I found your blog through a twitter search and am of a like mind to yours when it comes to online learning.

There certainly must be some better way of accomplishing a discussion board. I haven’t played with it too significantly, but perhaps a tool like Seesmic might provide you with some of the actual discussion and visual hints about which you spoke? They have a relatively decent set up and are easily embeddable into other platforms (including comments sections to most blogging platforms.)

As another option, I’ve been playing around in the last six months with Livescribe.com’s Pulse Pen as a note-taking and learning tool for online related presentations. I’m curious if you’ve had a chance to take a look at it with relation to your topic of discussion here?

I’ve also been enthralled with the technology behind the online tool at http://www.flowgram.com, but alas they’ve recently announced that their service will be closing at the end of June 2009. Perhaps you might take a peek at it before it disappears.

Johns Hopkins last president William Brody has frequently noted that one of the few areas of life which hasn’t been able to take advantage of economies of scale since the start of the Industrial Revolution is the University system. As a result, the cost of providing an education has only risen over time rather than becoming cheaper and easier to deliver. Surprisingly online learning still hasn’t managed to help overcome this problem either. Is there a solution to providing a better and more ubiquitous learning environment for less money?

I look forward to reading your continuing thoughts and the responses in the comments sections here.

My district just decided to close the alternative education schools and instead purchase Novanet. Alt Ed students will be plugged in computer course work with one teacher per 60 students. The school board actually said that that while one HS teacher could not be highly qualified in 5 subject areas-they weren’t concerned because the software is “High;y Qualified”.
Instead of using technology as a tool professional educators use to bring learning int the 21st century-they are replacing people with machines-and they expect this to raise achievment.

Nice post. I have a couple of thoughts, having just finished team teaching an online course with Jon Becker.

First, regarding your statement about the panacea for monolithic teaching, I would suggest that many F2F classes teach to the middle and ignore both the brightest and the hopeless. The flexibility of online venues give you an ability to impact multiple learning styles and learning speeds.

Second, I love discussions boards, and in a class of 25 typically have over a hundred posts a week to keep up with. But first I do not wait until the end of the week to read, but read and respond daily. Secondly, I require in my rubric that original posts be posted two days before the “discussion” period ends, so that there is actually time for followup discussion. My students respond favorably to my social presence in their discussions.

Having said that, I am considering revamping the discussion portion of my course to develop more global and deeper questions, and require the students (like you) to blog rather than post in discussion boards. I think the richness of outside conversations over keeping conversations inside the walled garden will add to the class.

So I will be interested in how your blogging experience turns out!

The need for human interaction, forget for a minute socialization, is incredibly important. Babies that are not held enough often end up with psychological problems. Inmates that are put in solitary confinement often develop problems as well. I teach in a 3-8 grade building and I have many students that come from single parent homes. The only male or female role model they have contact with may be a teacher at school. Where will these students meet those needs?

Again, I think on-line learning can and should be a viable option for some students. I don’t think it will work for every student just as I don’t think a traditional classroom will meet every student’s needs.

Bill

I enjoyed reading your post. You bring up challenges with the discussion features in online courses that bother me all the time. The simply fact that we force this set number of responses is rediculous. Much like live discussions in a classroom some people have more to say than others. I love the concpet of video discussions and agree that once you meet people you begin to read them differently as they post. I think this is the power of the face-to-face meeting at NECC in DC. I’ll look forward to meeting you in a few weeks.