Well, I'm busy like most of you so by the time I get to the computer at night I am worn down, but with a lot to think about. I just want to reply and comment on a few things that I have read.
First, the Doc replied to one of my blog posts with this comment "As for face to face ... nobody would begin to suggest that there's something wrong with it. Just -- how much you willing to pay to have face time with me? You'd have to fly to Colorado, rent a car, probably wanna stay over at least one night... frankly, I doubt that I'm worth it."
So, what does that mean to me. Well I began thinking about that. Of course we can't all fly to Colorado and visit with a professor to take a class on a daily or weekly basis. That is why we have "online" courses. They bridge the gap that we otherwise would just be staring at wishing we could cross. I went to a college about an hour and a half from where I grew up. Now, many reasons existed, but one of them was that I wanted to be close to home and save money. Many people are in a similar situation.
But what about online delivery? Wouldn't that have also met my needs? I think so, but I think about what I would have missed. I never would have met my wife. My friends I hung out with would only consist of the high school buddies that didn't go away to college. I wouldn't have joined a fraternity and went on spring break. I'm not saying all the experiences of college are great, but they made me who I am and I regret almost none of them. I certainly wouldn't want to go back and do it all over again online. I just think online delivery, video tape course, and other distance ed has a bright future but isn't the final word in education. We need that face to face time more than anything for socialization especially at the younger years. I realized some may argue that it could be done similar to home schooling. I have nothing against homeschooling and have considered it for my own children. But again I think it isn't about the technology, but how it is used and how the parents raise the child. It would be easy to let little johnny take classes online, chat online, watch TV online, and spend his days online. I personally don't like that and think it is a bigger possibility than some think.
That brings me back to other comments the Doc made in his stereotypes post. I totally agree with him that it isn't about how the tech is bad or the Internet is bad, but rather how it is used. Guns aren't bad and cars aren't bad. But either in the hand of someone abusing substances is real bad. We can't just say things like "technology is bad", "the Internet is bad", "online classes are bad." What we can say is that these things have issues when misused or abused. I think in another post of mine I even began to argue against the method of my current masters degree. All the classes are online. I will never see a teacher in the physical world. I will never go to campus because I even order my books online. For my sake I don't want it changed, but It wouldn't hurt to require one or two courses to be taken face to face. Even if it only met once a week and did online work the rest of the time. Again comments are welcome and I'm never sure if I have communicated what I mean to communicate. That can be an issue with typing messages online because the lack of face to face and SMELL. :)
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