In Search of New Metaphors: E-learning as Hypertext

People use metaphors in their daily communication to explain complicated matters and express meanings and understandings. Metaphors define our everyday realities and guide our thoughts and actions. Traditionally, specific metaphors have been related to teaching and learning: a teacher is often spoken of as a gardener, aguide, or even as a sage on the stage. Similarly, the metaphors of learning as acquisition and the learner as an almost empty vessel are very common concepts in relation to lecturing. Learning is also often understood as participation and collaboration, and these metaphors indicate that teaching and learning are seen as activities that take place when the teacher and the students are together. However, when the use of technology and access to a ubiquitous Internet become a part of everyday teaching and learning, new metaphors are needed if we are to speak adequately about this changed instructional place. Technology shapes the ways in which we teach, learn, and collaborate, and both teachers and learners now have the potential to be present in more spaces simultaneously both inside and outside the classroom.