elearning happened already, outside academia

Here's a provocative think-probe about online learning from Harold Jarche:.  He quotes Donald Clarke, then adds:

Could it be that powerful, everyday ‘e-learning’ has crept up on the world, separate from all the academic and institutional noise, and in a consumerist fashion?

All of these brands enable informal learning, grassroots knowledge management or collaboration on a local or global scale.

Yes.  And the digital world isn't the first step.  For modern education, think about a century and a half of nonfiction media, from Webster's American English dictionary through cable tv.  Further back, the long heritage of oral tradition, from common sense to how-to tips.  Learning has paralleled education forever; like with many things, the internet just makes that more visible.

Again, the net defamiliarizes.

Comments

[Bryan Alexander]

Owen Kelly connects this argument with earlier movements and visionaries:
"The point Harold Jarche makes is similar to one I have been developing - which is itself very similar to several points developed by John Holt and Ted Nelson forty years ago. Both of them would line up with McLuhan and Illich..."

(http://www.owenkelly.net/2007/03/05/diy-learning/)