Poet Ponders the Digital

I have been contemplating if online learning differs by discipline, especially after reading a few studies on the topic. One of the studies (Xu & Jaggars, 2013), found: The subject areas in which the negative coefficients for online learning were weaker than average in terms of both course persistence and course grades (indicating that students were relatively better able to adapt to online learning in these subjects) were computer science, the applied professions, and natural science. Are the STEM fields that different, in terms of pedagogy and goals, from the humanities? Of course, we could certainly argue that the sciences are often taught divorced from ethics and humanistic concerns, but the teaching methods, objects, and outcomes assessments are my primary concern when reading such studies. Do Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) work better in the STEM fields than in the humanities? The coding course I'm currently working through is offered by a Russian institution...

I have always preferred to work alone, despising group work. Apparently, I'm not the only person to realize group work is absolutely not better  than working alone:   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all Pedagogically, I've always thought that groups allow students to avoid improving some skills. When I assign a group project, the best design student ends up doing the layout and design. Yes, that makes perfect sense and results in the best grade, but it doesn't help the student most in need of practice. Sure, we should play to our strengths on teams, but school is also about improving your weaknesses. We must balance letting students focus on their favorite tasks and skills against the need to get students to do what they don't realize they can do. Teams allow too many students to avoid work, while other students end up doing extra work. I want to work on my own, most of time, and that's ...

This article explains how one man's YouTube tutoring lessons went viral. Students worldwide now benefit. What does this experience tell us about education? The Classroom of the Future | Salman Khan | Big Think One major point of this article is that learning can be individualized with technology, though we know that's not easy when a school or university enforces a time-based model for teaching. For example, I have to guide students through a course in either eight or 15 weeks. There is no choice regarding the end date. I have never thought time-based education was the best model. Why should we move from one class to the next, one grade level to the next, as if all students are progressing that the same rate? Could online education force us to rethink this rather dated model of instruction? Granted, I'm not free to do as I want, but I can certainly advocate for changes to online learning, especially at the university level. Why shouldn't a student be...

When I have attended meetings or conferences and the topic was online courses, a great deal of attention is paid to the "target audience" for online education. The assumption is that online courses are ideal for certain groups: Workers seeking to complete a degree. Rural residents unable to relocate or travel to a campus. Disabled students requiring accommodations. Non-traditional students (meaning everything from older to unusually young). These might be ideal "targets" if a university operates as nothing but a business, but even private institutions have a responsibility to deliver the best, most meaningful educational experience to all qualified students. I would argue the pressure on for-profit institutions is actually greater because there is a skepticism in academia towards the profit motive. And what we ignore when we think of "target audiences" is that the descriptions do not reflect the personalities of the students. Online courses, from hybrids t...

For a graduate course in curriculum, we have been asked to experiment with "mind mapping" software. As my previous post reflects, I've never been comfortable with such maps personally, though I realize many people find the exercises useful. I'm clearly in a minority. It is important that teachers understand any potential tool, whether or not they are comfortable, because students are not homogeneous in learning style. I love outlining... most people do not. I also like flowcharts, graphs, and charts. Order, lots of order, works to my advantage, even when my artistic output isn't "organized" in familiar ways. Background As an example of how to integrate new technologies for composition across the curriculum, I am proposing a series of units relating to radio. As radio has shifted to the Internet and podcasting, radio theatre has remained a part of the tradition, from rebroadcasts of classic "Old Time Radio" programs to original plays. Mappi...