Tuesday, February 5, 2013
I don't know how much television people watch, but I watch more than my share, and watch it during the daytime. There is a capital D Discourse that is in danger. I see a lot of commercials for online universities. I don't know how much people know about these, but basically you pay up front for your degree and then take classes, most of which, if not all, are online. There's a literacy that's being lost in doing this. The commercials take the position that learning isn't always best in a classroom, that "you're an individual and want to learn your way". As I see it, there's a problem with this. There are literacy skills learned in a classroom that aren't learned if the person is never in a classroom for lectures or discussions. In a classroom setting, you learn to listen and you learn to discuss. If everything is done on someone's own time, they never learn the importance of punctuality or politeness. They don't learn the respect for the professor's knowledge. The student is learning information and using their available skills to complete assignments. I learn so much more than what is being taught in class, and I couldn't get that by being in front of a computer. That's my take on it.
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I agree with you that we lose the interaction and thus a lot learning with an online course. However, I am wondering if this preference for face-to-face is passing away in our coming of age with social media. I am concerned about it, too. It seems my adult children's main social connections are through social media and a post on Facebook, or a text message, has taken the place of a phone call. I am not sure the up-and-coming adult learners will have the same concerns or value face-to-face as much as previous learners have. Seems like the marketers are anticipating this change in our culture, too.
ReplyDeleteI noticed something else this week. One of the universities has the tag line "It's all about the training". I never thought of my education as training. Is this what literacy is becoming? The universities that advertise on television are aimed at people who don't have the resources or time to attend mainstream college. Or are these universities becoming the new mainstream?
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