Public Policy, Research and Online Learning
Quote: "In other words, what is happening is that the use of the new innovation is tested according to its capacity to do the old thing...The fact is, there will never be a nice neat set of criteria for success in education...Success in education, like any network phenomenon, can only be defined against a context...It is identified by structural properties in the network as a whole...Even the criteria for success -- what counts as a successful methodology in education, what counts as a failure -- can be measured only via system-wide phenomena beyond the narrow domain of educational attainment itself."
Comment: An involved article that begins by tackling the issue of traditional vs. online learning, then moves to questioning the criteria used to evaluate online learning, summarizes new elements in a new medium, and ends by suggesting a five-step "what's next" (and in the process, moves from discussing evaluation to discussing public policy and intent of education).