I just attended (Sep./Oct. 2010) the European Conference in Technology Enhanced Learning in Barcelona. As part of the exciting program of papers, demos, presentations, etc, I chaired a panel with four Spanish experts on TEL in the Spanish Track. The session started with the review of the three grand challenges identified by Stellar, the European Network of Excellence in TEL.
The first impression was that these challenges have been identified for a reason. The first one, how to deal with the hyperconnected students could be summarized by the sentence by Prof. Blat from Universitat Pompeu Fabra: "may be is not a matter of connecting the students, but connecting WITH the students". The point was to make an effort to shape learning environments with the help of technology to make them closer to what motivates students today. And that, combined with the mantram that "learner should be at the center". Challenging, no doubt, but good to see experts agree.
The second challenge was related to the fact that selection and provision of material is less prevalent in the tasks performed by an instructor. The shift is toward orchestrating learning experiences. Or as Magí Almirall put it "from managers to coaches". The overall production, deployment and enactment processes get complicated, and the one-person scheme for all this is increasingly unfeasible.
The third challenge was about adaptation. It is funny how all researchers agree that a learning experiences should be adapted (in a broad sense) to the learner and yet the nut is still there to crack. Lots of research, conference, papers, projects, and yet, adaptation or (a partially similar term) "personalization" in yet unsolved.
As a side effect, it was also refreshing to see in the panel how the research carried out by different groups in Spain is truly at the forefront of the area. As it is typically the case, I've come back from this (nicely organized) conference with new energy and ideas to keep pushing forward on improving learning with the use of technology.
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