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OMDE601
Discussion thread | | |
13.6.7 :-) Anthony
Distance education courses do not allow for the "pedagogical potential of self-organized working
groups" ...
I'll just outright disagree with this one. And add that online expands the possibility of such self-organized
working groups. While full-time students have the time to
meet at the library or the quad or wherever, working adults don't. They have families and jobs that
require the majority of their time. So while they can't hang out at
the library, they can respond to an email, meet up when mutually convenient in a chat room. I think
the fact that working adult students do not choose to do this is
getting confused with a lack of opportunity. The opportunity is greater, the desire isn't.
13.6.8 :-? Tea
Anthony, what fun you are! I was assigned the opposition and will stick to it. The oppositions' premise
was to prove, based on this class, that Face to Face was more
productive then onlinediscussions. You speak of the lively participation online. At my last count out
of 27 students, only 18 have participated in thediscussions (that is
66.6%). Granted I have not finished this round of listings, but I have not seen a new nameparticipating
yet. Most of the respondents only reply a few times, while a few
respond very many times.
Many of the participants in the discussion are taking tangent views and developing them. My personal
opinion is that this
is a good development in the asynchronous dialogue and reflects what happens in the "real world"
classroom.
However, in the "real world" of Face to Face, the instructor would begin to pull back and
redirect the class to the
topic. At least that is how I remember it happening. I see further down that Thomas has stepped in,
but I have not read
to his comments yet so I do not know if he is redirecting the discussion or not.
So to my points:
1 – Questions asked and unanswered or merely approved are not discussions. (Module 3 Thread 4)
2 – You say that questions asked here "wouldn't be likely to be asked due to shyness" – does
this mean in a face to
face dialogue there would be less input? I understand your argument, but I do not see any data backing
it up. Which is
the problem that we are faced with here.
3—Your personal experience is that there is more discourse online then in the Face to Face classroom.
My experience
is the complete opposite. Perhaps, and here is another tangent, it has to do with the subject matter.
My most recent
face to face classes had to do with law, and I have never perceived lawyers as a reticent group. (Most
humble
apologies, if I have once again offend someone inadvertently.)
Tea
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