Authors note: I recently dug this up. I wrote it in Sept 2000. Following reading it again I realize it’s still related.
I need to admit the slightest pang of expert jealousy watching my counterparts involved in the new playground when I’ve not had the time. Obviously looking at distance education from afar I have had some concerns, even concerns with it as a viable indicates of education.
We reside in an age where we e-mail when a telephone call ought to be created, and phone when we should speak in individual. It really is so straightforward to hide behind technology. It is challenging for a lot of to understand in what medium is the most proper to communicate in.
On-line has turn into the current rage in numerous organizations and academic institutions. The savings to a company in travel and per diem are surely compelling. Among the biggest edges I can see thus far is the potential to spread a class more than a longer period of time. I have felt from day 1 in this organization that attempting to learn to do a thing non-trivial (program in a new language, style and implement telemetry systems, etc…) in three to five consecutive days of instruction can be a key compromise in good quality. It’s additional impractical to teach these classes over a spread out period of time exactly where travel and per diem are factors. From this vantage distance education alone has a higher possible for learning to happen. But back towards the cause it truly is the rage.
It truly is my premise that distance education is hot and available and becoming backed because of its prospective for savings and its potential to educate a better amount that might not have the chance because of distance and schedule. I do not believe for a minute that the ivory towers are screaming for this medium due to its potential to be a greater form of education than standup.
I can only point you to the frenzy that surrounded the shameful “boot camp” craze exactly where 1 could truly understand a brand new profession in just some weeks for a few grand. I smile inwardly each time I study among the several articles (Authors Note: referring towards the year 2000) speaking about how IS managers are hiring CNE’s and MSCE’s that cannot mirror a disk or troubleshoot an issue. Although I don’t deny there may be several gifted individuals that can genuinely discover “How to administer NT Server” by going to 2 weeks of classes that allow you to cram for a paper based certification test, the majority of us are mere mortals that want some time and some practice and some experience. Also, I’m greatly offended by the notion that one can become a certified engineer whose job competencies are efficiency based by taking a understanding test. But to some managers some hours within the evening as well as a few grand look mighty fine on the planning spreadsheet than the practical substitute. Reminds me of the old line, “How does one get to Carnegie Hall?”
My point here is not to trash boot camps, rather to offer an illustration as to the motivation for most folks holding the purse and resources with respect to motivation. In several situations the 1st factor is typically not high quality of education!
As educators, our initial believed within a given medium of education had much better be quality of education. I phrase this in this manner as you can find instances when factors apart from education itself have direct influence on the medium we get to make use of. As much as some of us would like to be total purists, reality dictates otherwise.
My greatest concern with on-line learning is the fact that it has the possible of offering far more physical distance in between us. When will the very first “on-line” marriage be held? There is a entire sociology and psychology emerging from the on-line culture. It is in a sense frightening for this introvert to watch a society move from the bonds of human interaction to this forum. No doubt we could dig up “death towards the world as we know it” articles involving the advent of the telephone, the motion picture, television, and most other ground breaking inventions. This is not to say that these folks concerns were not (and still aren’t) quite valid right now.
I must admit the prospect of this medium excites me as I’ve visions of my log cabin residence inside the mountains, finding up every single morning and after taking a morning walk within the woods prior to going to teach a class in my home workplace to 12 people scattered across the nation! Although this scenario to me is pretty cool, I feel some sense of a larger calling to my profession in that I have been initially somewhat reserved and skeptical relating to this
medium. The question for me becomes, can “On-line” be a valid and viable and sustainable kind of education?
I believe it can. I also think that cash and resources will dictate that it stays about lengthy enough to establish itself because the new frontier. I hope we in no way abandon stand-up as a medium. But following a cautious and highly skeptical examination of this medium I’ve come towards the following conclusions.
1. Enough top quality educators will create and deliver in this forum and give it the legitimacy and credibility it deserves to sustain it.
two. Just like stand-up it truly is and will continue to also have its share of charlatans and other misfits that have nary a clue with regard towards the profession of education. These individuals certainly exist in droves in classroom based education and will end up migrating down this path.
3. As technology continues to advance, specifically inside the region of telecommunications and bandwidth much more opportunities will probably be obtainable to us to utilize this type of education.
four. The want for student participation and interaction is just as high as it is in a stand-up class. I suspect the nature of this forum more than stand-up, given the same great educator, presents itself as a better forum for interaction and community of learning than conventional college lecture halls, and time compressed corporate training.
five. Given the nature of this medium it’s going to most likely need a greater formalization of course objectives, assessment and measurement tools than we currently have (or tend not to have) in stand-up.
Online colleges – online courses — online degrees
