Re-Imagining Online Teaching & Learning: A Cognitive Tools Approach July 4, 2017 / gillianjudson / Imaginative Education (IE): Activities & Insights, Wonder-Full Links & Resources By Matthew J. Kruger-Ross, PhD (Assistant Professor, Educational Technology, West Chester University of Pennsylvania) I regularly teach an online graduate courses for educators on teaching and learning online. Unfortunately, almost every version of the course that I’ve taught or seen begins with the assumption that we can take what we know about teaching in the physical classroom and directly apply it to the online environment. The best versions of this type of class acknowledge that you cannot just copy and paste from the face-to-face to the digital. What’s more, most (if not all) approaches to understanding online teaching and learning rarely consider what conception of education is being assumed. Underlying Premises Matter Educational philosopher Dr. Kieran Egan (1997) identifies four general ideas, or conceptions, of education. Each one has particular aims and, thus, each one drives different educational initiatives and practices. The first three he traces through the history of philosophy (and politics) through the work of Plato (Academic Rationalism), Rousseau (Individual Development), and the more general idea of Socialization. The fourth, a theory Egan (1997, 2005) has developed called Imaginative imaginED education that inspires Log in