Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Thwarted innovation: A study on e-learning adoption
Thwarted innovation. What happened to e-learning and why (Zemsky and Massy, 2004) is the final report for The Weatherstation Project of the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania which was conducted in cooperation with the Thomson Corporation.
As a result of surveying 77 faculty staff and 78 administators at Pennsylvania Univeristy on four occassions over a 15 month period the project aimed to elicit trends in attitudes about and perceptions of e-learning over an 18 month period. The authors conclude that three assumptions about e-learning are 'troubling' (p.iii).
1. If we build it they wil come.
2. Kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water.
3. E-learning will force a change in the ways we teach.
Zemsky and Massy (2004) argue that, driven by entrepeneurs, innovators and the dot.com boom e-learning predictions about the impact of e-learning were (vastly) overoptimistic. That e-learning 'took off before people really knew how to use it' (p.iii) and that 'in a fundamental way, the boom-bust cycle in e-learning stemmed from an attempt to compress the process of innovation itself' (p.iii) but that 'the story of e-learning is still unfolding' (p.60).
This research is not without criticism. For alternative views try Thwarted innovation or thwarted research and a book review by the Sloan Corporation and e-learning reviews.
Zemsky, R and Massy, W. (2004). Thwarted innovation. What happened to e-learning and why. A final report for The Weatherstation Project of the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Thomson Corporation. Available at http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf
As a result of surveying 77 faculty staff and 78 administators at Pennsylvania Univeristy on four occassions over a 15 month period the project aimed to elicit trends in attitudes about and perceptions of e-learning over an 18 month period. The authors conclude that three assumptions about e-learning are 'troubling' (p.iii).
1. If we build it they wil come.
2. Kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water.
3. E-learning will force a change in the ways we teach.
Zemsky and Massy (2004) argue that, driven by entrepeneurs, innovators and the dot.com boom e-learning predictions about the impact of e-learning were (vastly) overoptimistic. That e-learning 'took off before people really knew how to use it' (p.iii) and that 'in a fundamental way, the boom-bust cycle in e-learning stemmed from an attempt to compress the process of innovation itself' (p.iii) but that 'the story of e-learning is still unfolding' (p.60).
This research is not without criticism. For alternative views try Thwarted innovation or thwarted research and a book review by the Sloan Corporation and e-learning reviews.
Zemsky, R and Massy, W. (2004). Thwarted innovation. What happened to e-learning and why. A final report for The Weatherstation Project of the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Thomson Corporation. Available at http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf
# posted by Ian @ 3:47 PM 
