Tuesday, June 19, 2007

What is microlearning and is it a useful idea?

I recently stumbled on to "microlearning.org" which has held several international meetings and produced a series of conference papers about this topic. On the one hand, I am pleased by some of the ideas that I have read in these papers, but I still think that we are using the term of "learning" in a much too loose fashion. Consider the following statements:

“The developments of computers, Internet and mobile phones in the last ten years have transformed our living, working and learning environments to such an extent that we are actually continuously engaged in microlearning” (p. 7). [emphasis mine]

“Microlearning” has become the most common everyday practice in the information society. It’s the way we breathe in information and exhale communication” (p. 7).

(Source: Bruck, P. A (2006). What is microlearning and why care about it? In T. Hug, M. Lindner, P.A. Bruck (Eds.), Micromedia and e-learning 2.0: Gaining the big picture (pp. 7-10). Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press. http://www.microlearning.org/MicroConf_2006/Microlearning_06_final.pdf)

Are the above statements true? Are we really learning in these exchanges? This seems somewhat true to me, but how is this different to listening to television or the radio? Clearly, some learning is taking place, but this seems like at least an imcomplete notion of learning. Is exposure to ideas enough for learning? Shouldn't a person get feedback about their knowledge on a topic and doesn't this lead to more informed learning or knowledge?

1 comment:

interneta veikals 1a.lv said...

I never thought about it that way.... Thanks for the post!