I took this image in the Minneapolis airport with a two-megapixel point & shoot (talk about old technology!). It's a series of colored lights hanging from the ceiling. The notable thing here is that it took turning the image on its head to make it worth looking at.Comments on the web article, "Student Frustration with a Web-Based Distance Education Course (http://www.firstmonday.dk \/issues/issue4_12/hara/index.html#author)
I find it interesting that a research project about the isolation of online learners turned into a study about frustrations—a lack of prompt feedback, ambiguous instructions, and technical problems. I can totally relate to all three frustrations, as I have experienced them myself.
Yet, let’s remember that this article was written in the early 90s, before most of us were socialized to use email, web browsers, search engines, social bookmarking, and the other web and web 2.0 tools we take for granted. Also, the course in question was presented as a website, not via a learning management system, and the teacher had never taught online before.
We’re in a transition period, folks. Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com/) talks about this when he conceptualizes people into two camps, digital natives and digital immigrants. It’s probably like the transition from horses to cars, or from working on the farm to working in a factory, or even adopting telephone technology. (Hello Central, connect me to Joe, please.)
Give it ??? years. By that time, instructors will know how to teach online (there will still be good and bad teachers), students will know how to learn online (it will work for some and not for others), and everyone will be as fluent with the technology as we are with driving cars. And when email fails, we can pick up the phone and call each other. Imagine that!
Yet, let’s remember that this article was written in the early 90s, before most of us were socialized to use email, web browsers, search engines, social bookmarking, and the other web and web 2.0 tools we take for granted. Also, the course in question was presented as a website, not via a learning management system, and the teacher had never taught online before.
We’re in a transition period, folks. Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com/) talks about this when he conceptualizes people into two camps, digital natives and digital immigrants. It’s probably like the transition from horses to cars, or from working on the farm to working in a factory, or even adopting telephone technology. (Hello Central, connect me to Joe, please.)
Give it ??? years. By that time, instructors will know how to teach online (there will still be good and bad teachers), students will know how to learn online (it will work for some and not for others), and everyone will be as fluent with the technology as we are with driving cars. And when email fails, we can pick up the phone and call each other. Imagine that!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment