Section One
Introduction

Purpose and Framework
This paper is a first step in exploring the impact of new learning technologies on learning opportunities for women in Canada, a process undertaken by the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW). It is designed to promote discussion and reflection, and to identify issues most important to those who are concerned with women's learning as educators, learners, facilitators, planners and policy makers.

There are a number of reasons why it is timely to look at new learning technologies and

• the recent women intense interest in new technologies and their potential for learning
• the importance for women of opportunities to learn, especially for those who have not had access to formal learning, those who want to continue their education, those who rely on mentoring, networking and information sharing to continue in their work, community or family commitments, and those for whom learning is a passion
• the prevailing concern about having income-generating work in the near and longer term future, and the sense that additional learning can be an advantage in the workplace.

In Canada, questions related to education, communications and technology are bound up with our governance, geography and private and public sector institutions. It sometimes is difficult to address specific issues without unearthing the tap roots of ongoing political, social and economic debates. However, references to these broader issues will be as tailored as possible to the questions at hand, recognizing that their extent and complexity goes far beyond the scope of this paper.

What are new Learning Technologies?
"Educational technologies are not simply the tools of educators-although this is a popular misconception; rather, they are the knowledge, values and practices which constitute the development and use of those tools."¹

It can be said that there have always been learning technologies, tools such as books, chalk and chalkboard, overheads and so on, that people use in the process of teaching and learning. Print, audiotape, telephone and video all help teachers and learners communicate at a distance for instruction and interaction. So what is "new" about new learning technologies?

In this discussion paper, "new" technologies encompass electronic technologies used for enhanced communication and interaction. These include:

• technologies such as videoconferencing and audio conferencing which, although not very new, are being applied in new ways because of technical and social developments
• computer based technologies, such as electronic mail, computer conferencing
• technologies that provide access to information, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web

The new learning technologies, like all technologies, are part of a system. Ursula Franklin points out, "technology involves organization, procedures, symbols, new words, equations and most of all, a mindset."² In other words, this study will examine not just technologies in isolation, but the ways in which people change or adapt their ways of doing things as part of using technologies.