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Web learning opens vast avenues of choices. One can take a course, get an online degree or discuss a subject with an expert. The way people learn and get information is radically different from the past. There are no more keepers of the secret knowledge or gatekeepers a person has to please. Somewhere, someplace, someone who has the knowledge has written in some form or shape, an essay or article on the subject in cyberspace.
To be educated now is to be an elearners. The learning process is different. One reads or scans information or info-graphics and then reflects on the knowledge. Learning has become less about memorizing and more about asking questions. How does this information work in the world? What fits with what you know presently, and how do you make a bridge to knowledge that does not fit in your framework?
A person digests information he or she researched, encounters an opposing opinion on the matter and mulls over the possibilities. Web use makes one a “prosumer,” which is a producing consumer. Information is intermingled, then refined and possibly displayed differently, much like a music remix.
Internet reading is not only about text. Graphics, video, interactive media such as Facebook and open-source platforms make mass collaboration possible. Text turns into charts, tables, pictures, video and so on. You are not alone in cyberworld, but are part of a variety of groups constantly interacting and synthesizing information. The elearning is about mixing old and new information, and adding it to our own framework of thought.
Doing more with computers is using various mediums and interacting in many ways with others.
