Virtual learning seems to progress

Virtual learning seems to progress, as I have suggested numbers of times, and to which I actively try to contribute.  An interesting thesis is made, comparing different typologies of educational sites. It gives an nice state of the art.

Furthermore, the European Union announces a pilot project that prepares for a "Virtual Erasmus": a European project for virtual mobility of students.  Though it only concerns a pilot for the moment, the project seems promising and could open entirely new ways of (continuous) learning.

Yet another interesting source, going in the same direction, is a kind of a virtual library. If you would like to see its potential, just try to search on "complexity". 

Comments

[Agnès TATERODE]

I don't really agree with the pilot project of "Virtual Erasmus". Indeed, attending classes abroad is not only interesting for the language but also to discover another culture. With "Virtual Erasmus", the human interest of travelling is disappearing. The control of a foreign language is primordial but the human experience also help us to adapt ourselves easily ; and we could not obtain this maturity by the "Virtual Erasmus".

[Elodie Lagier]

I believe that this pilot project of a "Virtual Erasmus" is surprising. Indeed, on one hand, it is interesting to have access to foreign classes. But, on the other hand, going abroad is very efficient for the self-development. If you have the opportunity to know a foreign country, I think you don't have to hesitate. It is better seing things in reality than on a computer screen. I am convinced that you can understand and be aware of something only if you face with it.

[Mijatovic Maja]

I think that the "virtual learning" is a practical tool. It's also very efficient because more and more people use it and many institutions adopt that kind of training. For instance, some universities propose, for students,Master and Post graduated courses via the Internet. There are also some private organisations, such as consultants’ office that propose,via the Internet, to train professionals (consultants for instance) or to help them to specialise.
The European Union launch many drafts (INCO Interntionalization Consulting for instance)that can be teached only via the "virtual learning", because students or professionals can not always move abroad (some students can not afford studying abroad).
Nevertheless "virtual learning" is not a very popular way of training in France. Indeed, even if virtual learning seems to progress, French specialists feel that the virtual learning training is not sufficient to train people accurately. You must mix virtual learning with the traditional way of training, such as university courses, seminars…. The learner is to be supervised and coached by a specialist.

[Leslie Mattera]

I totally agree with Maja. At first sight, virtual learning constitutes a great means to cope with distances between countries. Whatever the country he lives in, a brilliant teacher or professor can teach and give advices inspired by their own experiences, which is very interesting and useless. Moreover, as "the coachee", you can easily and quickly access to diversity, thereby discovering (or rediscovering) things you had first grasped or imagined different.
But on second thoughts, it remains that the coachee has to be supervised or guided by the coach, and the more the geographical proximity, the better the coaching. A mix of the two ways of learning (virtual and traditional) seems to be the better.