Wouldn’t it be cool capture all your most treasured memories digitally? On the other hand, isn’t being able to capture everything digitally a bit scary to you? What if you have a digital overload? If we are honest as a society many of us have enough clutter in our lives to last a lifetime. What about privacy issues and who should have access to this information? Is this a technology you would consider using?
Online Learning
October 18, 2006 · Leave a Comment
As social technologies continue to improve they are also changing the way we are educated. Online Learning is becoming the new trend in education especially at the college level. More and more universities and colleges are offering online courses with the assistance of blackboard and angel learning. “In Indiana alone, there were 104,000 student enrollments in distance-learning classes during the 2003-04 academic year, according to the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System” (http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/15766486.htm).
“Online learning is a new social process that is beginning to act as a complete subsitute for both distance learning and traditional face-to-face class” (Hiltz and Turoff, 60). It gives those that live on one side of the country to pursue classes that might not be offered at their universities. For example at Quinnipiac University they offer a good variety of online courses which I have found to be great for a number of reasons.
1. There is no set time as to when you get the work done as long as its done on the date and time your professor wants the assignment. So if you prefer to work on the course early in the morning you can but if the weekends work better for you then you can do that to.
2. As long as I have Internet access I can do my work from anywhere. Let’s say I live in Conneticut and I am going away for the weekend to the Cape but I have an assignment due, as long as I have access to the Web its not a problem.
3. Some professors post everything for the course so if you want to get ahead of the game you can.
Although their are a lot of positives, many think that online learning is not a good substitue for in class learning. The reason I think this is, is because their is no face-to-face interaction with your professors or your classmates. It’s not like you can stick around after class and ask questions. I think the good out ways the bad and if blackboard or angel learning find a way to incoporate video then online learning will really take off. Online learning is a great way for people already in the real world to take a classes around their work schedules and families. Social technologies have become a key part of education and as these technologies improve more and more people I think will choose to take advantage of online learning.
Works Cited:
Hiltz, S.R. & Turoff, M. (2005). Education goes digital: the evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM, 48(10), 59-64.
http://www.blackboard.com/us/index.aspx
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