I believe it is important to remember that people learn through physical face-to-face encounters better than through even the best “virtual” representation of someone. That said, the future is not going to be denied and we have to accept that virtual classrooms are going to keep becoming more popular. What we need to remember is that an online course can never be just “online” but must also have elements that any physical classroom would have. Otherwise it is a video or tutorial rather than a “classroom experience”.
I am going to be interested to see how the combinations of virtual and physical classrooms change throughout the next few years.
Thanks Steven —
To me, meeting the learning objectives/outcomes is important no matter what the learning environment looks like. The technologies that I employ as a professor or teacher — whether that be a physical chalkboard or an interactive whiteboard or an online-based tool, need to address the learning objectives. I think technology will be especially important in diagnosis, tracking, data mining/analytics — but also in presenting information in multiple formats, while providing students with more choice.
In the area of professional development, it can be very cost effective to learn online vs. attending a conference. That is not to say that I wouldn’t like to attend more conferences myself! (actually, due to budgets, I haven’t attended any for quite a while.) So folks are going to need time-efficient, cost-effective means of learning.
I believe it is important to remember that people learn through physical face-to-face encounters better than through even the best “virtual” representation of someone. That said, the future is not going to be denied and we have to accept that virtual classrooms are going to keep becoming more popular. What we need to remember is that an online course can never be just “online” but must also have elements that any physical classroom would have. Otherwise it is a video or tutorial rather than a “classroom experience”.
I am going to be interested to see how the combinations of virtual and physical classrooms change throughout the next few years.
Thanks Steven —
To me, meeting the learning objectives/outcomes is important no matter what the learning environment looks like. The technologies that I employ as a professor or teacher — whether that be a physical chalkboard or an interactive whiteboard or an online-based tool, need to address the learning objectives. I think technology will be especially important in diagnosis, tracking, data mining/analytics — but also in presenting information in multiple formats, while providing students with more choice.
In the area of professional development, it can be very cost effective to learn online vs. attending a conference. That is not to say that I wouldn’t like to attend more conferences myself! (actually, due to budgets, I haven’t attended any for quite a while.) So folks are going to need time-efficient, cost-effective means of learning.
Thanks for the comment,
Daniel