronic nowadays. Maybe when we only had stone tablets, hammers and chisels, they might have called it S-learning. Or P-learning (with papyrus). People say: it's the learning that counts. Absolutley right. But, as an educational technologist, I also firmly believe that the means also matter, in that greater, better, faster and more advanced means can (don’t always) amplify learning possibilities. They make what was formerly impossible and inconceivable, a fait accompli, even commonplace in retrospect. That is why I do what I do...even if the cat begrudges me some cheese every now and then.
Mike