Gatlin International

If you have a professional or personal interest in the world of eLearning, you already know that there can be an overwhelming number of new eLearning terms circulating at any given time.  This makes sense due to dynamic nature of almost any area of technology, but keeping up with all of the jargon can become quite a task.  For example, the term eLearning can be characterized by specific delivery methods such as blended learning, rapid learning, mobile learning, and social learning. Today, we are going to explore these four popular methods of eLearning and explain how each method is unique.

Blended Learning

Generally when people use the term blended learning, they are referring to a combination of eLearning and face to face instruction.  Blended learning can refer to a single course or an entire educational program.  This means that one course can be made up of both face to face instruction in conjunction with some type of online course content.  Or, an education or training program might be labeled as blended learning if the courses within that program are comprised of both brick and mortar classroom instruction and virtual courses.  An organization may use a blended learning model to deliver instruction to increase flexibility, access, efficiency, and cost savings.

Rapid Learning

The term rapid learning can be a little tricky because it is often heard to describe both a method of creating eLearning courses and a speed at which people are instructed in an eLearning environment.  When used in reference to course creation, rapid learning basically means that the course was created using a quick method such as a narrated slide show or Adobe flash file and made available for course participants online.  If the term rapid learning is being used to describe the learning pace of a course or program, you can usually assume that the course or program itself is brief in duration and the lessons themselves are very short and to the point.  Rapid learning, in both senses, is best suited for course material or subject matter that is in a fairly constant state of evolution thereby requiring the course and material to be frequently updated.

Mobile Learning

Many people mistakenly think that the terms eLearning and mobile learning (also referred to as mLearning) are interchangeable.  The term eLearning is most often used when the coursework is delivered via a computer connected to the Internet.  Mobile learning describes coursework that is accessed using a device that is more portable than even a laptop, such as a smartphone, tablet, or mp3 player.  Course content can be sent to a mobile device in the form of text files, image files, audio files, or even by the mobile device’s communication tools such as phone calls, video calls, or email.

Social Learning

Social learning is considered to be an informal eLearning method, but with the popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogging, it definitely warrants exploration.  Social learning is essentially learning that takes place by interacting with other people on some type of social media network.  This includes anything from following the Twitter feed or blog of someone considered to be a subject matter expert in a field you are interested in to clicking on a link in your Facebook newsfeed to an informative article.  While social learning may not currently be a formalized way of delivering course content, experts say we should not discount social learning for the future.

Periodically, we like to share valuable eLearning resources with our readers.  Today we would like to share a useful resource for the eLearning community called “Teach.Us”.  Teach.Us is an Internet based community dedicated to assisting and supporting teachers who are interested in integrating Web 2.0 and other eLearning elements into their classroom curriculum.

Web 2.0 is a relatively new term in the technology field that was used for the first time around the year 2004 and is considered to be the second generation of the Internet.  The term Web 2.0 generally refers to Internet applications that have a user participation component.  Web 2.0 includes Internet technology such as social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), blogs, wikis, and other various types of web applications.  Web 2.0 also encompasses the idea that users with no specialized knowledge can create and publish their own websites, share various types of media using the Internet (audio, video, and picture files), as well as share information via other Internet applications.

As you can see by this definition, Web 2.0 could be a powerful tool for teachers who wish to collaborate and incorporate some type of eLearning into their teaching practice.  This Internet community, Teach.Us, hopes to facilitate this goal.  Teach.Us is a collaboration-style project itself with eight organizations from different European countries working together to achieve its common goals.  These organizations include the Institute for Innovation in Learning from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. MENON Network of Belgium, Arcola Research from the United Kingdom, 
Internet Upper Secondary School at Otava Folk High School in Finland, Vinius University Institute of Mathematics and Informatics in Lithuania, 
Proinov of Portugal with support from the Regional Education Directorate of Madeira in Portugal, European Distance and eLearning Network (EDEN) of the United Kingdom, and European Schoolnet of Belgium.  This project is also receiving additional support from the Lifelong Learning Program of the European Union.

Once you register as a member of the Teach.Us site, you will have access to excellent webinars, community forums, and other useful features to assist you in incorporating Web 2.0 elements in your classroom.  The webinars at Teach.Us include topics such using and understanding Twitter, using games in education, sharing documents, and overcoming Web 2.0 obstacles just to name a few.  The Teach.Us forums provide a way for users to interact, ask questions, offer advice, and share success stories.  Inspiration may be found in the “Practices” section of Teach.Us.  This is where fellow educators share their experiences with using Web 2.0 and eLearning in the classroom.  Projects large and small are discussed here as well as reflections on the project success level and ideas for future improvements.

If you are a teacher who is considering implementing some element of Web 2.0 into your classroom curriculum, Teach.Us is an excellent resource.  One of the goals at Teach.Us is to welcome teachers with a beginner level knowledge of Web. 2.0 and connect these teachers with experienced teachers and other experts.  Teach.Us considers itself to be a valuable starting point in the path of teaching with Web. 2.0.  To learn more about Teach.Us, visit their website at www.teachus.eu.

Glad Products Company, makers of a wide range of plastic trash bags and food storage containers, recently began a campaign to raise awareness of their ForceFlex® line of trash bags.  While these trash bags have not undergone any new changes, Glad is attempting to call attention to the fact that these bags use less plastic than comparable thirteen-gallon trash bags with its present advertising campaign.  In a current television commercial, Glad proposes that the use of their ForceFlex® trash bags would keep 140 million trash bags, or enough plastic waste to cover all of Manhattan, out of landfills each year.  According to the Glad Products Company website, the reduction in the amount of plastic in these trash bags is due to a special reinforcing band that helps to add strength to their trash bags while using less plastic.  This reduction in plastic is equivalent to 6.5 million pounds of waste, annually.

The line of ForceFlex® trash bags is not the only sustainable business practice Glad is executing.  The Glad Products Company also supports a campaign called One Bag.  The One Bag idea is for events of all sizes to set a short or long term goal of producing only “one bag” of waste to end up in a land fill with all other discards going to recycling or compost.  Glad has partnered with the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to encourage college football programs to join the One Bag program and assist these programs in reducing their amount of waste.  Glad also has a One Bag toolkit available for download from their website for organizations or individuals who are interested in joining the One Bag campaign.  These toolkits were designed with the help of sustainability experts and are available in PDF format at http://www.glad.com/waste-less/one-bag/.

The Glad Products Company also has several environmentally responsible products in their line of offering.  For example, Glad makes a recycled trash bag that is made from 65% recycled plastic.  Glad also has a compostable bag that is made from 40% vegetable based material and is designed to disintegrate at municipal compost facilities.  The Glad Company has also developed a new odor neutralizing technology for use in their trash bags that they hope will discourage consumers from throwing out trash bags before they are at full capacity.  If you would like to know more about Glad’s sustainable business efforts, visit their company website and click on the waste less link.

If you are a business professional and would like to learn more about sustainable business practices such as these, Gatlin International has several Sustainability eLearning courses.  Two notable courses include “Green Business and Sustainability Professional” and “Green IT – Information and Communications Technology for a Sustainable Future”.  The Green Business and Sustainability Professional course is perfect for the business professional in almost any career field who wants to be prepared for the environmentally conscious business environment.  The Green IT course is a great eLearning course for people in the Information Technology and Communications sector who want to bring environmentally responsible practices into their business operations.  For more information and course descriptions, click on the Sustainability link on the Gatlin International homepage.