Dimensions of E-Learning
To The Editor:
A comment on Badrul H. Khan's "Dimensions of E-Learning " in the January-February, 2002 issue of Educational Technology Magazine:
Khan has discussed eight dimensions of e-learning. I remember that Patanjali, an ancient Indian philosopher has presented Ashtanga (eight-fold path) of Yoga in his work " Yoga-Sutra " in Sanskrit language in about 400 A. D. : (1) Yama (restraint), (2) Niyama (culture), (3) Asana (posture), (4) Pranayama (breath-control), (5) Pratyahar (withdrawing the senses from their objects), (6) Dharana (meditation), (7) Dhyana (concentration), and (8) Samadhi (trance or deep absorption) (see Rajadhyaksha, 1986, pp. 97-110). The ultimate aim of practicing the eight-fold path of Yoga system is to attain Kaivalya (right knowledge). The similarity based on eight between e-learning and Yoga is thrilling. The present world badly needs Yoga with e-learning, as Toffler, in his "Third Wave", has conceptualized the need of " Gandhi with satellite".
One dimension of e-learning is
ethical in this article. I think we can extend this dimension as philosophical one. My Department of Education had organized a seminar on "the
philosophical issues of e-learning" for teacher educators of
Although Khan's article deals with the eight dimensions of e-learning, we can, on its basis, retrospectively concretize eight dimensions of traditional learning also. I really appreciate his visionary contribution.
Department of Education
Bhavnagar-364 002
(Gujarat-India)
(e-mail:
bhogad1@sancharnet.in)
Rajadhyaksha, N. D. (1986). The six systems of Indian philosophy.