Online education is not just about how we use technology in the classroom, we can enhance learning through the devices such as iPads, computers and smart boards and monitor progress. Digital education provides opportunity for all learners to go further. We can also look at online learning  as a way to overcome environment, time and digital space. It allows learners to progress outside of the classroom through the computer systems, with the teacher presented as an avatar or learning promoted as self-directed in nature. In further education a course can be presented as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and the buzzword of MOOC  brings about debate of the sociocultural growth and spread of digital literacies. However, Stewart (2013) highlights “In a world in which mobile, digital technologies permeate daily life on a seemingly ever-increasing basis, educators may mistake the usage of technologies within learning environments for digital literacies practice.”

Technology can transform the ‘classroom’ whether in a physical classroom environment or online but the success is dependent on how this is facilitated and the ethos taken.

References:

Stewart, B., (2013). Massiveness + Openness = New Literacies of Participation? MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Technology, 9(2), pp.228–238.