I found myself almost laughing out loud in my Principles of Methodology class. There were several grad students in the class who said they were intimidated by the idea of taking online classes. I don't think it was even the actual technology that bothered them either but rather the absence of a physically present teacher or professor.
It amazes me that people similar in age to me can be intimidated by technology. It's not like my parents who have a severe learning curve to overcome in comparison to the technology they had access to.
These types of fear have to be overcome as a whole in order for the entire learning world to progress. This won't occur unless their is a collective effort to learn as much as possible, and even more importantly, to allow for a higher level of generally accepted priciples provided by technology.
Bottom line from my perspective, technological learning, be it sophisticated software concepts or grasping long-distance learning, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
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3 comments:
Todd,
Thanks for posting.
You explained, "There were several grad students in the class who said they were intimidated by the idea of taking online classes."
The unknown can be scary. People who have no prior knowledge of something (such as online learning) seem to make assumptions of what it is. You are now the expert--taking two classes...should they be scared? What do you think?
It could be discouraging to see so much fear and offense to the idea of technology in schools. As a possible future administrator I will have the task of helping and convincing teachers to use technology more to enhance their lessons and better reach their students. I hear all of the time my colleagues poking fun at our department head for recommending to them to add technology in their lessons. Many teachers see no need for it. It will be a battle that will be fought for a long time especially when there are still relatively young teachers resisting as well as the veteran teachers.
Mike,
When I encounter this resistance, I wonder why. Why would someone fight somethign that can make life easier--as well as connect to the students in "their way"?
Good luck with helping along the promotion of educational technology!
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