Biography: Elisabeth Alpers

[Elisabeth Alpers]

I have an instructional design business and I develop training materials for tertiary training organisations on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

At university I studied the philosophy and sociology of education and found it fascinating. After university I taught ESL for 7 years, then I developed classroom-based and computer-based training for a tertiary training organisation for 5 years. These were mainly technical training (as in operation of machinery) courses.

I then went into business for myself and now develop classroom based training materials for different clients. (But I don't have a website yet for my business.)

My real passion is a concern for the direction of elearning. I see it as having huge value in terms of training, but I think it's extremely damngerous (philosophically) to dress it up as 'education'. I've set up a website to raise this issue and invite discussion:

http://www.geocities.com/elearningcritic/

My concern rests upon an understanding of the important differences between education, schooling and training, which I'll try to make clear as I develop the website. The website links to a discussion group which people are welcome to join in a critical analysis of elearning in the context of education.