Online learning is not new. You may have even taken an online course. This week’s article presents information from a report that was conducted for the Department of Education in the United States. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.
The report indicates that most of the studies were done in colleges and adult continuing education programs. Do you think that the results would have been similar if most of the studies were done in K-12 settings? Do you agree that online learning tends to be better than conventional instruction? Why do you think people learned better with online learning? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in online learning? The dean of Arizona State University’s Online and Extended Campus program said, “Learning has to occur in a community.” What is your response to this remark?
Online Education Article
27 comments:
I suppose that online education does not beat the classroom's at all. I have to disagree with Steve Lohr's essay, because i think that sticking with the old fashioned way of learning, is much easier to communicate with your teachers, or even your classmates around the school. Imagine trying to discuss an important topic, with the teacher by typing it. You most probably will need face expressions or moving hand to get the picture to the teacher.It is definately not as effective and meaningful as you trying to express it face to face, with him/her. By those means, Blackboard and Moodle aren't unnecessary in education, in fact it's a superlative way of posting your assigments, or reading lists and not wasting paper.
This article didn't surprise me at all. Every day we hear about some sort of new invention or type of technology that will supposedly enhance our lifestyle and somehow make it better. I personally think that face to face interaction is a better way of learning even though studies prove otherwise. Taking courses online is like teaching yourself a lesson from a book, and if it really was that easy then teachers wouldn't be hired and there wouldn't be a need for school. But there are teachers. There is school. They're there for a reason, to explain things to you, answer your questions, and make sure you understand. Learning online wouldn't do any of these things. I think that if most of the studies were done in K-12 settings then the results would have been very different because although older people might be able to teach themselves some things, that's only because they learned the basics from face to face interaction with teachers. I disagree with them when they say that online learning is better than conventional instruction for many reasons, one being that even though it saves paper, it can damage your eyesight. I don't understand how people learned better with online learning, besides the fact that they might have been excited to use new technology which made them work harder, although I think if they were used to it then the results wouldn't have been the same. I agree with what the dean of Arizona State University's Online and Extended Campus program about how learning has to occur in a community because you need to be encouraged to learn by classmates and teachers, and chances are if you were put by yourself to learn then you wouldn't do much or work as hard.
This article was very odd unfortunately, Steve Lohr's ideas of how using the internet would be a better way of improving the students interest was a no, and a yes for me. First of all, using the internet for education is a GENIUS idea actually, it's even easier, but it also has its negatives. Online teaching is not exactly something very intelligent. There are also very difficult ways of communicating, you cannot explain everything by typing it online. Also school is the "basic" these days. It's something very modern, and it's still a very good way of teaching students, but it might give a student distraction if another student doesn't want to pay attention, but what surprised me was how every single student that included technology in their everyday educational purposes improved, but I think that occurred because, usually when students think about internet, and technology they think it as something very amusing, since they always check everything fun on it just like Facebook, their e-mails, their blogs..etc. So they got encouraged to start using the internet for education too! Plus, I think it's undistractable. But also, if you think about it technology is not everything in life, we use it for certain purposes, and for emergencies. But not when it comes to studying, we already have that source, it's called school! We don't have teachers just to check off if the student is in class or not, we have them to make students pay more attention in class, get more into the subject, answer their questions, get effort from school, and listen to their interesting ideas. If you think about it again, what about your eyesight? Isn't that important too? Would COMPUTERS make that stronger for you? NO! So, there is no-way to decide which one is possibly the better idea.
I think that the results would have been a bit off but relatively the same because K-12 is meant to be near-college level, so the results won't be that different. I completely agree that online learning is better than conventional instruction, in more ways than one. For instance everyone gets bored of listening to a teacher talk all day long, online learning lets you choose what to read and what not to read, you can also revise whenever you want to and can go back to the topics anytime. The only problem is see with online learning is that the text might be too formal and you wouldn't understand what they are talking about. Of course learning has to occur in a community, we would be barbarians if we didn't learn.
No, I don’t think that the results would have been similar because a lot of kids in K-12, waste their time on Facebook or MSN if they had to do classes online instead of going to school. Well I think that it depends on the person to decide whether online or conventional instruction is better. I think people learned better with online learning, because maybe they had no distractions or maybe they weren’t as pressured because they have no “teacher”. Advantages I see with online learning is being able to read and understand the material at your own pace. A disadvantage I see is kids not being social. School is a place for learning but also a place to make friends, and if kids are at home all the time on their computers then they wont be as social. I agree with the remark, “learning has to occur in a community” because everyone learning together makes things just a lot easier. And if everyone went learning their own thing and having their own interpretations without even hearing anyone else’s opinion, then everyone will be ignorant and narrow minded.
I disagree the fact that learning all the important stuff in college helps. K-12 settings will do much help than learning all those important stuff when you go to college, because you learn much much better when you learn when you are young. Facts come easier and they have a lot of endurance than the adults so they don't get tired easily.And, I will never agree that online education will beat the classroom education, because they will get lured to do games or do MSN, Youtube, etc... when they see the computer. The advantage of learning online learning is that you can take your only private time for yourself so you don't get distracted, but the disadvantage is that your eyesight gets bad and that you don't get to question the teachers since its just a record. Well, you actually can question them, but then you have to leave a comment and wait for them to answer, which is frustrating. I strongly agree with the Arizona State's University's saying, “Learning has to occur in a community.” You have to learn with other people and interact with them, if you do that, you can both have fun and learn. If you only study yourself, you might get bored and want to finish it fast and play.
I strongly disagree in that people who studies most subjects during college will gain similar knowledge as people who learn during K-12 because young people can obtain new subjects much faster than the older people.I also would never agree with the opinion that we learn better when we learn through online than when we do during class. Through computer, you can't try your best since you know that no one is looking at what your doing. However in class, because everyone are looking and hearing what you are doing, you get to push yourself more than when you are on online.
Learning through computer can be good in a way that you don't get boring as fast as when you study with textbook. Disadvantage is that if you spend long time staring at the computer screen, it will damage your eyesight. Lastly, I do agree with what the campus program's opinion. I absolutely agree that we should learn in community because if we do so, we don't get bored as much as when we study alone and more.
I think that this is a great idea, to use technology as a school. It's a lot more fun to use a computer than to sit in a classroom listening to a teacher (sorry). When I was home schooled, I used a computer a lot, and I finished my work really quickly; then I could chillax playing a game. It made me work fast because I get rewarded quickly, and in a fun way.
I think that if most of the studies were done in K-12 settings, the results would be lower because, for example, high school students have lower self-discipline and less motivation to study and learn than adults. Whether online learning is better than conventional instruction depends on the student. It is better for students who are successful in independent work, who have motivation and who are self-disciplined, but for students who are not, it might be a bad option. I think people in the study learned better with online learning because they have less stress. You can do things at your own pace and when you best feel like it. Advantages of online learning is that you don’t have to worry about getting to places in time and you can work when you feel like it, at your own pace. Disadvantages are that you can’t do group work or interact with other people, and sometimes you might lack motivation and self-discipline to get things done. I agree with the remark “Learning has to occur in a community.” Learning is more effective and fun when interacting with other people.
I would say that learning on a computer can have advantages and also disadvantages. A good reason to do it is that many children start liking computer ans can get to know how to use a computer the right way. And if you are a computer addict, you can learn with your favorite machine, which can motivate to do something more with it than playing and you can learn something. A negative side for me is that children can sit in front of the computer to long and damage their eyes. Also they can get distracted by other "functions" of the computer. Also that they can not get as many friends and connections.
I think that online education will beat normal education because you learn by doing things in 20 years from now I think that kids our age wont even go to school they will study online and they will just be way smarter and efficient than us with the internet everything is done better and faster. so probably people will be finishing school at younger ages and will go to an online college and get a degree there in one year at the maximum.
I have never taken part in an online course, so I can't speak on the matter from personal experience. I imagine that if the studies had been done in a K-12 setting, the results would have come out differently, especially with younger children. Elementary students need guidance and instruction from a human teacher, and they are generally not as independent as older students. As I said, I have not tried online learning. Therefore, I cannot compare it to conventional classroom style learning. I am sure that both have their pros and cons. People may have learned better with online learning because it allowed them to learn at their own pace, or because they were not surrounded by distractions such as talkative classmates. However, people can learn a great deal from each other, and online learning could limit this human interaction. I agree that learning can be communal, but it doesn't have to be.
I think the results would be very similar, our generation is a natural with computers. Honestly I think it depends, with some lessons, say for example math, i need a teacher to show me examples and explain it, i could not possibly do it all on a computer. However on the other hand, Writing class, and english class, and almost everything else would be no problem on the computer. I think people learn better online because our generation is much more adapted to computers, and who knows what the next generation of learning would be because of the technology they're adapted to. I think it's an easier way of learning in some ways, but also in some cases someone might have difficulty because they need a teacher's explanation because they are more auditory than they are visual. Also encouraging children to sit in front of computer screens all day for educational purposes can't be good for childrens' health. I agree completely, but the question is, do all kids learn in the exact same way? Some kids are visual, some are auditory, and some are kinstetic. All this has to be taken into consideration
I think that online education is better than the classroom education, infact I think its better. I think that the results would be the same. I think that if you stay with the classroom education it will be much easier to communicte with teachers and get thier help. But when you think about it who would want teachers teaching them for 7 hours everyday? I think people learned better with online learning because you can choose the time that you can study in and not be bored sitting in class the whole day, and like I said the advantage is that you don't have to sit in class for the whole day, but the disadvantges are that you can't easily communicate with the teachers and you cant easily have a disscution or talk about something like they do in normal classes. learning has to occur in a community, you can't be the only one that does all the studying in your community because it would be awkward.
I disagree that the results would be similar if most of the studies were done in the K-12 setting because, it’s the students themselves to have that drive and discipline and actually be serious about it. They have all these distractions such as Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter so its a waste of time their time. To me it really depends on the student whether online learning trends or conventional instruction is right for them, but for me I disagree. The reason is that I think that we need that face-to-face communication; we need to be around the people who are also learning to give us the motivation to work. If I took online courses I would indeed get distracted but Facebook, so having that conventional instruction would give me the self-discipline to work. Also no one can tell you to stop fooling around and get back to your work online. It really depends on the student. Like I said before, the only disadvantage of online learning is the distraction, we are always curious to do something different. I don’t really have a disadvantage because I completely disagree to what Steve Lohr said which is that learning online would rank the student at a 59th percentile. I do agree to “learning has to occur in a community” because even thought there are some students that like to be independent, it’s a good thing to have that “gate” of other students to help be on task. For elementary children, they might need that support because they are more interdependent people then middle and high school students, so it is good to be in a community.
I don’t think that the results of the test would be similar in a K-12 setting, because children don’t have the same self discipline as adults, and that is an important factor in online learning. The advantage with online learning is that you can work with your assignments whenever you want to, but if you don’t have the self discipline, you won’t get anything done. The people who took part in the online learning got more individual learning, and could take courses wherever and whenever they wanted to. I agree with Philip R. Regier at Arizona State University that the social setting is important for the learning process, and I don’t think that the school should be replaced by online learning. The school is a place where you can study, but it’s also a nice place to meet friends and talk to people. Idunn
As one person in the article mentioned, studying should occur in a community. But, I think the traditional classroom is also a kind of a small community. I personally believe that direct communication between the student and the teacher is the preferred way as it enables the student to raise the issue and the teacher can respond immediately. This helps the learning process as the student gets the answer to his question at once.
I dont think online education beats classroom learning because the old way is much easier and a better way of learning becuase you are face to face with the teacher. You can also ask questions in the classroom. I also think its a bad way because if you stay on the computer too long your eyes will hurt. i think it wont be similar in online education k-12 because you can skip classes online and in the classroom you cant.I think people learn better in the classroom than online because it is more descriptive.
I believe that an online education would benefit children much better than a school surrounding education. The internet has become a familiar place to children from 6th grade up. Most adults without a certain degree now do there studying online, because of work and family life. Children have the energy and time to do whatever they want now, whether its draw, do sports or write. My belief on this subject is that we spend our time doing valuable stuff and have a flexible school schedule, and the best way to do this is online.I disagree with the fact that a face to face interaction is needed. Most children are independent learners and there are teachers on online web courses. If we had the freedom to study whenever we want we would have a more leant schedule therefore making us strive more to spend whatever time we spend on the computer studying. I disagree with the idea that ages KG through 12 should do it. KG is still an early age to be introduced to the internet generation. The internet has plenty of content that should not be seen by young children so I believe that the grade level should be around 6th grade.
Yes I think they would have had the same result or maybe even higher. The reason I think that is because I believe that mostly everyone learns better interactively. Doing online courses is like learning from a textbook and most people don’t really work well with the textbooks. Having a person explains it to you and you are able to ask them helps a lot too. When you are taking an online course, who are you supposed to ask if you don’t get something, other students? The problem with that I think is that what if the students aren’t able to explain it to you or there answer turns out wrong. What I’m trying to say is its better to have a solid source who is 100% accurate rather than having your answers wrong based on another not so reliable source. I think those people learned better on online courses because I think they got used to using textbooks and text based learning because they are older and more advanced in there learning. The advantages to online learning are that you can do it anytime you want there is not set period to the time like we do in school. A disadvantage is as I said before the number of reliable sources you can count on, on your online course. I think that the dean is right. You learn better in a community because you can lean in a freer atmosphere or fun would be the better word. Somehow you have to get people excited about learning and having it in a community helps a lot.
Yes I think they would have had the same result or maybe even higher. The reason I think that is because I believe that mostly everyone learns better interactively. Doing online courses is like learning from a textbook and most people don’t really work well with the textbooks. Having a person explains it to you and you are able to ask them helps a lot too. When you are taking an online course, who are you supposed to ask if you don’t get something, other students? The problem with that I think is that what if the students aren’t able to explain it to you or there answer turns out wrong. What I’m trying to say is its better to have a solid source who is 100% accurate rather than having your answers wrong based on another not so reliable source. I think those people learned better on online courses because I think they got used to using textbooks and text based learning because they are older and more advanced in there learning. The advantages to online learning are that you can do it anytime you want there is not set period to the time like we do in school. A disadvantage is as I said before the number of reliable sources you can count on, on your online course. I think that the dean is right. You learn better in a community because you can lean in a freer atmosphere or fun would be the better word. Somehow you have to get people excited about learning and having it in a community helps a lot.
After reading the article I was really shocked that some people even use it in the morning when the could be catching up on some much needed sleep time. I mean don't these people have social lives? Why would they waste time on the internet when they could be going to the movies with friends or going to a party? Maybe they didn’t get invited, but with all that none-social time I wouldn’t be surprised. I do admit that chatting and texting is a big part of our lives especially this generation and those to come. There’s just so much technology our there that we can even access our emails while we're texting! its crazy but we don’t complain. But unlike a lot of people, we have very interesting social lives. (;
i suppose that online education does not beat the classroom eduction at all because you cant communicate with your teacher or ask some tough question about the homework or about a other topic. imagine you trying to communicate with your teacher you have to use your hand or sometime expressing it with your face. what if you the kid that is taking the online course is not paying attention at all he's most likely going fail but if your in a classroom the teacher can tell you to stop or give you warring. therefore that's why i disagree with this online eduction and lohr's essay.
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