ByDr. Arlene S. Opina

Online teaching and learning, or eLearning, is teaching and learning using technology and internet.

It is utilized in face-to-face classrooms and in distance education.

It can be used to extend the teaching and learning day. It can be teaching and learning anytime, anywhere.

Digital natives. They are growing up in a digital world. ( Marc Prensky )

Electronic media-educated generation Kids brains are likely physically different

than the brains of adults due to the impact of the digital input they have experienced as they have grown up ( Marc Prensky )

They actually process information and communicate in a way that is fundamentally different than in previous generations (Ian Jukes)

The manner students use their heads nowadays could easily be misinterpreted by minds structured by traditional methods.

This is the way our world , or at least, that of the university-educated, middle and upper-class youth of the Philippines is shaping up.

College professors should not see themselves as repositories of traditional intelligence and wisdom.

Whether we, as adults and educators, like the differences we see in today's students, the differences are undeniable and, as educators, it is our responsibility to reach and teach this "new breed” of students.

In the realm of knowledge and learning, our tools have changed.

Teaching online, using the very technology that has changed our world, and our students, is one significant way that we can leverage to reach the "Net generation."

Communication, too, is a basic skill, with reading and writing merely the best methods of the moment. Now both reading and writing are both very useful methods, which, to be clear, we need to teach until better ways emerge for getting the same information.

But once all books are recorded, the Web reads itself, and every child and adult has a text scanner in his or her cell phone that can read any printed text aloud, should we still spend all those years teaching our students phonics?

Writing is merely a method for recording thoughts. Not long ago neat cursive penmanship was the best method we had for this, because it was faster than printing and universally legible. Now we have better methods, such as phones, recording machines, IM, and keyboarding. As our kids all get their own phones and laptops, do we really need to teach them the old ways?

Technology will become a billion times more powerful, likely more powerful than the human brain.

Technology will serve our students and children better in 20 years – memorized multiplication tables or fundamental knowledge of programming concepts or the ability to think logically and critically or the ability to create meaningfully in multimedia.

The irony is that by the time today’s students get to the work force, many of the Technology breakdown scenarios the teachers describe will be structurally unable to occur.

as cash is replaced by our automated cell phone wallets

access to a greater depth and breadth of information,

available of abundance of online resources

Promotion of independent or individualized learning to better meet student needs

Meaningful learning for students facing the new realities of life in the 21st Century

Improved communication with students, parents and colleagues

enhanced student-student collaboration within a classroom or between students in different geographic locations,

Improved student achievement freedom from the "tyranny of the timetable," accomplished student motivation increased critical thinking and problem

solving supported by existing technologies .