Mod 1: Readings and Reactions
Myths- Did They Try It?
It totally surprised me that there appear to be so many educators who don't favor online teaching and learning and I wonder if they've tried it yet! It makes sense from a very human level that we don't necessarily like to try out new things - on that level it makes sense entirely.
OK. But teachers kind of specialize in new things, right? New students, new info, new technologies - in this day and age, especially, knowledge is being constructed and reconstructed from so many sources of new information that to not adapt to changes is to literally resign oneself to history.
In my six days of online learning I have learned so much about online learning. You can go so deep and so wide, taking tangents on tangents - the only limits are time and motivation and the subject matter! So online learning rewards motivation, which is really cool because face-to-face teachers can become really annoyed at highly motivated learners! It's especially cool because noone's around to judge if you're so over-the-top enthusiastic about your topic that you can barely contain your curiosity! It's also really cool because in the discussion groups of this class the rubrics make it exceedingly clear that positive vibrations carried through the written word are completely important. In addition, assessment is pretty well built in to the process as well, since everything we do is recorded. True, you can just flash through a reading and it will show up as read, but then the resultant lack of understanding will show up in the discussion groups or papers or other written work. Another huge advantage is the constant necessity to write! We thus learn to become better writers, a huge and wonderful advantage to online learning. It's very entertaining to the rest of us reading this lovely writing!
The best thing, however, is the self-directed, customized learning. If the instructor does decide to facilitate - be the Guide on the Side instead of the Sage on the Stage! - then the student is able to learn whatever s/he wants to within the limits of the subject, often at their own pace and time. The equalization has allowed me to work around my daughter's schedule and my own natural inclinations. It's very exciting! Beyond the limits stated above, there is nothing to restrict the student's interest and absorption of the information they most desire to learn. So learning becomes completely self-directed, as the student can go as deep as s/he wants to in the study of the self and what the self actually wants to learn, and thus more deeply into what the self is actually made of. Riveting! And actually, learning becomes COOL.
Once those who doubt the advantages of online learning and teaching actually try it, they will probably be completely won over by its flexibility, uniqueness, creativity, customization, and timeliness - not to mention the excitement of their students!
