An online class provides me more freedom of setting my own schedule and saves me travel time. By taking an online class a person does give up some of the social and informational immediacy benefits of a face-to-face class but trades them for the benefits described in the previous sentence.
Online classes and face-to-face classes are two different products that strive to achieve the same goal. The goal is to deliver information to a student about a certain subject and have the student digest, retain and process this information. In return, the student must be able to regurgitate the information in some type of way at a level acceptable by an educational institution, usually determined by way of testing or writing an essay, in order to receive credit for completion of a course of study.
Whether or not a student chooses an online class or a face-to-face class is according to their needs and at their discretion. For the sake of argument however, I realize that not all subjects of study are chosen this easily, i.e. your school may not offer a class you want to take by way of a certain method you desire and/or certain areas of study are not deemed conducive to one method or the other; but in reality, most any scenario is doable if you can afford to pay for it!
What I want from online classes encompasses most of the same things I want from face-to-face classes. I want quality, integrity, commitment, reliability and good customer service.
School is a business. It involves a buyer, a seller and a product. I don’t see any reason why post-secondary schools should receive any more media hype about being involved in e-commerce than any other retailer selling their product online.
I do not believe post-secondary brick and mortar schools will ever become extinct. I hope a nice balance of face-to-face classes as well as online classes will be the norm for years to come.
In conclusion, John Palfrey said it best in the video lecture we watched this week when the computer science teacher asked him a question about how the use of online information is best used in the classroom. Palfrey answered as follows, “I think it’s amazing of what you can do if you know how to use it and when to use it. And I think that is the thing, I think, that we are not yet doing in classrooms,” (Palfrey, 2008)
Reference:
Palfrey, J. (2008). John Palfrey lecture. YouTube. Retrieved from https://cotc.angellearning.com/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=15DE3E30E4EB4323BEC6DA106F1A2836. November 14, 2010.
Russell and fellow bloggers, sorry about the font style. I tried to change it three times and IE Blogger is being temprimental and won't let me.
ReplyDeleteHi Kay,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post on your view of online education. I do think that brick and mortar schools will always be around because some parents may not want to have their kids at home constantly working online. I know my schooling was practically all online growing up. I think there are many advantages to being educated online, and even through regular home schooling, but I personally do not like brick and mortar as well. (At least when looking back at my elementary school days.) I much prefer technology and the freedom to schedule my assignments to my timing rather than the instructors. Good thoughts Kay and thanks!
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