SCoPE: Seminars: Welcome to our November seminar!

Welcome to the Re-Thinking E-Learning Research seminar!

About our facilitator
Norm Friesen is the Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practice at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, and author Re-Thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods, and Practices, our next book in SCoPE's professional reading group series.

About the seminar
This 3-week seminar is loosely organized into weekly topics:
1. Introduction to e-learning research: What is it? Where are we?
2. Narrative: What is the case for narrative methods in e-learning research?
3. Critical Theory: How can methodologies associated with critical theory contribute to the field of e-learning research?

If you're waiting for your book to arrive in the mail as I am, you'll be glad to know that several chapters, and related papers are available for download from the seminar wiki. (thanks Norm!)

Participating in SCoPE seminars
SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. You are welcome to come and go according to your schedule and interests. To contribute you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process. Are you new to SCoPE or wondering how to manage your participation? Check this resource

Sylvia Currie, SCoPE Coordinator

Re: Welcome to our November seminar!

by Norm Friesen - Monday, 9 November 2009, 5:09 PM

Thanks for the kind introduction, Sylvia.

It is great to have the chance to be able to discuss some of the issues that I've felt passionately enough about to write about in my book.

I am grateful for the opportunity!

Of course the issues that I am most intensively concerned with is identified in the book's title (and in Sylvia's first question): What is e-learning research? How is it thought of, and why might it need to be re-thought?

I look at this question in the introductory chapter of my book (available online in the links provided). And I (try to) make the case that e-learning research is not or should not be one thing to all people. The main topics that are brought together in the phrase "e-learning research" include learning (and education), technology (the e- in e-learning) and knowledge and knowing (research). These are all pretty weighty, and don't necessarily add up to the same things for all viewpoints and interests concerned with e-learning.

At the same time, though, the meanings of "e-learning research" are not entirely a matter of arbitrary points of view. Education, learning, technology and research itself have all been written about extensively, and there are well-formulated conceptions of how they interconnect.

But I've said enough thus far. I'm looking forward to what others might have to say, ask about or comment on...

See you soon!

-Norm