Published 2007 in seminar.net. Media, Technology & Life Long Learning.

http://www.seminar.net/reviews/

Carr-Chellman, A.A. (Ed.). (2005).Global perspectives on E-learning. Rhetoric

and reality. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 280 pp. $86.95. Hard cover. ISBN:
1412904889.
Reviewed by
Dr. J. Ola Lindberg Department of Education, Mid Sweden University, Sweden
Email: Ola.Lindberg@miun.se

Dr. Anders D. Olofsson, Department of Education, Umeå University, Sweden

Email: Anders.D.Olofsson@educ.umu.se

It seems suitable to begin this review by giving a brief description of the context in which the
texts of this book are produced. If it fails to be regarded as a description, then we hope at least
it can be regarded as one possible understanding of the context. When contextualising a book,
a good idea seems to be to start with a few words about the editor, Alison A. Carr-Chellman.
Carr-Chellman, being an Associate Professor of Education for the moment serving as the
Professor in charge of the Instructional Systems program in the Department of Learning and
Performance Systems, Pennsylvania State University, College of Education, USA, has
previously in her research written among other things about critiques of distance education
and e-learning, systems theory and thinking, educational systems design, critical systems, and
user-design. The contributors she has gathered for this book, are reserachers that shares the
editors interest of a critical approach to the current movement towards an extended global use
of e-learning (or distance education/online education which it now and then also are called1).
In short one might say, that this is a book written by scholars that, let be from different
approaches and starting points, are situated in the same (critical) theoretical perspective. As a
possible context of the book, this is something that could be good to have in mind reading the
book.

The book itself, as the title indicates, reports on the rhetoric and reality in the process of
convert e-learning into a democratic venture. The main thrust throughout the book might be
concluded in one sentence, namely:

- Who will benefit and who will not from this global movement of e-learning?

This question is problematised in different ways in each chapter and in each section, but it is
always with a more or less explicit relation to the concept of democracy. One way could, for
example, be an argumentation built up around the theme of who have access, or connectivity,
and who have not? Further, another way could be as a question of trying to understand this e-
learning movement from an urban versus rural perspective. Yet another way of departing on a
critical analysis is with aim at public policies, public budgets and their constructions in terms
of who they benefit and who will them not?

In her introductory chapter Carr-Chellman writes that:

For most of us, the idea of open access – the elimination of elitism as a function of place
and prestige – holds the promise of equity. The basic premise of the rhetoric of democracy
in online education is that if we can make education available to those who currently must

1
From here on in the review referred to as e-learning. This decision will also be dealt with later in the review.
 work to earn a living and cannot attend residential programs because of geography or
family obligations, then we are making these opportunities available more equitably. (p2)

In this quotation Carr-Chellman puts forth an idea that a viable democracy is one in which
diversity is accepted and promoted as something good. At the same time it refers to what is
understood as the fundamental problem in the global e-learning movement – how to convert
political rhetoric into practice that works, in broad meaning, in reality?

In the book global economy and globalization are two important concepts in relation to e-
learning. It is discussed in several chapters that the commercialisation of the concept, or idea,
of e-learning and the effects such development will promote could result in a rather negative
development for many humans around the world. The main idea that lies implicit in the
question of globalization seems to be if globalization, and for example internationalization, is
just expressions of the Western countries new way of colonialize the so called development
countries? In the book this question is sprung out of the problem one is facing when making
this kind of venture (such as a global e-learning movement) a question of educating all with
the same basic ideas and notions of, for example, democracy. That is, how is it possible to
include all the different cultural differences that exist in the world in an e-learning venture,
and not only the perspective of the Western countries? How will the development countries
deal with the fact that within one country you might have two or more different cultural
rationales guiding the every day life of humans? Both the need to be culturally sensitive and
the importance of recognizing intra- as well as intercultural understanding is put forth in
relation to the movement of e-learning into global contexts. One of the contributors to the
book, Latchem, chose to articulate this by posing the following question in his chapter: “Who
will write these rules and to whom will the providers of international distance education be
accountable?” (p.185). One might use Zembylas and Vrasidas (2005) thoughts as well in
order to sharpen such a consideration even more – is this trend of globalization, in a world of
e-learning, a process of inclusion or a new electronic version of colonization?

The book starts with an introductory section by Carr-Chellman and contains thereafter
fourteen chapters. As the book could be understood as having a focus on the impact of e-
learning in different regions or continents of the world, it could be seen as an effort to
understand more deeply the merits of such initiatives. The book is divided into five parts,
each of them discussing e-learning within its geographical location. In total over a dozen
countries is focused in the following continents; Europe, Asia, North America, Down under
(Australia and New Zeeland), and Africa. Each part presents different studies or cases which
are intended to reflect some of the problems in each specific geographical area, and all parts
begin with a brief discussion of the theoretical grounding of the specific part and each chapter
begins with a short introduction of the major themes or issues. Worth mentioning is also that
the beginning of each chapter confronts the reader with a number of questions to think about
when reading the chapter. As it is claimed in the book, it usually is the other way around,
questions often occurring in the end of chapters. This approach has the advantage of providing
the reader with possibilities to actively reflect on important issues in the text from the very
beginning of the reading.

In the first part about e-learning in Asia, the reader is introduced to the differences and
difficulties in e-learning in Taiwan, India and China respectively. In these nations and in this
part of the world a prominent feature of the context e-learning is embedded in concerns the
rural countryside contrasted with more developed suburbs and cities. The second part of the
book gives insights into e-learning in Europe, where the chapters deal with Ireland, the UK
and Turkey. In these cases access and connectivity are important issues, and the focus is
mainly on overcoming distances and connecting people, as for example through international
study circles or in the case of Turkey possibilities of studying from abroad. In the third part
the reader meets the perspective of North America through chapters concerned with the
Schoolnet in Canada and through what the editor herself; Carr-Chellman names the new
frontier – web-based education in US culture. In part four, e-learning is contextualised down
under as a question of inclusion. This is done in chapters about e-learning in New Zeeland,
focussed on the efforts of bringing culturally sensitive distance education to indigenous
minority groups, and about different Australian efforts of giving borderless virtual learning in
higher education. In the fifth and final part, e-learning is described from the African point of
view, and here perhaps more than in other parts of the book the question of winning or
loosing in the game of e-learning becomes central. For Namibia, as is the case in the first
chapter of the part, the question of access to infrastructures for communication becomes more
a question of democracy than education in the critical sense. What will happen with older
communities when technology eventually paves the way for new communities to emerge? In
the following chapter about Sub-Saharan Africa this question is even more outspoken – can
you lead from behind? Or are you destined to trail in the backwaters of those already ICT-
proficient and subject to accept their already determined meanings of ICT use in education?
E-learning as colonization? In chapter fourteen, the book ends in an open question – is the
development of e-learning already stalled? Are those now picking up on e-learning already
engaging in a way of providing education of the past?

So then, given the content outlined in the book, what is its target group? According to us
Carr-Chellman´s book has, in general, a wide scope and should be of interest for both
academics and practitioners interested in questions concerning democracy, equity, ideas about
the globalization trend in today’s world and people that have the former interest in
combination with e-learning. We find it to be a relevant and important book, mainly due to
the critical perspective. Many of the cases discussed in the book shed light on other aspects
of e-learning than otherwise seems to be common. With an interested in issues concerning
democracy, the starting point in the question about who benefits and who doesn’t seems to be
as appropriate as ever, not least in relation to e-learning and its global movement. The book is
possible to understand as an important complement to the rather massive number of books in
the e-learning area, that often have the character of being positive, written in a how-to-make-
it-work spirit.

And then finally, we will try to provide what we consider to be a few shortcomings of the
book. The first thing that is striking after reading the book is how much it focuses upon the
concept of democracy. This is of course not a problem per se, but more troublesome is the
lack of a deeper theoretical discussion of how the concept of democracy is able to understand
in the various chapters. Now it is almost exclusively a question of have or have not or who
benefit or benefit not. A more problematised idea of democracy could have rendered in
additionally aspects on the global movement of e-learning. The same reasoning goes for the
concept of e-learning. Present in the book is a conceptual incoherence, where the meaning of
e-learning is used synonymous with for example online education, distance education and
distance learning. A question is whether such an eclectic approach to these different concepts
even is possible? Yet another aspect that can be better contextualised is how content in the so
called theoretical introduction to each part of the book. These introductions seem to us to be
more of wider contextualisation of the coming chapters combined with strains of theoretical
assumptions, more than deeper discussions and argumentations that could have framed each
section in much clearer theoretical perspectives.

A perspective lacking, or at least not explicitly outspoken, that could provide a coherent
structure to the book is one concerning ethics. If an ethical perspective had been voiced, it
could have been an even stronger counterpart to the more positively orientated literature in the
field of e-learning. One idea could have been to include a theoretical discussion with start in
Lévinas (1969, 1981) and his idea of being for the Other – an idea that places ethics as the
first philosophy. In a context of e-learning, it could have been possible to understand as a
question of being together that is “conditional in the unconditioned responsibility of being-
for-the-other” (Hand, 1989, p 7). Being-together seems to us, as the single most important
idea both in relation to democracy and e-learning, an aspect that could have been included and
given this book a common framework. Perhaps that would have been overkill, considering
Carr-Chellman´s book gives enough important insights to globalization, democracy and e-
learning as it is.

References

Hand, S. (Ed.). (1989). The Levinas reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Lévinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Lévinas, E. (1981). Otherwise than being or beyond essence. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University
Press .

Zembylas, & Vrasidas, (2005). Globalization, information and communication technologies,

and the prospect of a `global village´: promises of inclusion or electronic colonization?.
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37(1), 65-83.