Opening Keynote

eLearning 2007 kicked off last night with an opening keynote by Dr. Joel Greenberg of The Open University. The title of his talk was to be "Online Learning: Are all the Pieces Finally in Place?" but this title changed to the more vernacular "Are We Nearly There Yet?" which, in the American vernacular would just be "Are We There Yet?"

That little linguistical curiousity plagued my attention for the vast majority of the talk. It's a much more intelligent question to be asking than the American English (AE) version. In the AE version, we must take it less than literally. Naturally, if we were there, the vehicle would no longer be moving and the question would not likely need asking. The British version insinuates a longing as opposed to an eventuality, a direction as opposed to a destination. The AE version assumes too much I'm afraid.

If I didn't misinterpret Dr. Greenberg's remarks, the answer to this question is perhaps that we will always be nearly there. Or as my parents enjoyed telling us in answer to this question on our family road trips, "We're getting closer." But the footnote would be that our destination is also shifting. The Open University is certainly paving some of the road ahead with their development, research and sharing. (note to self: take a look at Moodle's ePortfolio and upgrades in May).