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การใชเ้ ทคโนโลยีในการเรียนการสอนภาษาองั กฤษ 15-31

Defining Terms

As learning technology and its associated fields continue to evolve, practitioners and
researchers have yet to agree on common definitions and terminologies (Lowenthal and
Wilson, 2010 and Volery and Lord, 2000). As a result, it is difficult for researchers to
perform meaningful cross-study comparisons and build on the outcomes from the
previous studies. This contributes to conflicting findings about distance learning,
e-Learning, and online learning environments. In addition, when there are no
accepted definitions, terms are often used interchangeably. As an initial step, we
reviewed the relevant literature to determine how these learning environments were
defined.

e-Learning

The origins of the term e-Learning is not certain, although it is suggested that the
term most likely originated during the 1980’s, within the similar time frame with online
learning. While some authors explicitly define e-Learning, others imply a specific
definition or view of e-Learning. These definitions materialize, some through
conflicting views of other definitions, and some just by simply comparing defining
characteristics with other existing terms. In particular, Ellis (2004) disagrees with
authors like Nichols (2003) who define e-Learning as strictly being accessible using
technological tools that are either web-based, web-distributed, or web-capable. The
belief that e-Learning not only covers content and instructional methods delivered via
CD-ROM, the Internet or an Intranet (Benson et al., 2002 and Clark, 2002) but also
includes audio- and videotape, satellite broadcast and interactive TV is the one held
by Ellis. Although technological characteristics are included in the definition of the
term, Tavangarian, Leypold, Nölting, Röser, and Voigt (2004) as well as Triacca,
Bolchini, Botturi, and Inversini (2004) felt that the technology being used was insuf-
ficient as a descriptor. Tavangarian et al. (2004) included the constructivist theoretical
model as a framework for their definition by stating that e-Learning is not only
procedural but also shows some transformation of an individual’s experience into the
individual’s knowlege through the knowledge construction process. Both Ellis,
2004 and Triacca et al., 2004 believed that some level of interactivity needs to be
included to make the definition truly applicable in describing the learning experience,