Internet Learning Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2016/Winter 2017 | Page 39

Internet Learning
But physical proximity still permits
great gulfs among those involved in
the process. Cultural differences, political
antagonisms, and temperamental
disparities can intrude in the learning
process. Online education is not immune
from these obstacles, but is helpful
to remember that physical distance
is only one of many communication
challenges.
Aesthetics matter: interface design
shapes learning. Early online courses
were mere digitizations of place-based
learning materials, and did a disservice
to both media. As Wise (2016)
notes: “There’s more to implementing
learning technology than plugging
traditional classroom practices into a
digital platform; that would merely be
digitizing content.” Interface aesthetics
in online learning should embrace research-based
strategies for layout, navigation,
and screen design, which enrich
the learner’s experience and create opportunities
for collaboration, cooperation,
and meaningful feedback (Peters,
2014). These approaches should remain
flexible and open to variation, however,
in order to avoid the strictures of best
practices.
Remixing digital content redefines authorship.
One of the most controversial
tenets of the Manifesto for American
academics may be its challenge to traditional
concepts of authorship. Digital
content affords authors and readers an
unprecedented ability to augment and
reshape the work of others. A primary
example of this kind of collaboration is
Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in
history, and the sixth most commonly
used website in the world (Simonite,
2013). Another example is fanfiction, in
which fans create and post new, unauthorized
work about characters or settings
from an original work of fiction.
The Manifesto embraces and celebrates
this culture of remixing, and urges us to
reconsider our assumptions about ownership
and authorship.
Conclusion
The Scottish Manifesto for Teaching
Online will leave many US
educators scratching their heads,
wondering if there is any useful application
to the American system. Although
Jim Shimabukuro, editor of the Educational
Technology and Change Journal
calls the Manifesto “arguably the
most exciting document for discussion
to emerge thus far in 2012,” Marostica
(2012), derides the Manifesto as a
meme-like document designed to “make
online education cool;” and it was described
in InsideHigherEd as “an exceptionally
wordy bumper sticker,” (Kolowich,
2012). The Manifesto authors
welcome these differences of opinion,
since their primary goal is to inspire debate
and dialogue. Citing James Lamb
(2015b), again:
One of the things that I like about
the Manifesto is its intention to provoke
discussion rather than dictate
a set of hard-and-fast rules: we are
encouraged to approach and interpret
the statements in our own way.
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